But it has since appeared all over Russia: spray-painted on buildings, printed on T-shirts, pasted on billboards and brushed on tanks. Even children line up in Z-shaped rows at schools. Experts say he has quickly become a distinctive symbol of support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Although the symbol is officially promoted by the military and some experts say it appears to be state-run, they also say it’s not yet possible to know for sure its origin.
Who uses the Z symbol and how?
Experts and social media users have speculated about the meaning of the letter Z, as well as other letters, including O, X, A, and V, that have appeared on Russian tanks, sometimes framed in squares, triangles, and other painted shapes. Some have suggested that this is the official way outline infantry or distinguish enemies from allies.
But the Latin letter “Z”, which does not exist in the Cyrillic Russian alphabet, is used by more than just the military, indicating what some experts say is a government effort to bolster support for the war.
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Several videos Last week, what appeared to be a flash mob of young protesters dancing amidst a sea of Russian flags and wearing black Z-shirts was shown on social media.
The letter was also painted on large apartment buildings and displayed on advertising signs in major cities. In St. Petersburg, one billboard featured a large Z in black and orange stripes with the words “We don’t give up our own.”
The slogan refers to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s official line that the goal of the invasion is to “liberate” and “denazify” Ukraine, an independent state led by a democratically elected Jewish president.
An image widely shared online shows children at a hospice in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, in western Russia, lined up in a Z-shape in a snow-covered yard with their right hands raised into a fist. Several schools have also posted images of children standing in a Z-shape.
Photographs released by the Associated Press of a pro-war rally in Volgograd show cars parked in a Z-shape. Others display stickers on car windows with an orange-and-black letter “Z” and the words “For Ours” in support of Russian forces.
Various public figures and government officials have also appropriated this symbol.
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The governor of the Siberian region of Kuzbass, Sergei Tsivilev, announced that he was changing the spelling of its name, adding a capital “Z” in the middle.
Gymnast Ivan Kulyak, 20, wore a white “Z” across his chest as he climbed the podium to collect his bronze medal this week at international competitions in Qatar. And Maria Butina, a member of the Russian parliament convicted in the United States as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of Russia, posted a video of herself drawing a white “Z” on her jacket lapel.
While the symbol has been gaining momentum in the past week, anti-war demonstrations in Russia are also gaining popularity, even as critics are cracked down. About 58 percent of Russians approve of the invasion of Ukraine, while 23 percent oppose it, according to a poll conducted by independent groups across Russia last week.
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Initially it was assumed that the Latin letter “Z” is a Russian military symbol. But in recent days it has spread, and other theories about its meaning have emerged.
The Russian Ministry of Defense last week posted a graphic with the letter Z on Instagram – in the first such case, it appeared next to the phrase “For the victory” or “For the victory.” And later “For Peace” and “For Truth”.
Many of the images coming from Russia feature the orange-and-black letter Z, the same colors as the ribbon tied to the Order of St. George, the highest military decoration in Imperial Russia. It was founded in 1769.
The color combination was also an unofficial symbol of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, according to The Washington Post, and was later widely used in 2014 by Ukrainian separatists as a way to show allegiance to Moscow during Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
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St. George ribbons are everywhere in Russia, especially in the weeks leading up to May 9 Victory Day celebrations. Under Putin, they served as a powerful and effective unifying symbol, tying together the support of the state and the country’s historic contribution to defeating fascism. .
Maria Snegovaya, a specialist in Russian domestic and foreign policy, said the orange-and-black “Z” creates a connection between the ongoing invasion and victory celebrations in World War II, which she says is understood as “the Russians’ historic battle.” against the West. It also supports the idea that Russia is “historically the winner,” she said.
“It’s important for Putin to create this connection and build this quasi-ideology, which is not really well developed, but is definitely forming – and whether it will be successful remains to be seen,” she told The Post.
Since the letter Z seems to be everywhere in Russia, experts say it has now become a powerful symbol meant to represent a unified Russia during the war.
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In this sense, the letter Z has become a symbol of the new Russian ideology and national identity, according to Kamil Galeev, a former Wilson Center staffer who studied Russian identity politics from Moscow. in a long twitter thread.
But experts like Galeyev and others say its sudden use among many Russians followed a state-organized propaganda campaign to rally support, or at least give the outside world the impression that the Russian people were behind the invasion.
“This is clearly promoted and orchestrated by the state to create a sense of widespread public support for the invasion,” said Henry E. Hale, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University.
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Hale added that these symbols can be “powerful tools for authoritarian regimes” such as Russia, which in this case are “promoting something simple, visible, adaptable, universal, and thus can take on a life of its own, giving the impression of widespread support for the regime.” “.
But such efforts can also be used to influence and coerce others into accepting the regime’s policies — or at least pretending they are, said Hale, who specializes in Russian and Ukrainian politics.
“If many people see many others displaying symbols, it puts pressure on other people to show the same support to stay in the favor of the regime, not create problems with neighbors, and take a socially desirable position.”
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Alexey Yurchak, an anthropologist at the University of California at Berkeley who studies post-Soviet Russia and Eastern Europe, said the fact that it’s a new symbol gives it even more power.
“Everyone can easily draw this. They can give it all sorts of meanings. … And no one knows for sure if it’s true or not,” he said, adding that the symbol has no “real meaning.”
Some people associate it with the fictional character Zorro, a vigilante who fights to protect the common people. Or For Victory. Or to “West”, the Russian word for “West”. Or to the St. George ribbon, symbolizing heroism and fortitude.
“The real meaning is all these meanings,” Yurchak said. “It turns out that the ambiguity of these meanings is the strength of the symbol.”
Jonathan Edwards contributed to this report.