On March 5th, 2022, Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak stepped on the podium
at the International Gymnastics Federation World Cup in Doha, Qatar.
He won the bronze medal in the parallel bars.
Next to him was Illia Kovtun, the gold medal winner from Ukraine
and silver medalist Milad Karimi, representing Kazahstan.
The situation was already tense.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had begun just nine days earlier.
And Kuliak decided to show his support for the war, by attaching this symbol to his uniform:
three pieces of white tape, forming the letter Z.
By that time, the Z was becoming an obsession in Russia.
And a controversial symbol worldwide
as the new way to signal approval for the war
and loyalty to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Since the invasion began in late February, the Z has shown up on billboards in St. Petersburg...
T-shirt stands in Moscow...
Auto rallys...
And flash mobs created for social media.
There’s even this photo – posted on the website of a children’s cancer hospice
showing sick children organized into the shape, outside, in the snow.
The letter has been used to vandalize the homes of Russians who oppose the war
and is now banned from public display in several countries.
So how did this symbol become shorthand for supporting Russian aggression?
The letter Z was first spotted in late February 2022
on Russian military equipment gathering at Ukraine’s border.
Along with other painted white markings, like V and O.
At first, what these symbols meant was unclear
Z isn’t part of the Cyrillic Alphabet – the writing system used in Russia and Ukraine.
The Z sound in Cyrillic is written sort of like a 3.
And “V” looks like the Latin letter “B.”
But once the invasion began, most analysts agreed the markings were for tactical purposes
likely to prevent confusion on the battlefield.
And potentially denoting where specific forces were attacking from.
The Russian military didn’t explain what the markings meant.
Until intrigue around them grew online
and people in Russia saw the chance to use the Z as a tool for propaganda.
One of the most common ways that the letter Z is being given meaning in Russian
is by latinizing it in the Russian word "Za" which means for.
And in incorporating it into slogans like
[speaking in Russian] For victory.
[speaking in Russian] For the president.
[speaking in Russian] For the boys.
So there was an attempt to fill it.
That's Aglaya Snetkov.
She's a lecturer on Russian foreign, security, and domestic policy at University College London.
You increasingly have pictures which are so absurdly staged.
It's obviously fake, but it sort of doesn't matter.
So the pictures of the kids, for example, who can't even read or write
they obviously have no idea what the Z they're holding means or anything like that.
But it sort of almost doesn't matter so long as you throw it out there.
Click on these slogans’ hashtags, like “for russia” and “for peace”
and you’ll find tens of thousands of posts on Instagram alone.
Many of them originating from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The political technologists in Russia, in Kremlin,
and in and around the Ministry of Defense
have decided to jump on the opportunity
and reinfuse the meaning of those obscure symbols.
Kiril Avramov teaches classes on Russian and Soviet symbolism and propaganda
at the University of Texas, Austin.
Avramov told me the point of these memes is to turn the Z
and sometimes the V into something cool.
He translated a few of them.
Is like street slang for "for the boys".
"Power is in truth." Which is actually a quote from a post-Soviet blockbuster.
They're picking already familiar slogans to post-Soviet Russians and putting into those visuals
and then recreating those in flash mobs...
graffiti...
and all the way to the presidential administration.
One strategy for turning Z into a patriotic propaganda icon
has been connecting it to Russian glory of the past
in particular, the Soviet victory in World War II.
The Soviet Union suffered devastating losses defending itself against invasion by Nazi Germany.
But they were ultimately victorious,
with the Red Army fighting its way back to Berlin and defeating Hitler,
establishing the Soviet Union as a world superpower.
The “Great Patriotic War” is still a potent symbol of heroism and glory in Russia.
And is honored each year on May 9th, or “Victory Day” - the anniversary of Germany’s capitulation.
With massive demonstrations of modern military might
and remembrance of ancestors who were killed in the war.
The historical trauma is immense in Soviet times.
There was a huge sacrifice on the part of the Soviet people.
And those are some highly symbolic events.
This ever-present historical awareness makes World War II imagery a direct link to patriotism,
and presents the opportunity to connect the nostalgia of Soviet heroism
with Russia’s current attacks on Ukraine.
Take this meme posted to the Russian Ministry of Defense’s Instagram
on March 4, 2022, which as of early April has over 21,000 likes.
It shows a “Z” superimposed over a black and white photo of Soviet soldiers on one side...
and a photo of modern Russian soldiers looking back on the other side.
The hashtag says “heroes".
The photo on the left is a famous image from the original Moscow Victory Parade of 1945
celebrating Germany’s surrender.
It’s still the largest parade ever held in Moscow’s Red Square
organized by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
The image shows Soviet soldiers carrying captured Nazi flags and banners before destroying them
and has been used in Soviet and post-Soviet patriotic propaganda ever since.
So every Russian and Soviet person would recognize that immediately.
The “Z” is paired with the slogan “za pobedu” - “for victory”
and is styled in black and orange stripes.
Which, other than plain white, is the most common way the Z is displayed.
The pattern represents the color scheme of the Ribbon of St. George
one of Putin’s favorite propaganda symbols.
Its origins trace back through hundreds of years of Russian history
as a symbol of military glory.
At the end of World War II, Stalin used the ribbon on a medal awarded
to all Soviets who served in the war – including civilians.
The ribbon, which everyone knows is, you know, if you see it it's the Russian military
might and its a signifier that you're Russian.
The ribbon of St. George is now handed out every year ahead of Victory Day
and is a central emblem of the celebrations.
Invoking the memory of glorious past in order to play this propaganda trick, right?
Equating this war with this one, in terms of justness and legitimacy.
Beyond emerging as the new mark of loyalty to Putin
the Z doesn’t hold any individual meaning.
And that seems to be part of the strategy behind it.
And that, I think, shows the way in which Putin's propaganda works,
He throws things out there, sees what lands, and then goes with that.
The symbol just became recognizable, the explanations
which I call "post rationalization" is that this is all planned, what the Zs and the Vs stand for.
For victory. For Zelenskyy. Or you name it.
The advancement of so many
alternative explanations actually adds energy to the state propaganda.
Whether or not any of these explanations end up sticking,
the Z’s evolution from tanks and trucks...
to memes...
then flash mobs around Russia...
to pro-Putin demonstrations around the world...
shows that as a symbol’s visibility grows, so does its power as a tool for propaganda.