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The German tabloid Bild was outraged on Wednesdey over a “macabre maneuver” in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Not that Russian military drills on the Baltic Sea have been that uncommon this past year. What struck the newspaper this time were pictures of missiles with the World War II battle cries “To Berlin!” and “For Stalin!” inscribed on them.
The pictures were originally published by a Russian Web site specializing in military topics that claimed they were taken during training exercises including bombings from Su-24 and An-26 military aircraft. The Russian defense ministry described the pictures as "stupidity," "photomontage" or an attempt to play with anti-Russian sentiments. The Web site claimed it did not use any photomontage.
But such stickers and inscriptions are common in Russia. Many drivers decorate their cars with "To Berlin!" stickers or the black-and-orange ribbon of Saint George, which became a symbol of the Soviet victory in the World War II and of separatists in Eastern Ukraine. Some of them might even fancy themselves as tank drivers:
Others say that they will take the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on their march to Berlin:
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Some drivers find a special irony in pasting World War II stickers on their vintage BMWs:
Despite the current wave of anti-Western sentiment, Russians love German cars. Some of them try to get around this cognitive dissonance by writing "trophy" on their Opels, Audis, BMWs or Mercedes:
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World War II has always been a central part of Russian patriotic myth. It added new meaning after the start of the Ukrainian crisis, with the battle against "fascists in Kiev" being compared to the historical victory over the Nazi Germany.
Surprisingly, World War II memories had little influence on Russian attitudes toward Germany which until recently were generally positive. Five years ago, only 1 percent of Russians considered Germany a hostile country; 24 percent thought of Germany as an ally. It was the third most popular country on the Russian "friends list" with only Belarus and Kazakhstan ahead of it, according to surveys by the Levada Center, an independent Russian polling organization. It was partly due to an old friendship between the Soviet Union and East Germany and partly because of the new partnership with the former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder who called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "flawless democrat" back in 2004 and joined the board of the Russian gas giant Gazprom after losing the elections in 2005. He is still a close friend of Putin and defends the Russian position in the Ukraine crisis publicly. Under Schroeder, Germany was considered to be a lobbyist of Russian interests in Europe.
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Today, the poll results show a dramatic reversal of sentiments. Only 2 percent of Russians consider Germany an ally and 19 percent see it as a hostile country. Interestingly, the attitude toward Germans changed only slightly with the vast majority of Russians still feeling neutral about them.
Current German Chancellor Angela Merkel took a clearly critical position on Russia's actions in Ukraine. Although she doesn't support the idea of sending arms to Ukraine, she played a key role in pushing broader economic sanctions against Russia last year. Many people in Moscow were surprised by this unexpected toughness on the German side. The state Russian television offered a conspiracy theory to explain Merkel's policy. Dmitry Kiselyov, a TV anchor and the head of a state-run news agency, Rossiya Segodnya, suggested that the United States blackmailed the German chancellor with information obtained from tapping her phone by the NSA. The German government is portrayed in Russian state television as a puppet of Washington. Russian state foreign radio broadcaster Sputnik and the Russia Today channel support the same thesis in Germany, suggesting the German government is under pressure from the United States.
So one could say it's a mixture of old and new stereotypes that are driving Russians back to those World War II battle cries such as "To Berlin!"
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