From Convicts to Heroes: The Graveyard War and Prigozhin's Future.

The return of convicts killed while fighting in Ukraine with the Wagner private military group is dividing Russian villages and pitting neighbors against each other. Some residents want to give the fighters a hero's burial, while others cannot forget the crimes they committed before being recruited. The tension between the jingoistic narrative of the war and the grim realities of coping with soldiers' deaths is an especially acute phenomenon in small villages. The move allowed the Kremlin to replenish its ranks and postpone a conscription of civilians until last September, but it also alienated some Russians.