Get Lost (organisation)

Get Lost, previously Go by the Forest (Russian: Идите Лесом, romanized: Idite Lesom), is an anti-war charity founded by Grigory Sverdlin in Tbilisi, Georgia shortly after the announcement of a partial mobilisation of reservists in Russia on 21 September 2022.

By July 2025, Get Lost said it had advised over 48,000 people on how to avoid conscription and helped over 2,000 people to desert.^[1]

The organisation helps both Russian citizens to escapeconscription and Russian soldiers to desert and flee the country or surrender to Ukraine, while also providing legal, financial and psychological aid to those who need it.^[2][3][4]

For those who are unable to leave or wish to remain in Russia, the organisation provides financial support and help with finding shelter. Additionally, there are those within Russia who offer "an empty country house or several empty places in a hostel" to shelter those "hiding from mobilization."^[2][4]

A volunteer with the organisation, Olesya, stated that it's more difficult to help those "who are already in units, at training camps, and some are already being sent to the front", as sometimes – despite being informed of their options – they still decide to fight in Ukraine.^[4]

Speaking on illegal crossings of the border, Sverdlin said "I learned that it’s a rather well-established business in Russia. From what I understand, before the war it was simpler and cheaper to cross illegally. In border towns, there are taxi drivers willing to take people through unguarded roads, into Kazakhstan, Mongolia or Belarus."^[2]

According to Sverdlin, all of the "illegal stuff" is handled by a team within the organisation known as the "Foresters", a small number of people who "have known each other personally and for a long time."^[4]

صرح سفيردلين أيضاً بأن المنظمة لا تساعد من سُجنوا لارتكابهم جرائم عنف ثم جُندوا لاحقاً في وحدات ستورم-زد، ولا من تورطوا في جرائم حرب، ^{[ 5 ] [ 6 ]} ولكنه قال أيضاً: "لسنا جهات تحقيق، بل نفكر بمنطق عملي - حتى لو تمكن من إطلاق النار ثلاث مرات، فلنمنعه من إطلاق النار في الرابعة، وعندها سيكون هناك من يحقق في جرائم الحرب". ^{[ 5 ]}

في حوالي 24-25 سبتمبر/أيلول 2022، بعد فترة وجيزة من إعلان التعبئة الجزئية لقوات الاحتياط في روسيا في 21 سبتمبر/أيلول، وضع سفيردلين تصورًا للمنظمة تحت اسم "اذهب إلى الغابة". وفي 26 سبتمبر/أيلول، أُعلن عن المنظمة، وبدأت عملها في أوائل أكتوبر/تشرين الأول. ^{[ 5 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 8 ]} ويُشير اسم المنظمة، الذي يُعدّ تلاعبًا بالألفاظ، إلى "الطبيعة السرية لعملها"، كما أنه يُشبه عبارة ساخرة تُعبّر عن معنى "اذهب إلى الجحيم" باللغة الروسية. ^{[ 3 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]} وقد تُرجم الاسم أيضًا إلى "اذهب إلى الجحيم" و"اذهب في نزهة" من قِبل مصادر إعلامية. ^{[ 2 ] [ 9 ]} والهدف النهائي للمنظمة هو "مساعدة أكبر عدد ممكن من الناس على تجنب التورط في الحرب الروسية الدامية في أوكرانيا " ^{[ 10 ]} و"إضعاف قوة جيش بوتين". ^{[ 6 ]}

While the organisation was preparing to launch, they consulted with several other organisations,^[2][4] including activists from Belarus "who had gained experience in evacuations after the 2020 protests."^[4] Speaking in 2024, Ivan Chuviliayev, Get Lost's Public Relations manager, said the initial idea behind the organisation was to "launch a kind of a hotline service to help those who wanted to avoid conscription," however they soon "realised that people needed much more from us, many reaching out for our help were primarily those who were already on the frontline. So we started working with deserters."^[11]

The organisation's core team is made up of six anti-war Russians,^[12] with those listed on its website being Sverdlin, Darya Berg, Anton Gorbatsevich and Chuviliayev.^[13][5][10] Berg is the head of the relief and evacuation department^[5][10] and Gorbatsevich is the direct help and evacuation coordinator.^[10]

Sverdlin expressed surprise at how quickly the organisation expanded after its founding.^[2][3][4] He said that three days after the organisation was founded, volunteers had received over 1,000 inquiries, including questions about both legally and illegally crossing the border, requests for psychological support and questions about how to safely surrender to Ukraine.^[2] As of September 2024, Get Lost had an estimated 400 volunteers.^[11]