Soviet imagery during the Russo-Ukrainian War

Last updated

A GAZ-AA truck in Kazan displaying the Soviet Victory Banner and the Z symbol, which has been used in expressions of support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, May 2022 Polutorka, DOSAAF building, Kazan (2022-05-23) 03.jpg
A GAZ-AA truck in Kazan displaying the Soviet Victory Banner and the Z symbol, which has been used in expressions of support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, May 2022

Imagery promoting the Soviet Union has been a prominent aspect of the Russo-Ukrainian War, especially since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Both Russia and Russian separatist forces in Ukraine have used Soviet symbols as a means of expressing their antipathy to Ukraine and to Ukrainian decommunization policies. For Russia, in particular, these displays are also part of a broader campaign to de-legitimize Ukrainian statehood and justify annexations of the country's territory, as was the case with Crimea in March 2014 and with southeastern Ukraine in September 2022.

Contents

In occupied Ukraine, alongside the Soviet flag, the Russian military has frequently flown the Victory Banner, which was raised by the Red Army at the Reichstag during the Battle of Berlin in May 1945. Many Ukrainian collaborators often use the flag of Russia or the flag of Soviet Ukraine, disregarding the flag of independent Ukraine.

In 2015, Ukraine passed laws banning all communist and Nazi symbols. Consequently, it is illegal under Ukrainian law to use Soviet imagery.

Purpose

The flag of the Soviet Union, which has been used by the Russian military and pro-Russian militias in Ukraine since 2014. Flag of the Soviet Union.svg
The flag of the Soviet Union, which has been used by the Russian military and pro-Russian militias in Ukraine since 2014.
The Victory Banner, which was raised by the Red Army at the Reichstag during the Battle of Berlin in May 1945, has been flown alongside the Russian flag and the Soviet flag in many parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine. Soviet Znamya Pobedy.svg
The Victory Banner, which was raised by the Red Army at the Reichstag during the Battle of Berlin in May 1945, has been flown alongside the Russian flag and the Soviet flag in many parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine.
Ukrainian collaborators, in some cases, display the red-azure-gold flag of the Ukrainian SSR as an expression of pro-Russian sentiment. Flag of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1949-1991).svg
Ukrainian collaborators, in some cases, display the red-azure-gold flag of the Ukrainian SSR as an expression of pro-Russian sentiment.

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many Russian military vehicles have been seen sporting the Soviet flag and the Victory Banner. American political scientist Mark Beissinger told France 24 that the Russians' motivation for promoting the Soviet Union was not necessarily rooted in a desire to re-establish a communist state, but rather in a desire to re-establish "Russian domination over Ukraine" and stand in opposition to Ukrainian decommunization, which is aimed at shedding the legacy and influence of the Russian SFSR. Soviet symbols are illegal in Ukraine, and displaying them is also widely regarded as a provocative act in the other post-Soviet states, excluding Russia and Belarus, which has been involved in the Russian invasion. [1]

American historian Anne Applebaum told The Guardian that: "Because modern Russia stands for nothing except corruption, nihilism, and Putin's personal power, they have brought back Soviet flags as well as Lenin statues to symbolise Russian victory." [2] In many occupied Ukrainian towns and cities, including government buildings, Ukrainian flags have been replaced with Victory Banners. The Victory Banner, which was raised at the Reichstag to mark the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the Battle of Berlin in May 1945, is used to represent the claim by Russian president Vladimir Putin that Ukraine needs to be de-Nazified. [3] [4] During the Euromaidan in 2013 and 2014, many monuments dedicated to the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin were removed, and this process was accelerated during the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and again after the passing of Ukrainian decommunization laws in 2015. Since 2022, however, a number of these monuments have been re-erected in Russian-occupied Ukraine. [2] [5] [6] [7]

Events

Den' Pobedy v Sakskom raione, 2022, 33.jpg
Victory Day on 9 May 2022 in Saky Raion, Russian-occupied Crimea: Artwork displaying "Grandmother Z" Anna Ivanovna, an elderly Ukrainian woman who approached Ukrainian soldiers with a Soviet flag near Dvorichna in April 2022. Her shadow depicts The Motherland Calls , a Soviet-era statue memorializing the former country's civilian and military casualties during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942 and 1943.

