“We protect fellow countrymen”: how residents of Bashkiria weave camouflage nets for those participating in the NWO

The 26-year-old son of Gulnara Khabibullina, a resident of the Tuymazinsky district, has been participating in the special operation since February.

During this time, the woman saw him twice: once she came to him in the border zone, and on New Year's holidays he himself was able to come to his family for two weeks.

According to Gulnara, since February she has been restless waiting for another message from her son that he is alive.

Volunteering helped her escape from constant anxiety - together with other volunteers, the woman began to weave camouflage nets for the fighters participating in the NWO.

“Mentally, it saves.

I would get hysterical if the child did not get in touch for several days.

I sat on TV for days: I got up at seven in the morning and did not turn off one channel with the news until one in the morning.

And when you see (on TV) how our guys are mocked there, how they are killed, it is impossible,” Gulnara shares.

“When we started weaving nets, I realized that I was not just sitting and dying in front of the TV, but I was helping our guys, I could somehow support them.”

100 squares of "dirty winter"

One of the organizers of the Maskita volunteer club in Bashkortostan, Lilia Gainetdinova, said that the decision to weave camouflage nets was influenced by the example of volunteers from neighboring Tatarstan.

“We are practically on the border with Tatarstan, in the fall, volunteers there began to actively help their guys, who went to the front line.

I thought: if Tatar volunteers weave masksets for their guys, then our (military. -

) need them too, ”says the interlocutor of RT.

In order for ready-made masksets to come to the units where they are really needed, volunteers began to contact their friends and acquaintances who participate in the NWO.

Now the inhabitants of Tuymazy weave masksets, which they then directly pass on to their fellow countrymen.

“When our movement began, the inhabitants of Tuymazy began to tell their sons and brothers about it, who are participating in the SVO.

It happens that the military themselves, natives of the Tuymazinsky district, turn to us and ask us to send disguise.

That is, volunteers who weave nets literally protect their fellow countrymen who have gone on a special operation, ”says Lilia.

• A volunteer from the Tuymazinsky district weaves scraps of fabric into a future camouflage net

• RT

The organizer of the movement, Razifa Mannapova, says that there are also urgent orders - recently they had to weave 100 square meters as quickly as possible.

m camouflage net.

“They asked urgently for the “dirty winter” network.

There was little time - the guys left for the front line very soon.

The order was woven by two groups of volunteers, the last net was woven at night and finished at seven in the morning.

Of course, many people were involved.

We did everything not only quickly, but also together, provocatively with songs, ”recalls Razifa.

Ties and garlands

The process of creating a camouflage net is time-consuming: many pieces of fabric must be woven into the base of the threads.

As a rule, for a net of 18 m², 18-20 m² of fabric is needed.

The material for filling the nets is brought to volunteers by residents of the Tuymazinsky district and local enterprises.

So, several furniture factories provide pieces of fabric that remain from production.

To prepare the material for weaving, you cannot simply cut the fabric into patches in a chaotic manner.

“Our women cut fabric using a certain technology.

For example, we knit a network in a daisy pattern, which requires strips of a certain size.

There is also a tie weaving pattern - for it, the fabric is cut into small “ties,” says project activist Victoria Shustova to RT.

The network itself must be sheathed around the perimeter before tying it with fabric, so that it keeps its shape better and does not get tangled.

Volunteers sew loops to each corner of the net so that it is convenient for servicemen to wear it and throw it on equipment.

Fabric scraps are selected by color and shade, depending on the desired pattern of the network.

• Volunteers in the village of Kandry in Bashkortostan prepare fabric patches for the “winter” maskset

• RT

“For example, now we are weaving “late autumn” for our guys, and before that we were doing “winter” - white with gray patches.

This work is quite creative: the network should not contain clear contours so that it cannot be detected from the air.

It should be as similar as possible to the natural pattern of the earth and plants.

