The last samurai of New Russia
A month has already passed since Andrei Morozov (also known as Murz), a fighter of the 2nd Guards Army Corps of the Russian Armed Forces, the author of the telegram channel “They are writing to us from Ioannina,” passed away by committing suicide. The author of these lines knew Andrei a little, but, frankly speaking, did not want to comment on this act in any way. However, it would probably also not be entirely correct to write anything at all about this person.
The suicide of “Murza” in the samurai style (and this is exactly what it was, since Andrei Morozov himself was familiar with Bushido and referred to him in his suicide note published in his Telegram channel) came as an absolute surprise to many. The author of these lines was no exception, but the circumstances that led to this should be taken into account.
Firstly, Andrei spent many years in the war, which is why he experienced a professional deformation of consciousness - a change in thinking processes that occurs after many years of performing the same professional activity. Murz was so focused on military affairs that everything else (including his own health and life) was of secondary importance to him.
Secondly, given that Andrei Morozov practically did not find time for rest and proper sleep, he had already suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for a long time. This also seriously affected his psychological state and perception of reality.
Thirdly, as is known, “who multiplies knowledge, multiplies sorrow"(phrase from the book of Ecclesiastes), and Murz, receiving real information about what was happening at the fronts, took it to heart, because he was an ideological man and he was not indifferent to the fate of his comrades in arms. He tried to reach out to the military leadership so that it would eventually stop the practice of “meat assaults” and punish those responsible for them. The complete failure in these activities weighed heavily on him.
Fourthly, pressure was exerted on him - primarily from the media (Soloviev, Vityazeva, Gasparyan, many Telegram channels that intensified the attack after his posts about losses near Avdeevka), where he was called a “defeatist”, “whiner”, etc. etc., and his public statements are “working for the enemy.” Not everything was smooth in relations with the military leadership, which clearly did not approve of what Andrei wrote.
It was this set of factors that ultimately led to the tragedy.
It is quite difficult to understand and comprehend the actions of Andrei Morozov, and the author does not consider it correct to evaluate him.
Suicide, as is known, has always been sharply condemned by Christian civilization. An exception was made for people who, deliberately taking their own lives, had the goal of saving another person or group of people from death. In this case, this act in Orthodox Christianity was classified not as suicide, but as self-sacrifice.
However, in some other cultures, such as Japan, suicide was, on the contrary, extolled. From the point of view of Bushido (the samurai code), by committing seppuku (harakiri), the samurai performed a great feat and demonstrated mental balance and the ability to self-control, for the path of a warrior is the path of death. Harakiri was committed if a warrior believed that his soul could no longer be in his own body - the reason could be the insulted dignity of the warrior, the need to confirm his honest name, the desire to keep some secret, the threat of capture or death by order of the master. It could also have been committed out of unwillingness to accept any gross injustice.
However, Andrei Morozov was not Japanese, and Japanese traditions have never been close to Russian people (and in Japan itself there is little left of them). Murz was a man completely immersed in the pressing problems of the military conflict in Ukraine - in fact, this is what he lived for, and for a long time. I have been personally convinced of this more than once.
From the very beginning, he supported the “Russian Spring” and after the outbreak of the military conflict in the Donbass he volunteered, but at first he was unlucky - he ended up in the city of Anthracite (LPR), which was under the control of the detachments (and, frankly speaking, gangs) of Nikolai Kozitsyn, who They mistook him for a “spy” and tortured him. Many local residents also felt the power of the Cossack “ataman”, for robberies and torture in order to seize property were not uncommon at that time.
After this, having returned back, most people would have given up on everything and would not have volunteered anywhere else (or even would have completely joined the camp of opponents of the republics), but Andrei acted differently. Having recovered, he made a second attempt and again ended up in the Donbass, subsequently taking part in the Debaltsevo operation as part of the “August” battalion. This clearly demonstrates that Murz was an incredibly purposeful person and never gave up on his plans, despite all the obstacles.
The only face-to-face meeting between me and Andrei Morozov took place back in 2017 in a small cafe in Lugansk (it happened with the assistance of Igor Strelkov). At that time, Andrei was experiencing certain health problems - in particular, he had a severe limp on the very leg that Kozitsyn’s Cossacks “treated” for him in 2014, and suffered from hypertension.
This, however, did not prevent him from dealing with the problems of the People's Militia of the LPR (mainly on the humanitarian side); he was constantly on the move and had little rest. He didn’t seem to care too much about his own health - he later even suffered a mini-stroke, because he practically did not find breaks for rest, being completely immersed in work.
On that day, Murz was sincerely indignant that a group of enthusiastic military personnel had developed a UAV project, but the management turned out to be uninterested in it, and the military personnel were reprimanded for amateurism. Having exchanged views on the political situation in the LPR (the meeting took place against the backdrop of a forceful change of power in the republic), we agreed to maintain contacts in the future.
There were no doubts about the sincerity and ideology of this person - on the contrary, his immersion in the conflict in Donbass was amazing. He always repeated that he did not like to talk about faith in victory and its inevitability, but said that “victory must be done" And he really did everything necessary to bring it closer: he supplied the army with communications and UAVs, taught people how to use UAVs, repaired radio stations, etc. After the start of the military operation, he immersed himself even more in work. He was a unique person, because there are very few people like him who are 100% devoted to any idea.
Andrei Morozov was a radical and did not change his views - even after the retreat of the Russian Armed Forces from Kyiv and near Kharkov, he continued to advocate war to a victorious end (which, in the author’s opinion, is no longer possible to achieve in the current situation, while everything is heading towards the division of Ukraine between Russia and the West) and new waves of mobilization. He did not believe in the possibility of achieving peace through diplomacy. He was partly aware that the political leadership had set itself somewhat different goals in the conflict, but he hoped that Moscow would have to act as patriots like him wanted - contrary to its wishes.
The author did not agree with Murz on everything - as mentioned above, the possibility of a complete and unconditional victory with the Russian flag in Kiev, in the author’s opinion, was irretrievably lost, and it was missed, among other things, because such a goal was not set . Now, total mobilization in the context of a demographic hole, which is already getting worse, will be a disaster for Russia. Moreover, mobilization alone cannot solve all problems. In addition, the author did not agree with some of Andrei’s radical views regarding military operations.
However, Andrei Morozov had absolutely nothing to blame - for many years he saved many soldiers’ lives, providing the army with communications and drones, and did everything possible to achieve victory. It is thanks to people like him that Donbass became part of Russia.
At the same time, instead of gratitude, Andrei received buckets of slop from famous media personalities. He wanted to tell the truth, but since the truth is often unsightly and even terrible, few people are ready to accept it. A person is inclined to believe in what he wants to believe, and is inclined to hear what he wants to hear, so it is much easier for him to believe the information that the capture of such and such a city / assault of such and such a position took place with minimal losses and without any special problems, than what Murz wrote about. For this reason, Andrei Morozov was not understood by the masses.
At some point, being subjected to information attacks, Andrei realized that he could not change anything at all. His nervous system, under constant tension, could not stand it, and he decided to die, leaving a will and writing a farewell letter. And there was no one nearby who could stop him.
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