"Grandmother Z"

In April 2022, a video was filmed of an elderly Ukrainian woman named Anna Ivanovna [8] greeting Ukrainian soldiers while holding a Soviet flag at her home in Velyka Danylivka  [ uk ], [9] saying that she and her husband had "waited, prayed for them, for Putin and all the people." [10] The soldiers gave her food, but took the flag from her and trampled it, to which she stated "my parents died for that flag in the Great Patriotic War." [9] The video went viral and was featured on Russian state-controlled media, where it was cited by Russian propagandists as proof that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had popular support, in spite of the fact that most Ukrainians—even in Russian-speaking regions—opposed it. [9] Nonetheless, in Russia, murals, postcards, street art, billboards, chevrons, and stickers depicting the woman have been created and displayed in public, [10] [11] and a statue of her was unveiled in Russian-occupied Mariupol. [9] She has been nicknamed "Grandmother Z" [10] and "Grandmother with a red flag" among Russian militarists. She was also referred to as "Grandma Anya" and called "a symbol of the motherland for the entire Russian world" by Russian politician Sergey Kiriyenko, who has been responsible for governing parts of occupied Ukraine. [4]

In May 2022, Ivanovna told Ukrainska Pravda that she met the Ukrainian soldiers, whom she had erroneously identified as Russian, with a Soviet flag not out of sympathy, but because she felt the need to reconcile with them so that they would not "destroy" the village and Ukraine after her house was shelled, and that she felt like a "traitor" due to the way her image was exploited by Russia. [8] The next month, she spoke to BBC News and stated that she did not support the war but claimed that she had (mistakenly) greeted two Russian soldiers and that, at the time, she was "just happy that Russians would come and not fight with us. I was happy that we would unite again." [9] In August 2022, she told BBC News Russian that she still lived in Velyka Danylivka and was "not going to leave anywhere." [12] The promotion of the "Grandmother with a red flag" in Russian state-controlled media almost stopped after it was discovered that Ivanovna was not opposed to the Ukrainian state. [12]

Russian reversal of Ukrainian decommunization

On 26 August 2022, Russian troops hoisted the Soviet Victory Banner in Pisky, a fortified village near Donetsk, during their attempt to push the Ukrainian military out of the Donbas. [13]

Additionally, many Lenin statues, which had been taken down by the Ukrainians in the preceding years, were re-erected in Russian-occupied regions. [14] [15] [16] [17]

In order to counter the Russians' Soviet symbols, the Ukrainian authorities have increased decommunization efforts. In August 2023, the Soviet emblem was ripped off of the statue Mother Ukraine in Kyiv and subsequently replaced by the Ukrainian coat of arms. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag of the Soviet Union</span>

The State Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also simply known as the Soviet flag or the Red Banner, was a red flag with two communist symbols displayed in the canton: a gold hammer and sickle topped off by a red five-point star bordered in gold. The flag's design and symbolism are derived from several sources, but emerged during the Russian Revolution. It has also come to serve as the standard symbol representing communism as a whole, recognized as such in international circles, even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag of Ukraine</span>

The national flag of Ukraine consists of equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soviet-era statues</span> Aspect of art in the Soviet Union

Soviet-era statues are statuary art that figured prominently in the art of the Soviet Union. Typically made in the style of Socialist Realism, they frequently depicted significant state and party leaders, such as Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victory Banner</span> Banner raised by Red Army soldiers in Berlin

The Soviet Banner of Victory was the banner raised by Red Army soldiers on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 1 May 1945, the day after Adolf Hitler committed suicide. This particular banner was raised by three Soviet soldiers: Alexei Berest, Mikhail Yegorov, and Meliton Kantaria, but it was not the first Soviet banner on the Reichstag, see Raising a Flag over the Reichstag for details.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grigory Petrovsky</span> Soviet Ukrainian politician (1878–1958)

Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky was a Ukrainian Soviet politician and Old Bolshevik. He participated in signing the Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Petrovsky was Communist Party leader in Ukraine until 1938, and one of the officials responsible for implementing Stalin's policy of collectivization.

