Fear of military service drives many Russians abroad. For Adam Kalinin, an IT specialist from southern Russia, that’s not an option. Instead, he flees into the forest. In an interview with ntv.de he talks about his life in the tent – and how to set up an office with internet access in the wilderness.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin called the mobilization on September 21, hundreds of thousands of men left the country in a hurry. For Adam Kalinin, emigration is out of the question, as is going to war. The young IT specialist chooses an unconventional path – he packs his things and flees into a forest. He has been living and working in the southern Russian wilderness for a month now, far away from draft authorities and barracks, but also from family and friends.
“I’m against mobilization and against the war in general,” the backend developer explained in a phone call to ntv.de, explaining his motivation for fleeing into the wilderness. Kalinin had taken part in the protests against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and got into trouble with the authorities for this reason even before the mobilization. He cannot say more about this in the interview, just as he does not want to give his real name and his exact age. “Between 30 and 40” years old, the war opponent only reveals.
He has yet to receive a summons from the recruiting authorities, but decided not to wait. “It turned out that it’s not ‘partial mobilization’, but a general mobilization. There are no rules. They take people who have never served or who are sick. It’s a scandal,” explains Kalinin. In his town he was constantly afraid “that I would be grabbed by a police officer and dragged into the car while I was out walking.”
His “relocation”, as he calls the move to the forest, was not rash. Kalinin is an experienced wild camper, so he already had a lot of equipment. “In the last five years I’ve always bought new things and gradually expanded my outdoor set: I already had a backpack, a sleeping bag and a tent. But I also had a chainsaw, a router and an antenna use for Internet access”. According to Kalinin, the most important thing he still had to buy was solar panels with a battery. He can use it to generate electricity in the forest.
“All the equipment is quite expensive. But I compared the cost of my equipment to moving abroad.” In the first weeks of the mobilization, “due to the shocking news, air tickets abroad cost 200-300 thousand rubles (equivalent to around 3200-4800 euros) and even those were rare. Added to this would be the cost of a new start in another country,” calculates Kalinin after.
Kalinin says he primarily had to prepare mentally. “I’ve had to think about what I’m leaving behind when I go into the wild.” Despite many years of wild camping experience, he was unsure whether he would be able to live in the wilderness for weeks or months rather than for a weekend. “I didn’t know if the internet would work, if I could settle in. The chances were 50/50.”
After a week of preparation, the time had finally come. Kalinin’s wife took him by car to a forest that the two of them already knew from a hiking holiday. There they parted ways. For the woman it was back home, for Kalinin – further into the denser forest. Since then, according to his own words, he has not met a single person.
As soon as he arrived, he set up a food store not far from the road so that he didn’t have to lug the many provisions to the future campsite – an hour’s walk through rugged terrain. “I bought a big dumpster. It keeps all the supplies I took with me: canned food, instant noodles, beef jerky, dried vegetables, tea, coffee, sugar, and so on.” If food is scarce in the tent, he fetches some from the container: “Like in the supermarket,” he laughs. “I’ll take something from the store, put it in my backpack and go back.”
Kalinin has set up two tents in the forest. He lives in one of them, the other is his “office” – the programmer works from there. The work tent is a three-minute walk from his sleeping place. The reason he separates the rooms is because his living tent is in a nice spot in the woods “where it’s not windy, where the sun is shining, where there’s a clearing and everything’s cool. But there’s none there Internet,” explains the man in a video on his Telegram channel. “Where the office is, the weather isn’t so good. When the wind blows, it’s pretty uncomfortable to be there, but there’s internet.” There is an antenna attached to a tree next to the tent, which provides a pretty good internet connection via mobile phone.
“The speed is more or less acceptable. Enough to call colleagues and even get my work done,” says Kalinin in an interview with ntv.de, which is conducted via Telegram. “Some things take a little longer to download or upload on the internet, but that’s not a problem.”
Kalinin, according to his own words, works in a fairly large IT company. But his team is quite small. Most of his immediate colleagues know that he lives in the forest. Some follow his blog at Telegram. In the channel “The clever forester” Kalinin shows his everyday life in the forest. With his now more than 20,000 followers, he shares photos and videos in which he explains how to use solar panels to generate electricity or how to choose the right equipment for life in the wild. “I created the channel for my friends so I don’t have to keep forwarding the same pics to everyone. And that’s when it became so popular!” The blog also helps Kalinin not feel lonely. “I communicate with my friends and followers and get a lot of questions and comments.”
Kalinin does not have much time for communication with his subscribers – his day is strictly regulated. “I get up pretty early, like 6:30 to 7 a.m., and make myself breakfast – usually porridge with condensed milk or cream, and prunes or raisins.” Cooking is done on a small gas stove connected to an 18-liter gas bottle. “The usual things for a city person take a lot of time,” explains Kalinin. He uses rainwater, which is stored in plastic sheeting spread on the ground, for cooking and drinking. Everything that is edible has to be hidden in boxes and bags – “so that insects and animals don’t touch it,” explains Kalinin. After breakfast we go to the “office”. “I spend practically the whole working day there, except for the lunch break.”
Only after work can the IT specialist devote himself to his blog – but also to the expansion plans. “Broadly I’m moving towards a cottage, I’d like something more solid than a tent. So at the moment I’m gathering wood suitable for construction and processing it.” Kalinin usually does this in the dark, the sun sets quite early. But he cannot hesitate, time is pressing, winter is approaching. “I hope that I have a sheltered house from the great cold, maybe even with some kind of shower or sauna”.
According to Kalinin, she really misses a warm shower. “Right now I have to be content with wet wipes,” he explains. Now and then he heats up a little water in a pot to wash himself with. “It’s my mini shower,” laughs Kalinin.
But while Adam Kalinin sees the shower—as well as fresh fruit and veg—as an expendable luxury, what he misses most is the closeness of his family. Since moving to the woods, he has only seen his wife on video calls. “My wife is very supportive, I couldn’t have survived here without her help. I want to meet her again so badly,” enthuses the hermit. “Or that she moves in with me! But I don’t think it’s realistic,” he laughs.
He has to be patient until Kalinin can hug his wife and friends again. Even if life in the forest might seem idyllic to some, the man wants to get back to the city as soon as possible. “But judging by the news, I’ll be spending the winter here,” says Kalinin.
Here in the forest he is not afraid of being tracked down by the authorities. “Most likely nobody is interested in a targeted search for me,” the wartime opponent is certain. “It would be too costly even if they knew where to look. I’m not an international criminal for whom the state apparatus would devote its resources.” Adam Kalinin will remain in the woods until the war, or at least the mobilization, is over: “The probability of running into someone who works for the state is significantly lower here.”
