When the Russian army invaded Ukraine, one of the first things that caught our attention were the Latin letters Z and V, painted white on their tanks and trucks.
Opponents of the war saw the new swastika in Z because of their graphic and ideological similarities. Supporters of the Russian “military operation” began to put it on their clothes, cars, accessories, and personal pages.
At the big concert in Luzhniki, which marked the eighth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea, Z was written in the words instead of the Cyrillic “h” – “For Russia”, “For Putin”. Many explanations have emerged about the meaning of the mysterious signs.
Most logically, this was originally a mark to avoid friendly fire, as the armaments of the Russian and Ukrainian armies are similar. According to another logical explanation, the two letters Z and V are used to indicate which military region of Russia the part belongs to – western or eastern.
In any case, the Z sign became mythologized, and mythical explanations appeared, often ridiculous and phantasmagoric. I soon came across an interpretation by an “Italian specialist” of the Z emblem under which the Russian army is fighting in Ukraine. It amazed me with its cosmic mysticism.
Z was “an ancient Orthodox Christian symbol for the Slovene peoples, protecting from dark forces”. The upper horizontal line of the letter represents heaven and God, the lower line symbolizes earth and man, and the diagonal connecting line represents the Holy Spirit, “who closes the space between heaven and earth, preventing evil from entering” and thus provides God’s protection for man. This was the oldest Slavic prayer. Amazing! One hundred percent “Orthodox” magic.
To confirm that the protection is ancient, the “specialist” claims that Z was a letter of the old Slavic alphabet. And here he gets a little carried away. The letter Z (zeta) was introduced into the Latin alphabet, but gradually lost its graphic resemblance to the Greek Zita. The Greek alphabet also appears in the Cyrillic alphabet when it replaces the Glagolitic alphabet.
The letter, called “earth”, was originally similar to the Greek Zita, but gradually acquired today’s “h” graphic. There is a numerical expression of 7, but no other semiotic meaning is known. Until he appears on Russian tanks.
All kinds of protections, musks, amulets, and talismans are attributes of newly converted Christians who perceive faith as an agreement with God for protection and good luck. They are especially characteristic of the new Christians who come to the churches from the communist and Komsomol clubs, bringing from there a way of thinking, worldview, and mentality.
During the three decades following the collapse of the communist system, much of the communist worldview remained in the minds of many. They have been brought up in it since kindergarten, they were breastfed with it and it cannot be erased quickly and easily.
As a result, the minds of many of these new Christians are a mix of diverse ideas, combining incompatible things and reconciling irreconcilable opposites. The most characteristic feature of this new semi-pagan Christianity is the belief in attributes that provide protection.
This is exactly what we see in the sign written on Russian tanks in Ukraine. We already see this sign not only in Ukraine. Putinophiles have turned it into something emblematic, which sets them apart from others, as an emblem of some kind of divine election. I don’t know what the semantics of the V sign is, I haven’t come across an explanation, but given the context, it’s probably something similar to Z.
There was information that a part of Christ’s cross was kept on the cruiser “Moscow”. They hoped, they were convinced, that this was unbreakable protection and guaranteed protection from God. However, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was sunk.
Now that the cruiser is at the bottom with the particle of Christ’s cross, we have no choice but to think that the cross has been desecrated by unworthy treatment. They gave him hopes that were not right. Their illiterate faith has deceived them. They were deceived by their pagan superstition, dressed in Christian clothes.
If we shift our gaze from the Moscow cruiser to Ambassador Mitrofanova, we will come across the same thing. She was recently shown in many photos from top to bottom in a red dress, even with red Valentino shoes. We also saw her hands in close-up – with a bracelet with a cross on her wrist. Again with the same goal – to protect and defend her.
Wearing a bracelet or rosary with a cross is very popular. But can the cross of Christ provide, even more, guarantee protection, even when your actions are a denial of what Christ teaches?
God’s command is clear and unambiguous – “Thou shalt not kill.” Can the cross protect the one who has attacked a Christian country with tanks, missiles, ships, and a whole huge army of powerful weapons, destroying entire cities and burying children and the elderly under their ruins? Can you hope that the cross on the bracelet or the miraculous symbol Z will help you to commit atrocities?
In the first months after the removal of Todor Zhivkov, we saw in our cathedral Andrei Lukanov and other members of the Politburo with large candles in their hands. Until yesterday, God-fighters – now worshipers. When you light a candle, you become a Christian. At that time, the people’s senses were still intact, and the vast majority of people described this act as hypocrisy, blasphemy, and sacrilege. At that time, the spontaneous assessment of the people was like that, but they persisted and imposed their new image.
Today we are often shown Vladimir Putin in churches on holidays. Unlike then, many today tend to believe that the former KGB officer has become a true Christian. He may have been transformed, but so has Christianity. It began to perform the functions of ideological protection of the state, it is adapted to the activities until recently exercised by the party ideology.
The new ideological Christians also have their mythology. She is most often associated with Stalin and his mysterious meeting with St. Matron of Moscow. After this meeting in the soul of the former seminarian, expelled from the seminary for communist activities, the Christian faith miraculously returned and he stopped the persecution of the church and Christians. And it was thanks to this turn that God gave his protection to Russia to win the war.
There is a bit of truth in this mythology, but there is also propaganda. Unlike now, then Russia was the attacked country. Today, Russia is an aggressor, so the Z and V signs cannot provide protection.
Such a faith exists, but it is not Christian. Its essence is very well shown by Andrei Zvyagintsev in his film masterpiece 2014 “Leviathan”. Even then, the processes of replacing Christianity adapted to the new ideological needs began their offensive, and were shown by the director as religious non-Christianity.
The culmination is at the end of the film, in the sermon that the bishop delivers in the church built on the site of the illegally demolished house of the tragic protagonist. The bishop talks about the truth and its power. The mayor, who has just committed murder, is shown as a worshiper listening to the sermon as if nothing had happened.
Zvyagintsev shows a society in which deviation from basic moral rules has become the norm and nothing disturbs the conscience. When an impersonal community transfers its rights to an unlimited sovereign, it becomes a Leviathan, which deprives the members of that community of all rights, even the right to life. He is king over all the sons of pride.
The bishop knows about the crimes committed, but calmly preaches moral norms: “I told you that day and now I will repeat: all power is from God! Where there is power, there is power. We know that the church will protect us with us is God, with us is the truth, and with us is the love of God. Thus we will defeat the enemies. ”
Russia, relying on guaranteed protection from the Z sign, is threatening the world with nuclear war. Threats are made every other day. As a result of its perverted ideology, today’s Russia sees the whole world as its enemy, but there is no hesitation that Z’s protection will ensure its victory.
But the simplest explanation is that the Z sign is made with a quick movement of the hand to scratch a page.