<i>Mother Ukraine</i> Monumental statue in Kyiv, Ukraine

Mother Ukraine is a monumental Soviet-era statue in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The sculpture is a part of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. In 2023, the Soviet heraldry was removed from the monument's shield and replaced with Ukraine's coat of arms, the tryzub.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decommunization</span> Process of purging former communist high officials and eliminating communist symbols

Decommunization in former communist states is the process of purging former communist high officials and eliminating communist symbols.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People</span> Monument in Kyiv

The Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People, formerly known as Peoples' Friendship Arch is a monument in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. It was opened on 7 November 1982, amidst the celebration of the 1,500th Anniversary of Kyiv, to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the USSR and the "reunification of Ukraine with Russia in 1654".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Lenin monument, Kyiv</span> Destroyed monument to Vladimir Lenin in Kyiv, Ukraine

The Vladimir Lenin monument in Kyiv was a statue dedicated to Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The larger than life-size Lenin monument was built by Russian sculptor Sergey Merkurov from the same red Karelian stone as Lenin's Mausoleum. It was displayed at the 1939 New York World's Fair and erected on Kyiv's main Khreshchatyk Street on 5 December 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decommunization in Ukraine</span> Process of decommunization in Ukraine

Decommunization in Ukraine started during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and expanded afterwards. Following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity and beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Ukrainian government approved laws that banned communist symbols, as well as symbols of Nazism as both ideologies deemed to be totalitarian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demolition of monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine</span>

The demolition of monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine began during the collapse of the Soviet Union and continued on a smaller scale throughout the 1990s, primarily in some western towns of Ukraine. However, by 2013, most Lenin statues across Ukraine were still intact. During the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests, the destruction of statues became widespread, a phenomenon that came to be popularly known as Leninopad, or Leninfall in English. The use of "-пад" being akin to English words suffixed with "fall" as in "waterfall" and "snowfall".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bans on communist symbols</span>

Communist symbols have been banned, in part or in whole, by a number of the world's countries. As part of a broader process of decommunization, these bans have mostly been proposed or implemented in countries that belonged to the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War, including some post-Soviet states. In some countries, the bans also extend to prohibit the propagation of communism in any form, with varying punishments applied to violators. Though the bans imposed by these countries nominally target the communist ideology, they may be accompanied by popular anti-leftist sentiment and therefore a de facto ban on all leftist philosophies, such as socialism, while not explicitly passing legislation to ban them.

Ukrainian decommunization laws were passed in 2015, in the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War. These laws relate to decommunization as well as commemoration of Ukrainian history, and have been referred to as "memory laws". They outlawed the public display of Soviet communist symbols and propaganda, and also outlawed the public display of Nazi symbols and propaganda. These laws have also restricted the public display of militarism and fascism symbols, including rising sun flag.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hero City of Ukraine</span> Honorary title for cities in Ukraine

Hero City of Ukraine is a Ukrainian honorary title awarded for outstanding heroism during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was awarded to ten cities in March 2022, in addition to four already-named Hero Cities of the Soviet Union. This symbolic distinction for a city corresponds to the distinction of Hero of Ukraine awarded to individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">De-Leninization</span> Political reforms to dismantle the cult of Vladimir Lenin

De-Leninization is political reform aimed at refuting Leninist and Marxist–Leninist ideology and ending the personality cult of Vladimir Lenin. Examples include removing images and toppling statues of Lenin, renaming places and buildings, dismantling Lenin's Mausoleum currently in Red Square, Moscow, and burying his mummified corpse.

