It’s been known for thousands of years that symbols imbued with historical and sentimental significance are a fundamental part of a shared identity of a group, be it a family, a tribe, a city-state, a nation-state or an empire. Symbols can be statues, momentous events such as battles, famous people, even entire cities and regions. The same symbol can cause one nation to beam with pride and another nation to erase any mention of that symbol.
Psychological shockwaves
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The Battle of Kursk marked the decisive end of the German offensive capability on the Eastern Front and cleared the way for the great Soviet offensives of 1944–45. As far as symbolism goes, the city of Kursk and the Kursk region hold a special place in Russian hearts. Russians revere such symbols, and therein lies their weakness. When these symbols are destroyed or degraded in any way, a psychological shockwave is sent through the Russian society, hitting Russians hard from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, and undermining their self-confidence and sense of identity. And Russian identity and pride is under attack right now in Kursk. Almighty Russia is being invaded for the first time since the Second World War. Even writing it seems surreal.
Indeed, the Kursk incursion isn’t just another military operation. It’s a symbol of hope and heroism on which to build Ukraine’s future. On its own, hope isn’t enough. But, coupled with strategically sound heroism, the two are a formidable force, changing the destinies of individuals and nations. We’re witnessing a historic moment.
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No need to blow up the Kremlin
You don’t need to blow up the Kremlin and ban the Victory Parade to degrade, even destroy, the Russian imperial pride. Even now, we see how Russian soldiers are surrendering to the Ukrainians. We see, as rare as it is for now, Russian civilians saying “Slava Ukraini” as they wave at Ukrainian soldiers. Are their feelings genuine? I don’t know. Maybe most Russians can’t function any other way and just need to trade one tsar for another.
When a nation with so much misguided pride is humiliated, its identity undermined, there are two likely scenarios: Russian society mobilizes and demands that Vladimir Putin respond harshly, or Russians get rid of the leadership that has made the so-called second-greatest army in the world look like a bunch of cowardly clowns. While Russian society is apathetic, Ukraine expanding its reach on Russian territory is going to put pressure on Vladimir Putin to act, even if he’d rather ignore the problem. Russians forgive many things but not a weak tsar.
Behind the masks of imperial boasting, Russian propagandists are afraid
Russian propagandists proclaim that the Kursk incursion is a desperate attempt by the collapsing “Kyiv Nazi regime” to strike back at Russia before Ukraine is wiped out by the vengeful Vladimir. But even Russian propagandists are starting to see the writing on the wall for the Russian mafia regime. Take the Director General of Mosfilm, Karen Shakhnazarov, who recently conceded that Russia may lose if Ukraine keeps exposing the Russian military weakness. Maybe even in Russia, there are moments on state TV when a glimmer of truth pierces through the veil of lies, although it’s far more likely that people like Shakhnazarov are just controlled opposition. Still, such statements on Russian state TV would have been casually dismissed a month ago.
Denying agency is the Russian modus operandi
Russian propagandists and politicians deny Ukraine agency by claiming that it is in fact NATO (Polish soldiers are often mentioned, of course) invading Russia and Ukrainians are mere puppets for the U.S. to hide behind and avoid a nuclear war between Russia and the U.S.
The disturbing truth is that Russia doesn’t want the nations around it to have any kind of identity or agency. Russia wants these nations to be turned into servile and Russified masses. The elites, intellectual or otherwise, of these nations are the first to end up in ditches, because they pose a threat to a warped understanding of the Russian brotherly love.
Can you imagine Ukrainians surrounding, or capturing, the city of Kursk? It would cause Z-Russians to experience a psychotic break from a deeply unpleasant reality. Deeply unpleasant for them, that is. How can a puppet state capture a heroic city of half a million people in Russia?
Aleksander Dugin, the most fanatical Z-patriot of them all, who hides his genocidal rhetoric behind catchy words for useful idiots, like multipolarity, is in no danger here. He’s already dissociated from reality. The Kursk incursion, regardless of how it ends, clearly shows Ukraine has agency, no matter how hard Dugin and his ilk want the world to believe that it’s just a Satanic NATO conspiracy using Ukraine as a tool.
Negotiating with the devil
President Zelensky has revealed that the aim of the Kursk invasion is to create a buffer zone between Ukraine and Russia and destroy as much Russian military potential as possible. It’s smart and logical. Without the buffer zone, Russia will keep raining down missiles on Ukraine. Once the buffer zone is in place, it’s likely that Ukrainian leadership will want to negotiate with Russia from a position of strength.
But how do you even begin to negotiate with Russia, the nation notorious for assassinations, false-flags, and breaking deals? If the prospect of serious negotiations with Russia becomes something more than a mirage in the minds of diplomats and politicians, then negotiating with Russia will be a daunting task, indeed.
Yuri Felshtinsky, a Russian-American historian who has been researching the Russian mafia state for decades, points out that Vladimir Putin – in his ideological zeal trumping rationality – won’t be able to negotiate with Ukraine, because Ukraine isn’t real in the paranoid Putin’s mind. How do you negotiate with someone who denies you the very right to exist?
Some still insist that Vladimir Putin is rational and coldly calculating, and that characterizing him as insane is wrong. We might get a chance to see just how rational Vladimir Putin is if he is forced to negotiate with the Ukrainian leadership. Vladimir Putin has likely never had a rational stance when it comes to Ukraine, and possibly beyond. Then again, Israelis negotiate with Hamas to bring Israeli hostages home. It’s like negotiating with a serial killer but, sometimes, there’s no other way.
If Russian authorities send at least some of the tortured Ukrainian children and Azov fighters back, the blasphemous dialogue with Putin will have been worth it. If he doesn’t honor the deal, then no one is going to be the least bit surprised.
In the best-case scenario, the name Kursk will be remembered in the victorious Ukraine as the strategic masterstroke that precipitated the defeat of Russia, while the memory of the Battle of Kursk, that source of Russian pride, will fade away.
What a twist of fate that would be.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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