When I once again hear that the Russians have come to a foreign land, every time different Donbas family stories pop up in my mind, which I have heard in an incredible amount over these eight years.

History of a conventional civil war.

I have one old comrade - the Donbass battalion commander of the first draft Sergey (Frenchman) Zavdoveev.

  • Sergey Zavdoveev, colonel of the DPR army

  • © Photo: social networks

A native of the city of Donetsk.

He received his call sign for the simple reason that he served as the will of fate in the French Legion.

Therefore, he later called his Donbass battalion "Legion".

And Sergei had a half-brother - Roman.

Since his father was different, he bore the surname Tutov.

But they lived as one family and slept on adjacent beds.

And they had an uncle who, in fact, raised Sergei and Roman.

Uncle's name was Vitaly, and his last name was Zenich.

And he, too, of course, came from the most local.

From crests, one might say.

Vitaly was amazing.

He was fluent in English and Japanese, graduated from school with a gold medal and university with honors, where he studied psychology, and also played in a rock band, loved motorcycles and read voraciously: the whole house was in books.

And then the war happened.

Sergei and his uncle Vitaly joined the militia already in May 2014.

And the youngest, Roman, then, in 2014, suddenly left for Mariupol.

  • Roman Tutov, Azov

  • © Photo: social networks

And he stayed there.

Sergei and Vitaly were already at war, but something incomprehensible was happening with Roman: there were rumors that he was circling with neo-Nazis from Azov.

Mother convinced Sergey, who already commanded a company, that Romka was not fighting, but was keeping a shawarma sales point in Mariupol.

Mother wanted to believe it.

On January 28, 2015, Vitaly Zenich heroically died while covering the withdrawal from the encirclement of a group of militia commanded by Sergei.

He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the DPR.

  • Vitaly Zenich, Hero of the DPR

  • © Photo: social networks

Roman then called from Mariupol and cried into the phone.

He was terribly sorry for his uncle.

Sergei told him:

So come to the funeral!

But he didn't come.

And the war went on and on.

And the mother still did not believe that one of her sons was there, on the other side, from where they were shooting at Donetsk, Gorlovka, Luhansk.

And 2022 happened.

And they took Mariupol.

And among the captured fighters of "Azov" was a fighter Roman Tutov - the brother of the Donbass battalion commander and the nephew of the Hero of the DPR.

I saw him in a video recorded by one of the military correspondents.

The military commander did not know who was in front of him, and he himself did not say either.

I asked Sergey how it happened, because they grew up in the same house, watched the same films, read the same books, studied with the same teachers and were raised by the same uncle Vitaly.

Sergei shrugged his shoulders and, after thinking, said:

- Before the war, Roma worked in the Praktiker hypermarket (a German company) as a sales assistant.

And I also worked there as a deputy director.

The director was German.

And Roma always admired them, the Germans.

It surprised me back then...

But that's not enough, right?

What happened that the family, as in some Sholokhov's story, was cut in half?

Who whispered a magic black word into Roma's ear?

And it took him in the opposite direction from the house, to the basement of Azovstal ...

Just don’t tell me, I ask that someone here appeared on a foreign land.

Here the brothers understand.

Family business.

  • Sergey Zavdoveev and Vitaly Zenich

  • © Photo: social networks

Two brothers are sitting in the middle of the old Russian land, and one suddenly says:

My relatives are now Germans.

And the Poles too.

And the other:

“Listen, stop it, we grew up from this land, and we don’t have any brothers except Russians.

Well, Serbian, perhaps, from immigrants.

Or it happens also from local Greeks.

And the Germans are far from here.

Especially those with swastikas.

Here the first brother takes a gun and says:

If you dissuade me, I will shoot you.

The second shrugged his shoulders and also took the gun.

Mother looks at them - and the heart is in half.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.