A composite image shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) examining a 17th-century map of Eastern Europe with Valery Zorkin, a Russian magistrate. The inset shows part of the document labeled “Ukraine.” Kremlin/Library Nationale de France
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said an old map proves Ukraine is not a real country.
- However, in the document, the area near Kiev is actually marked as “Ukraine”.
- As justification for the Russian invasion, Putin cited his much-criticized belief that Ukraine is not a real country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday cited a 17th-century map of Europe to support his discredited thesis that Ukraine is not a real country, a claim he used to justify Russia’s unprovoked invasion.
But even with regard to Putin’s thesis, there was a problem: the document clearly identifies part of the territory as “Ukraine”.
During a meeting with the head of Russia’s Constitutional Court, Valery Zorkin, the two pored over a map that a 17th-century cartographer had made for King Louis XIV of France.
The Kremlin released video of the encounter, with Putin and Zorkin holding up the map as proof that a Ukrainian nation is historical fiction.
The map examined by Putin appears to be a copy of a map made in 1674 by the French cartographer Hubert Jaillot, showing parts of Eastern Europe and Asia with cities and areas marked.
Here’s a screenshot of the Kremlin video and underneath is a clearer copy of the map from the French National Library.
Vladimir Putin and a Russian official inspect a 17th-century map showing Russia and Eastern Europe. Kremlin A map by the 17th-century cartographer Hubert Jaillot, with the section labeled “Ukraine” circled in red. Bibliotheque Nationale de France/Skitch
Putin used the map to reinforce one of the core arguments he had made in support of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine – that it was not a real country and should therefore be incorporated into Russia.
“The Soviet government created Soviet Ukraine. Everyone knows that. Until then, in the history of mankind, there had never been Ukraine,” Putin said.
In fact, the map clearly shows Ukraine. Below is an enlarged version of the section highlighted in red above.
A close-up of part of a 17th-century French map showing ‘Ukraine, Land of the Cossacks’. Bibliotheque Nationale de France
The text means “Ukraine or Land of the Cossacks” and is located on the Dnipro River, which flows through present-day Ukraine. The capital Kiev, written Kiow on the map, is also visible nearby.
Back then, what would later become Russia was known in parts of Europe as the Grand Duchy of Moscow, while Polish nobles ruled much of what is now Ukraine.
In a thesis published just before the 2022 invasion, Putin claimed that Ukrainians and Russians are “a people” divided by conspiring foreigners and described his invasion as a means to unite them again.
Historian Björn Alexander Düben, writing for the London School of Economics, said that by the 17th century, when the map was drawn, Ukraine had a different culture and language from Russia, and Cossack tribes were emerging, who were asserting their independence from Polish rulers and Moscow claimed .
In 1790, the Russian Empire took over much of what is now Ukraine. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukraine briefly gained independence but was soon incorporated into the Soviet Union.
Only after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 did Ukraine regain its independence, a development that Russia accepted at the time.
But “Ukrainian de facto political entities fighting for their autonomy or independence existed long before that,” wrote Düben.
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