How the Letter Z Became a Russian Pro-War Symbol

The letter Z—taped in white on Mr Kuliyak’s white shirt as he received the bronze medal for parallel bars at a ceremony in Doha, Qatar on Saturday—emerged as a symbol of pride for those supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Is. attack on the armed forces. In the West, it is being condemned as a symbol of nationalist sentiment.

The International Gymnastics Federation, which banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from its events on Monday, said it has initiated disciplinary proceedings against Mr Kuliyak.

The letter first began to appear on Russian tanks and armored vehicles as they were deposited near the Ukrainian border a few days before Russian troops crossed the border. Military analysts say the letter, along with other markers, is used by the Russian military as an identifier to distinguish its equipment on the battlefields of Ukraine.

Since the invasion, “Z” iconography has appeared on cars, on banners at pro-Kremlin rallies, and on billboards in the Moscow and St. On Saturday at a children’s hospice in central city Kazan, patients were flocking outside to compose letters for a photo shoot.

In recent days, pro-government videos have been widely shared on social media. One such clip opens with a speech by nationalist activist Anton Demidov in support of Russia’s armed forces, followed by hundreds of people in a warehouse waving Russian flags and chanting “Russia!” And showing the name of the President. Vladimir Putin.

“I don’t know where this symbol came from,” Mr. Demidov said in an interview, after pro-Kremlin activists saw it on Russian tanks in Ukraine and began using it. “The symbol isn’t important. What’s important is the position it represents, and it is that we understand that we need to support our president and our military in their difficult task.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry and other government institutions have adopted the easily reproducible symbol to rally the country around the war, which Moscow has described as a “special military operation”.

Soon after Russia started the war, state-backed broadcaster RT began selling T-shirts with such phrases. Some companies have replaced the Cyrillic version of Z for the Latin letter in their brand logos, while some government officials have swapped the letters in their social-media profiles. In Russian, the word “for” is spelled as “za” and the Ministry of Defense posted on Instagram “for peace,” “for our people,” “for victory,” all using the English letter Z. have posted.

Local governments across the country have joined in at night to light up the windows in their government buildings to create the Latin letter Z.

“It is a symbol of the unity of the people,” Ivan Zhernakov, an official in the northern region of Arkhangelsk who runs its patriotic education department, told a state media outlet there. “It is designed to symbolize the support, the support of our armed forces. For the decisions of the President, and to unite us in this difficult situation.”

In Ukraine, the emblem has gone down differently.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov on Monday compared the emblem to a statue of Nazi Germany, posting a photo of a swastika-like logo made of two interconnected Zs that is doing the rounds on Ukrainian social media. He also tweeted: “Sachsenhausen near Konsampt in 1943 was a station Z where mass murders were committed,” a reference to a Nazi death camp.

The references to Nazi Germany come against the backdrop of Russia falsely alleging that the Ukrainian government is run by neo-Nazis and that one of its war aims is to “de-Nazify” the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish.

In Russia, the letter Z has received some pushback. A traffic reporter for a state television channel in Moscow went viral on social media on Monday after viewers said they were more likely to have more accidents if they tape the Z sign to the rear windows of their cars. have the potential to collide with objects. But in recent times, letters have also been written on the property of those opposing the war.

Russia’s foremost human rights group, which forced the country’s rights abuses to close in December before a court, said on Saturday that security officials had drawn the letter Z in its building after a search of the compound.

An activist for the feminist protest punk rock group Pussy Riot, who has spoken out against Mr Putin for years, tweeted a photo of the letter, which she said was the front door of his apartment.

The claims could not be independently verified.

And Russia’s most famous film critic, Anton Dolin, found the letter on his doorstep before leaving the country. “The message was very clear. Those who have done this know that I am against war,” Mr. Dolin said over the phone from Latvia. “They showed they knew where I live and where my family lives. It’s an act of intimidation.”

Mr Dolin said that for him the letter was less a reminder of Nazi iconography and more of the popular zombie film. He referred to the 2013 Hollywood film starring Brad Pitt and based on a book of the same name, saying, “It brings to mind World War Z. I see it as representing our zombified army and the zombified portion of the viewing population.” I watch. The state supports television and the operation.”

His children, he says, see another meaning in the symbol: zlo, or for Russian evil.