It happens that we have to buy dyes and tint the shreds, because we don’t have the right shade, ”says Victoria.

From schoolchildren to pensioners

Since November 11, when the project started working in Tuimazy, volunteers have already sent six parties to the front, the largest of which had 15 masksets.

“Very different people are involved in weaving: both working and retired people.

Over time, even schoolchildren joined in.

Some women take fabrics home and cut them into rags at night to bring the finished material the next morning,” says Razifa Mannapova.

• Schoolchildren also joined the work on weaving masksets in Tuymazy

• RT

According to her, among the volunteers there are both relatives of military personnel in the NVO, and simply caring residents.

“We are not indifferent to the fate of the guys who are now serving in the Donbass.

I would like to help our countrymen, shelter them, help save them and their equipment,” adds the volunteer.

One of the most productive centers for weaving masksets in the city was the Tuymazinsky Council of Veterans.

Pensioners gather every day in the council room to cut the fabric together and weave the patches into the warp.

“It so happened that our grandmothers took over all this work - they didn’t let men in,” smiles Nurulla Bikchurov, 75, the head of the NGO.

- Women go to weave nets as a job!

They come at ten in the morning and do weaving until two: they sing, laugh, and talk while they work.

Bikchurov himself helped the organizers of the movement to establish contact with local schools so that children also had the opportunity to help the fighters.

The man worked in the schools of Bashkortostan for 52 years, taught physics and mathematics, and headed educational institutions.

“I talked to school principals, they supported this idea.

Now, in the lessons of labor or patriotic education, children can prepare the fabric, cut it into pieces, sew something for the military, ”says the interlocutor of RT.

"Morally it saves"

After the masksets began to be woven in the city, the residents of the villages of the Tuymazinsky district also wanted to join the project.

Now weaving centers operate in four more villages.

Volunteers from Tuymazy come to settlements, teach beginners, bring the basics for weaving, and then control the process: they look at the network being prepared in the process of weaving, correct the pattern and colors.

Zilya Zaripova, a 70-year-old resident of the village of Karamaly-Gubeevo, herself saw messages on social networks that volunteers are teaching everyone how to weave masksets for military personnel.

“I watched TV and kept thinking how to help our guys at the front.

I was about to start knitting socks with our local ensemble, and then I saw this news - it was as if God had heard my prayers, ”the pensioner smiles.

This autumn, 11 people were mobilized from her native village into the army.

Two of them studied under the class guidance of Zaripova - she worked at the school until her retirement.

She also knew the rest of the mobilized as schoolchildren.

“These are all my students, I took them to the front.

After that, you sit and think: they are now protecting us there, but how can we help them now?

Of course, when you are weaving a net, you think about our guys who left their homes there,” she says.

Another village where a weaving center was organized is Nurkeevo. 

“I personally have no relatives who serve there now.

But I am the mother of two sons, so I understand how hard it is for parents who took their children to the front, ”Zilya Bikmukhametova, a teacher at a local kindergarten, tells RT, who, together with friends and colleagues, organized a weaving point in the village.

Over time, the woman realized that she could not devote enough time to the project because of the basic work, so now Victoria Shustova and Gulnara Khabibullina are in charge of weaving the masksets in Nurkeev.

• Bashkir volunteers prepare maskset for winter

• RT

According to Gulnara, after the permanent work of volunteers was organized in the village, the residents began to help the servicemen even more: bring things and products for parcels, write letters.

So, for one of the first general parcels, residents of Nurkeev and nearby villages collected 11 boxes, which were sent to the unit where Gulnara's son serves. 

“Once my son gave me his diary, which he managed to pull out of a burnt tank.

On one of the last pages there was this entry: “The tank burned down, everything burned down, there were no socks left, nothing.

But the worst thing is that all the letters that were sent to me from home burned down!

Therefore, not only the things that we convey are important for them, but also our care.

When they receive these parcels, masksets and letters, they feel that we care about them,” says Gulnara.