Maxim wrote to us about how he had to part with his family, his job, and Russia because he was against the war. 

Hello! I've been reading your eyewitnesses for a long time and still want to write... But somehow I never had time. But today I decided it's time. I am originally from Ukraine, born in the Vinnitsa region. After school I moved to Russia to study. Then the collapse of the Soviet Union, marriage, children, grandson...

Even before February 24, I began to panic, realizing what was coming. On the 24th, after hearing the news, I lay at home all day - I could not find the strength to get up and go somewhere. I wrote to my students - there would be no classes...In the evening I realized that I had to get out, get out of the house and see how the whole world had collapsed...but it turned out that the world continued to live its own life. I drove through the city and thought, "Berlin, 1939." Then I found myself at the rocket near the Museum of the History of Cosmonautics. There I recorded a video message to the BB asking them to stop the SWO. I posted it online the next day.
Then there was a deep depression, a desire to do something, to leave... but my wife, children, grandson...

In April, I started to get aroused by my record-address. The theater terminated my contract (without explaining anything, they just removed performances with my participation), and they removed several more performances in other places. They declared me a sponsor of the Right Sector and started putting pressure on the director of the college to fire me. But he had no grounds.

Summer. I thought maybe it would all be over. At least my relatives in Ukraine did not turn away, although it was difficult to talk - what can I ask, how are things?

Another offer from the college director came just before the vacations (he was being pressured by the FSB because of some post I made on social media). It's strange, but how many conversations and rumors there were around me, and NOBODY met with me or talked to me. Not the Ministry of Culture, not the governor's office, not the FSB - NOBODY! At the same time, my "wrong position" was actively discussed.

When the mobilization was announced I couldn't stand it and reacted on social media - immediately the director offered to write a statement, I signed, hoping to save and take the children away. But no one wanted to leave with me. I took the application back. and tried to go to work. but all my social projects were closed, my name was removed from the posters...

On December 1 I wrote an application and on December 4 I left Russia. From a country where hypocrisy, lawlessness, and bloodthirstiness reign. From a family where I was told - you are the only Ukrainian among us, we were all born here... As if all human values had a geographical reference... It hurts.