This
entire Twitter thread is excellent. It’s long, and every single one of its tweets is rich with context and information that’ll make you understand Russia’s problems that much better. There’s much there to mine for closer examination, but let’s just focus on
this section for now (edited for some attempt at brevity):
Human conflicts or interactions are ... mythological and run by myths.
Consider the story of the burning of Moscow in 1572. Ivan the Terrible divided his country to Zemschina (land) and Oprichnina (taken apart). Oprichnina was under his personal rule. Oprichniks - his forces - launched terror campaign against Zemschina. They slaughtered entire noble houses, massacred cities, killed enormous number of commoners facing no resistance. Why? Were they strong and brave? No. Because of the myth. [The] mythology of the Russian people prohibited 99% of them to resist these security forces. In 1572 when Crimean Khan attacked Moscow Oprichnik forces went to face him.
Kinetically speaking they had overwhelming superiority. Guns, cannons, much heavier armor or weaponry. Their defense and firepower was very much stronger. But they were routed in one day simply by arrows.
Within the Muscovite mythology Oprichniks were invincible untouchable demigods, as hands of Orthodox Tsar, who's kinda living God. But when facing foreign enemy they left this mythological space. And entered a new space where they are just people and can get arrow in the face. They were not used to getting arrows in the face. The very realisation they are not demigods but mortals shocked them. They ran away dropping their armor, guns and cannons. Moscow was burnt to the ground.
The parallels are uncanny, right? The myth of the Russian Bear, mighty and powerful. Look at Russian history: They don’t really win wars tactically, so much as pile enough dead Russian bodies in front of enemy machine guns that they overwhelm their foes. Russia is enormous. It has a lot of people to throw into the wood chipper. The myth was so pervasive, you even had Americans like Ted Cruz fall for them. Conservatives swooned over bare-chested Vladimir Putin on horseback. A whole wing of the Republican Party is still defending Putin, a “grizzly bear,” raaaawr!
We saw the same thing with the announcement of the feared Chechens, and they certainly looked the part! And yet now, outside of their home territory where they’ve built their myth of invincibility, those Russian and Chechen forces are getting the metaphorical arrows to the face. Ted Cruz’s “non-woke” masculine Russians actually look like this:
Meanwhile, Ukraine is building its own myths. There’s Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been out in the streets of Kyiv personally overseeing the defense of his capital. When offered a ride out of Dodge, he answered, “I need ammunition, not a ride.” Note that no one saw or heard or taped him saying that. An American official reported it. Might not even be real! But it builds myth. I’ve written about the Sunflower Babushka, the Melitopol Dedushka, the guy who offered to tow a stuck Russian tank back to Russia, and the defenders of Snake Island (who might actually be alive and now POWs). There’s the Ukrainian soldier with an NLAW on his shoulder strutting casually into a fierce ongoing firefight, and the celebration of women taking up arms, including the country’s Miss Ukraine. And then there’s the legion of videos of confident shit-talking Ukrainians, warning Russians of what’s about to befall them.
There’s also this guy, and these guys:
Legend.
And of course, that’s another word for “myth.”