Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 5 – The leaders of 12 NGOs in North Ossetia-Alaniya have called on their North Caucasus republic’s leadership to publish updated data on combat losses in Ukraine and to seek from Moscow the immediate demobilization of all Ossetians now serving in the Russian army in Ukraine lest their deaths lead to the demise of the Ossetian nation.
Their appeal first appeared on a telegram channel (t.me/alaniatoday/51762), but it has now been picked up by other news services (semnasem.org/news/2024/08/06/obshestvenniki-severnoj-osetii-potrebovali-nazvat-chislo-pogibshih-na-vojne-v-ukraine-zemlyakov-i-zapretit-prizyv-korennogo-naseleniya-na-front and meduza.io/news/2024/08/06/obschestvennye-organizatsii-severnoy-osetii-prizvali-glavu-respubliki-raskryt-chislo-pogibshih-na-voyne-i-zapretit-prizyv-predstaviteley-korennogo-naroda).
The authors of the appeal bemoaned the “carnival-like” commemoration of Soviet victory in World War II at a time when “republic residents are dying” in a new war. That is inappropriate and unacceptable they say especially given all the problems the republic faces in addition to the war and then ask “what kind of Victories are you celebrating?”
But perhaps most intriguingly, the authors ground their call for demobilization of Ossetian troops in a Soviet precedent: “In 1944,” they write, “a similar decision was made by the USSR leadership so as to preserve the gene pool of the numerically small peoples who suffered significant losses during military operations.”
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