Organization Soldiers’ Mothers

Director: Ella M. Polyakova and Elena Vilenskaya
Assistants: Nikolay Semenov and Sebastian Schoeller
Office: 10-15 regular volunteers, mostly family members of servicemen and university students.

The Organization "Soldiers’ Mothers" of St. Petersburg, founded in 1991, provides practical assistance to conscripts and their families. The group assists people through the process of appealing for exemption from and/or deferment of military service for reasons of health, extreme family hardship, or conscientious objection. The group helps to provide medical and legal consultation as well as moral support and education on legal rights and how to exercise them.

Three times per week, the organization hold receiving hours during which conscripts and their families can meet with volunteers experienced in the appeals process as well as lawyers and doctors willing to provide professional support for these appeals. Volunteers advise visitors how to fill out appeals forms properly and how to document their appeals efforts by making multiple copies of all documents and recording all meetings. In 1995, the Soros Foundation donated two photocopiers to OSM in order to facilitate this documentation process. The group maintains files of all those people to whom they provide assistance, including copies of all appeals and complaints they helped people to file. The group provides access to the proper appeal forms and applications, often difficult to locate at official military or administrative offices.

Today, an average of 400 to 450 people apply to the organization every week. Through their help, 57,000 draftees have asserted their legitimate right not to serve in the army, and over 3,500 servicemen have defended their life and health and have been demobilized from military service on grounds of their health.

The group also maintains an up-to-date library of all legal texts pertaining to the rights of servicemen. This library of information includes the actual texts of laws, as well as commentary and simple-language explanation of the laws. OSM also cooperates with a number of regional soldiers’ mothers organizations in collective actions, information exchange and participation in national conferences and actions.

Publications:

The Defense of the Legal Rights of Conscripts: From Our Working Experience

(1995, St. Petersburg) In Russian. 20 pages. This booklet, produced with financial assistance from the European Union Phare/Tacis Program, describes the legal rights of conscripts in practical terms. Example forms and appeals for service deferment and alternative service are provided with detailed descriptions of how to file such appeals. Also included are lists of lawyers and doctors who specialize in providing support to conscripts seeking to avoid service.

The Rights of Conscripts and Servicemen in the Russian Army (from materials published in the periodic press)

(1995, St. Petersburg) In Russian. 124 pages. This collection of photocopied newspaper articles addressing various issues of military service and the work of soldiers’ mothers committees across Russia was produced with financial assistance from the European Union Phare/Tacis Democracy Program. The articles are arranged into five sections: the activities of organizations supporting servicemen; material on the draft; letters and articles on health issues effecting draftees; the harassment of draftees and their families; and alternative service.

The NIS Third Sector Organization section is based on information found in the print edition of "The Post-Soviet Handbook." For more information on the Handbook and instructions on how to order, see our Post Soviet Handbook Information page.

Sponsored by:
Center for Civil Society International
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