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In the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian armed forces have adopted the letter Z to mark their vehicles, and many civilians have adopted it to express support for the Russian invasion (see this New York Times article). The Latin letter Z is the standard transcription of the Cyrillic letter З, where Z is supposedly short for за победу, meaning for (the) victory.

Why does Russia use the Latin letter Z rather than the Cyrillic letter З? For a nationalist symbol, it seems odd to use a letter from a script used for foreign languages only.

gerrit
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    https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/71601/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-z-and-v-symbols-being-sported-by-the-russians-in-the does this answer? – aca Mar 28 '22 at 12:45
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    "For a nationalist symbol, it seems odd to use a letter from a script used for foreign languages only." Nazi Germans used the Swastika instead of a Latin letter. It probably just has to be "cool" in same way. – NoDataDumpNoContribution Mar 28 '22 at 19:01
  • @Trilarion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika Reverence for the swastika symbol in Asian cultures, in contrast to the stigma attached to it in the West, has led to misinterpretations and misunderstandings..Similar controversy regarding equating the Nazi's hakenkreuz with swastika was recently in news https://www.wionews.com/world/mr-justin-trudeau-you-are-wrong-about-the-swastika-here-are-the-facts-454304 –  Mar 30 '22 at 12:14

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I wonder about the quality of New York Times content.

  • These are not letters but signs: they are easy to apply and are used to identify friend or foe.
  • Since a lot of troops came from exercises (with two sides in them) they carried two different signs: Z (zapad, west) and V (vostok, east). One can imagine why Cyrillic letters were not used as a base: it's much harder to paint З or В than Z or V.
  • Propaganda pieces like "Zа Победу" came much later, a week after the conflict has started, and as an afterthought. Ditto for the Z-shaped ribbon.
  • It still looks that Z was a forced meme, since it got very big very fast.
alamar
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    I just can't believe that it's meant as "Zapad" and "Vostok". These tactical markings were applied just a few days prior to the invasion, as far as I know, they are not remains from the preceding exercises. Basically every vehicle in the invasion force has this markings, even reserves that arrived later. Units from the same area use mostly the same markings, which would not be case if they were used for exercises. There are other signs as well, not just Z and V, some of them purely abstract symbols. And I really can't imagine that it would occur naturally to use the latin alphabet. – Lykanion Mar 28 '22 at 14:36
  • It's just three dashes fit in a square (contrary to Z which is usually more tall than wide). Same with V - it is usually taller than wide, but in case of markings, it's square). Now they are still applied to any vehicles (even the captured Ukrainian ones) to mark them as friendly. – alamar Mar 28 '22 at 14:49