Derussification in Ukraine is a process of removing Russian influence from the post-Soviet country of Ukraine. This derussification started after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and intensified with the demolition of monuments to Lenin during Euromaidan in 2014 and the further systemic process of decommunization in Ukraine. The Russo-Ukrainian War gave a strong impetus to the process. Along with decommunization, derussification has been described as one of the components of a larger process of decolonization in Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hero City monument, Kyiv</span> Soviet victory memorial in Kyiv, Ukraine

The Hero City monument is a World War II memorial in Halytska Square in Kyiv, Ukraine. It is a 30 m-tall (98 ft) obelisk that was erected in 1982, during the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In its original form it was marked with the dates "1941" and "1945", the starting and ending dates of World War II according to the Soviet Union, and featured a "hero star" reflecting Kyiv's status as a Soviet Hero City.

References

  1. ↑ Young, Pareisa (11 March 2022). "Ukraine: Russian troops flying Soviet flag, symbol of 're-establishing Russian domination'". The Observers - France 24 . Archived from the original on 27 April 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 Harding, Luke (23 April 2022). "Back in the USSR: Lenin statues and Soviet flags reappear in Russian-controlled cities". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 4 May 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  3. ↑ Tharoor, Ishaan (2 May 2022). "Soviet flags keep rising over Russian-occupied Ukraine". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on 4 May 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  4. 1 2 "'It's a reference to the USSR — to its return' Why is the Kremlin incorporating Soviet symbols into its war propaganda?". Meduza . 5 May 2022. Archived from the original on 5 May 2022. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  5. ↑ Fink, Andrew (20 April 2022). "Lenin Returns to Ukraine". The Dispatch . Archived from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  6. ↑ Bowman, Verity (27 April 2022). "Kyiv pulls down Soviet-era monument symbolising Russian-Ukrainian friendship". The Telegraph . Archived from the original on 27 April 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  7. ↑ Trofimov, Yaroslav (1 May 2022). "Russia's Occupation of Southern Ukraine Hardens, With Rubles, Russian Schools and Lenin Statues". The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  8. 1 2 Karlovsky, Denis. ""Бабця з прапором СРСР" кляне російську армію, бо та зруйнувала її дім" ["Grandmother with the flag of the USSR" swears at the Russian army, because it destroyed her house]. Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2022-05-05. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Bettiza, Sofia; Khomenko, Svyatoslav (15 June 2022). "Babushka Z: The woman who became a Russian propaganda icon". BBC News . Archived from the original on 19 October 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 Sorokina, Yanina (4 May 2022). "Explainer: How a Ukrainian Pensioner Became a Pro-War Symbol in Russia". The Moscow Times . Archived from the original on 4 May 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  11. ↑ Mohan, Geeta (4 May 2022). "Old woman with red flag is now the face of Russian loyalty in this war". India Today . Archived from the original on 4 May 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  12. 1 2 "Grandmother with a flag, residents of Mariupol, military-refuseniks. What happened to the heroes of the BBC materials six months after the start of the Russian invasion" (in Russian). BBC News Russian. 24 August 2022. Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  13. ↑ Stepanenko, Kateryna; Hird, Karolina; Kagan, Frederick W.; Barros, George (25 August 2022). "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 25". Institute for the Study of War. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  14. ↑ Harding, Luke (23 April 2022). "Back in the USSR: Lenin statues and Soviet flags reappear in Russian-controlled cities". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 4 May 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  15. ↑ Fink, Andrew (20 April 2022). "Lenin Returns to Ukraine". The Dispatch . Archived from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  16. ↑ Bowman, Verity (27 April 2022). "Kyiv pulls down Soviet-era monument symbolising Russian-Ukrainian friendship". The Telegraph . Archived from the original on 27 April 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  17. ↑ Trofimov, Yaroslav (1 May 2022). "Russia's Occupation of Southern Ukraine Hardens, With Rubles, Russian Schools and Lenin Statues". The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  18. ↑ Lister, Tim; Voitovych, Olga; Kottasová, Ivana; Noor Haq, Sana (7 August 2023). "Ukraine replaces Soviet-era hammer and sickle symbol with a trident on Kyiv statue". CNN . Retrieved 7 August 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.