It’s like a gentle snapshot of the battlefield in Ukraine. A group of soldiers in armor huddle around a makeshift table strewn with food and playing cards. Some people are laughing and smoking cigarettes, while others are lying on the ground, smiling and scrolling through their phones.
This photo is different from other Ukrainian fronts that rallied the Ukrainian people during the war. No cannon fire, no soldiers climbing out of trenches, no wounded men grimacing in pain.
Still, over the past year, the image has been widely shared online by Ukrainians and praised by government officials. Government officials recently displayed the image at a major exhibition center in the capital. Because this image cuts to the heart of the Ukrainian identity struggle caused by Russia’s full-scale intervention. Intrusion.
The photo, staged and shot in late 2023 by French photographer Emeric Louisette, is a reimagining of a famous 19th century painting. Cossacks based in central Ukrainea modern-day Ukrainian soldier takes the place of a legendary horseback warrior. The soldier’s pose and expression are the same, but the sword has been replaced with a machine gun.
This subject is at the center of the culture war between Russia and Ukraine. The war has raged on since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion nearly three years ago. Ukrainians are trying to reclaim and assert an identity that Russia claims does not exist.
The painting is claimed by both Ukraine and Russia as part of their heritage. The work not only depicts the Cossacks, whom both countries consider to be their own people, but was also created by artist Ilya Repin, who was born in what is now Ukraine and did much of her work in the then-capital Moscow and St. Petersburg. Ta. of the Russian Empire.
This is a culture war that Russia has long dominated. The most famous version of this painting is on display in St. Petersburg, while another, lesser-known version is on display in Kharkov, northeastern Ukraine. Repin is labeled as Russian international exhibitionwhich irritates the Ukrainians, who consider him one of their own.
However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art to reconsider this classification and relabel Repin as Ukrainian.
Through his reinterpretation of the photographs, Louisette seeks to further challenge the Russian narrative by drawing a direct line between the Cossacks, who at times resisted imperial Russia’s rule, and the modern-day Ukrainian army.
“If you don’t understand the whole issue of cultural appropriation, you can’t understand this war,” Louisette, 41, said in a recent interview in Ukraine’s capital Kiev. “This is a real culture war.”
The picture is-”Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV” – is well known to most Ukrainians and a copy hangs in many homes. It shows a group of Cossacks from a region in southern Ukraine that straddles what is now the Zaporizhzhya region, laughing heartily as they wrote a mocking reply to the sultan’s ultimatum to surrender in 1676.
The Zaporizhia region is currently partially under Russian occupation. The remaining areas have been targeted by Russian airstrikes in recent months.
Historians say the scene depicted probably did not actually occur, but the sense of defiance it conveys resonates deeply in Ukraine.
“This painting was an element of self-identity for me,” said Tetyana Osipova, 49, a Ukrainian soldier who appears in the photo. She said her grandmother kept a small reproduction of the painting in a “place of honor” near an Orthodox icon in her home, and that it served as a reminder to “stand up for yourself.” I remembered.
Louisette said he first understood the painting’s significance when he was in Kiev during the 2014 uprising that ousted the pro-Kremlin president. He recalled seeing protesters holding placards with reproductions of artwork symbolizing “the will not to surrender, not to submit.”
When he returned to France, the picture disappeared from his mind.
Until Russia invades Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Louisette was inspired by news reports about rebellious figures in Ukraine’s border guards. Radio message full of insults To the approaching attack of the Russian Navy. Hearing that insulting reply, he immediately remembered the picture.
“For me, it was the Cossacks’ answer to the sultan,” he said. “It was blindingly obvious.”
He decided to express this spirit of rebellion by recreating Repin’s paintings in a modern setting. He spent months negotiating with the Ukrainian military to get armed troops to pose for photos and to find a safe location north of Kiev for the shoot. Some soldiers came directly from the front lines, their mustachioed faces reminded of unruly Cossacks.
“It was like something out of a painting!” said Andriy Malik, a spokesman for Ukraine’s 112th Territorial Defense Brigade, which took part in the project.
Mr. Louisette wanted his photographs to be as close to paintings as possible. He meticulously positioned his 30 or so soldiers, determined their hand positions, and instructed them to laugh and freeze to recreate the energy of the original scene. Objects in the painting were replaced with modern equivalents. The slouch hat became a helmet. The musket transforms into a rocket launcher. The mandolin was replaced with a portable speaker.
Drones hover in the sky, reminiscent of the crewless aircraft that have become prominent on the battlefield.
Louisette released the photo a few days later. social mediaand it was quickly embraced by Ukrainian media and government officials as a symbol of the country’s independent spirit. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense posts images on social media platform The caption reads, “Cossack blood runs through our veins.”
For Ukrainians, the photo became a way to reclaim a masterpiece that had long been mistakenly attributed to Russia, despite its Ukrainian roots.
“Some people think this painting is not Ukrainian, but Russian,” said Eduard Lopriak, a combat medic who appeared in the photo. “It’s a way of reminding them that this is not Russia’s cultural heritage, but our cultural heritage.”
As for Russia, Repin is said to be a Russian painter. And all his works should be considered Russian.
The painter was born in what is now Ukraine, studied art there, and then moved to St. Petersburg to further his career. Oleksandra Kovalchuk, deputy director of the Odessa Museum of Fine Arts, said Repin maintains strong ties to Ukraine through friends in Ukraine and by supporting Ukrainian artists. To faithfully portray the Cossacks, he traveled around the country and worked closely with local historians, she said.
In many ways, this picture was Ukraine’s answer to Russia’s own reinterpretation of the painting. In 2017, Russian painter Vasily Nesterenko, a favorite of the Kremlin, reimagined Cossacks in modern Russian military uniforms in a work titled “Letter to Russia’s Enemies.”
The project also has a more urgent mission for Ukraine: to help rebuild cultural heritage destroyed by nearly three years of war.
Russia’s bombing of museums and theaters has destroyed countless cultural sites in Ukraine. Moscow’s occupation forces also looted facilities such as the Kherson Regional Art Museum in southern Ukraine, which lost almost its entire collection.
To cope with the loss, Louisette traveled to Kiev late last year with a large print of her photo, which she donated to the museum’s director, Alina Dotsenko. “Today’s Kherson Museum is an empty building,” he said. “We need a new collection to become a museum again.”
The photo was on display for a day at Ukraine House, Kyiv’s main cultural center, alongside an empty picture frame left behind by the theft in Kherson. Like most Ukrainian art, the work was then kept in a safe and secret location to protect it from Russian attack. Once the museum reopens, the work will be transferred to Kherson, which is now virtually impossible as it is less than a mile from the front lines.
Malik, a soldier, said he would like to visit the museum and show his children the statue after the war ends. He said that like the painting, the photo also captures an important moment in Ukraine’s history.
“I hope it will be passed down through the generations,” he said.
Daria Mitiuk Contributed to the report.
