1/ A training centre in Tambov, Russia, has hung a banner showing a 'new Russian empire' comprising all of central and eastern Europe, a re-divided Germany, Finland, central Asia, Mongolia and Alaska, with the slogan "We will teach you to love the Motherland". ⬇️
2/ The banner has been displayed at Tambov's Training Centre no. 266, which trains tractor, forklift and truck drivers. It shows the old Soviet Union plus the former Warsaw Pact countries, the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Finland, the Caucasus, the Central Asian states, Mongolia and Alaska as part of a unified 'Russian world'.
3/ The map combines the old USSR plus the old Russian empire, which included Alaska until 1867. However, it's quite unhistorical – Greece and the former Yugoslavia were never under Russian or Soviet rule, though they were claimed by 'pan-Slavists' in the 19th century.
4/ As the 'Horizontal Russia' Telegram channel notes, "Russian patriots are increasingly turning to ancient maps." In May, the head of the Constututional Court, Valery Zorkin, presented Putin with an old map claiming (incorrectly) that it had no Ukraine on it. /end
https://twitter.com/KevinRothrock/status/1661104957422968847
Kevin Rothrock on Twitter
“More than a year of getting his ass kicked on the battlefield hasn’t softened Vladimir Putin’s 17th-century-era views on Ukrainian nationhood. Here he is with Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin standing over some French imperial maps.”
ChrisO_wiki
