Mikhail Zygar on Vladimir Putin's Relationship With History

Putin is obsessed with history. Since 2014, especially after the Crimea annexation, every speech reminds of a history lecture. But actually that’s not the real history, he’s using the popular tales, myths and stereotypes.

For many years Putin’s propaganda emphasized the special role of Catherine the Great in the development of Crimea and southern Ukraine, as if life had not existed there before her. However, few commentators know the history behind it, in particular that for a long time it was the territory of modern Russia that was subordinate to Crimea, not vice versa. The Crimean Khanate was essentially the last fragment of the once all-powerful empire of Genghis Khan, and was ruled by his descendants.

Although almost all the Muscovite rulers waged war on Crimea, starting with Ivan the Terrible, it is Voltaire who can be said to have inspired the conquest of Crimea by Catherine the Great. The philosopher believed that the Ottoman Empire is a barbarian state that must be destroyed; Crimea and all other territories dependent on Turkey should join Russia; Constantinople should then become the capital of Russia.

In 1787, Catherine, accompanied by her vast retinue and also Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, traveled around Ukraine, then went to the newly conquered Crimea. According to a popular – though unconfirmed – legend, her lover Prince Potemkin had built fake settlements along the route with beautiful external façades to showcase the idyllic life of the local people. Catherine was impressed. Settlements did exist there, but not built by Potemkin, rather by Zaporizhian Cossacks long before his time. The term “Potemkin village” will later come to mean any attempt by zealous subordinates to please their superiors by means of deception. It is common worldwide, yet Russian bureaucracy turns it into an art form.

The most notorious example of a “Potemkin village” in recent Russian history will be seen in 2022: the Russian military assured President Putin that the Russian army is the second most powerful in the world, and Russian intelligence informed him that Ukrainians would greet Russian soldiers with flowers. Yet both Putin and Catherine find such toadying to their liking. They want – and even demand – evidence of the reality of their fantasies.

***

Putin’s stereotypes are deeply rooted in traditional Russian imperialist historical narrative. Many Russian historians since the 17th century have been trying to claim that Russians and Ukrainians are one people. But other than the authors’ inner convictions, there was little in the way of argument.

Preparing for the war Putin followed their example. In July 2021, he published an article “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” Besides the main premise, there are a number of outlandish claims: that Ukraine within its current borders was the creation of Lenin; that Ukrainian nationalism was invented by Austria-Hungary; that the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union never infringed upon the rights of Ukrainians; that the Americans were trying to manufacture an anti-Russian regime in Ukraine and turn it into “Anti-Russia.”

In reality an independent Ukrainian state was formed in spite of Lenin; he gave the Ukrainians nothing. In 1917 Ukrainian Central Rada wanted to have only autonomy within the Russian Republic but after the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 Kyiv no longer saw itself as part of Soviet Russia. It proved impossible to reach an agreement with Lenin and his comrades: they were striving for world revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, that was, Bolshevik rule everywhere. But leaders of Ukrainian Central Rada were considered leaders of a “bourgeois government.” And that meant Ukraine must proclaim itself an independent state.

***

Putin’s fixation on history became most striking during covid-19 lockdown. He spent the summer of 2020 at Valdai, between Moscow and St. Petersburg, one of his various residences, together with his longtime friend Yuri Kovalchuk. Those two became almost inseparable, and together they hatched plans to restore Russia’s greatness.

What topic was front of mind for Putin and Kovalchuk at a time when thousands of people are dying of the coronavirus in Russia and the lockdown is destroying the economy? The history of World War II.

In June 2020, Putin published an article titled “75 Years of the Great Victory: Shared Responsibility to History and the Future. He did not hesitate to draw analogies between himself and Stalin, noting that “unlike many other European leaders of that time, Stalin did not disgrace himself by meeting with Hitler, who was known among the Western nations as quite a reputable politician and was a welcome guest in the European capitals.”

Putin shares a lot with Stalin especially when it comes to Ukraine.

Putin has long believed that holding on to Ukraine is a political priority. His confidants recall how, in the early years of his presidency, he stated at almost every single meeting: “We must deal with Ukraine, or we’ll lose it.” Little did they know that it was literally a quote from Stalin.

Back in 1932, Stalin went on vacation to Sochi, thereby starting the tradition, continued by other Soviet leaders and then Putin, of holidaying on the Black Sea. While resting, Stalin received a sweeping denunciation of the leadership of the Ukrainian Communist Party. It contained a list of criticisms and protests made by Ukrainian communists about the creation of Kolkhozes. Stalin was furious: collectivization was his brainchild, and he perceived any opposition to it as a personal insult. Soon that would lead to the Holodomor.

After reading the denunciation, his imagination paints the following picture: a conspiracy is being hatched in Ukraine to disrupt collectivization, split the republic from the Soviet Union, and annex it to Poland. “Things in Ukraine are terrible. It’s terrible in the   party… If we do not make an effort now to improve the situation in Ukraine, we may lose Ukraine,” he wrote. Remarkably, eighty years later, this exact same sentiment will be expressed by Putin.

***

Many Russian historians are complicit in facilitating this war. It is their words and thoughts over the past 350 years that sowed the seeds of Russian fascism and allowed it to flourish, although many would be horrified today to see the fruits of their labor. We failed to spot just how deadly the very idea of Russia as a “great empire” was. We overlooked the fact that, for many centuries, “great Russian culture” belittled other countries and peoples, suppressed and destroyed them. So that Russian culture may live on, we must act. We must start by looking inside ourselves and telling the truth about our past and our present.