• “The collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.”
• “Peter the Great took nothing; he returned what was Russia’s.”
• “The spiritual choice made by Saint Vladimir… predetermined the common civilizational foundation of the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.”

Vladimir Putin’s quotes are more than propaganda. They reflect a revanchism formed when he was a KGB officer in the GDR when the Eastern Bloc collapsed. The worldview with a Greater Russia as a certain similarity to Hitler’s Germania and a Greater Germany. For Hitler, the German language was the key and German as a high-ranking language. A reason for occupying the Rhineland, Austria and the Sudetenland.

Language powder keg

For Putin, the Russian language and a Slavic community are important. They were present in the war against Chechnya as a background in Georgia. In Ukraine clearly and especially the Russian speakers in the eastern part. In a speech the week before the invasion of 2020, Putin reiterates that Ukraine lacks a legitimate history as its own state. Where he refers to Slavic and Orthodox unity.

Estonia and Latvia are at risk. With a quarter of them Russians. most of them loyal citizens. But about 80,000 in Estonia and 40,000 in Latvia have Russian passports or are stateless. Russian propaganda is disinforming on social media. Tendencies towards sedition are fueled by language requirements in schools, the demolition of Russian monuments and citizenship restrictions.

Slavic languages ​​bind the countries behind the former Iron Curtain, with the exception of the GDR, Hungary and Romania. Almost all are skeptical of Putin’s imperialist rhetoric. They do not want to become a geopolitical buffer zone once again, let alone be incorporated into an heir to the Warsaw Pact.

Tsardom

Peter the Great and Catherine the Great are Putin’s role models. Peter is seen as the one who ”reclaimed” Russian territories and created a great power. Putin compares today’s war in Ukraine to Peter’s struggle to ”take back” Russian land. Under a militarized strong central power.

Under Peter the Great, Russia took over Sweden’s role as a great power with the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. Estonia and Livonia were conquered. Also Ingria to annex Saint Petersburg, with room for a large fleet. In addition, parts of Vyborg and Kexholm counties, which almost form the current border between Finland and Russia

Putin’s rhetoric mirrors Peter the Great’s conquests, both as a way of writing history and to legitimize his own power. It gives Russia the task of restoring its greatness. Perhaps after a war, retaking Finland and Åland, as happened in 1809.