when reservists received the draft notice summoning them for “special training,” they increasingly knew what it meant. Some bribed the draft officer to stay at home: while a deferment from the war in Afghanistan could reportedly be bought for 1,000 rubles, escaping from duty in Chernobyl cost only half as much. And inside some tented encampments on the perimeter of the zone, commanders faced mutiny from their troops. One group of two hundred Estonian partizans, told that their tour was being extended from two to six months, gathered in a furious mob and refused to go back to work. Military
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