June 2, 2017

Hijacking history

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Making headlines this past week was what newly inaugurated French President Emmanuel Macron said was a “frank exchange” with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin. They met on May 29 outside of Paris, amid the splendor of Versailles, discussing such topics as resetting French-Russian relations, terrorism, Syria and Ukraine. (Mr. Macron has said that he supports continuing sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea.) Much attention was paid to Mr. Macron’s comments characterizing Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik as “organs of influence and propaganda” that spread “fake news.” In general, it was noted that the new French president minced no words.

Less reported and commented in the mass media were remarks by Mr. Putin regarding the history of relations between Russia and France. During his visit, the Russian president attended the opening of an exhibit dedicated to Tsar Peter the Great, who established diplomatic relations with France 300 years ago, i.e. in 1717. But, in Mr. Putin’s version of history, those relations go back even further, to the time of the “Russian grand princess” [sic] Anna Yaroslavna.

According to a transcript of Mr. Putin’s interview with Le Figaro, Mr. Putin told the French newspaper: “…the younger daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, one of Russia’s [sic] grand princesses, Anna, came here in the 11th century to marry King Henry I of France. She was actually called Anna of Rus, queen of France. Her son Philip I of France was the founder of two European royal houses, the Valois and the Bourbons, and the latter rules in Spain to this day.”

Ukraine responded via Twitter by posting a graphic about Anna Yaroslavna, queen of France in 1051-1060, atop a photo of a barren forest labeled “1051: Meanwhile, in Moscow…” to make the point that Moscow did not yet exist when Anna of Kyiv became queen of France. “When @Russia says Anne de Kiev established Russia-France relations, let us remind the sequence of events,” read the tweet. Indeed, Moscow was first mentioned in chronicles only in 1147. Russia tweeted back: “@Ukraine We are proud of our common history. Russia, Ukraine & Belarus [represented in the message by their flags] share the same historical heritage which should unite our nations, not divide us.” Ukraine’s reaction: “@Russia You really don’t change, do you?”

Notably, the statue of Anna Yaroslavna that stands in Senlis, on the northern outskirts of Paris, reads (in French): “Anna de Kiev Reine de France” (Anna of Kyiv Queen of France). No reference to Moscow or Russia here.

According to Paul Goble, the prominent Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko commented that now is the time for the Ukrainian government and its Foreign Affairs Ministry to call Mr. Putin on this, to point out to the French and everyone else that Mr. Putin is prepared to lie and to cynically seize a historical personage just as he seized Crimea (which he did, by the way, saying that Chersonesos was where “Russian” Grand Prince Vladimir – Volodymyr in Ukrainian – was baptized).

Alas, Mr. Putin’s attempted appropriation of Anna of Kyiv is nothing new. Russia is well known for stealing Ukraine’s history and heritage. Even its own name, “Russia,” is stolen from that of Kyivan Rus’, the medieval state that existed on the territory of present-day Ukraine, Belarus and parts of western Russia, and whose capital was Kyiv, the current capital of Ukraine. The state to which Russia can properly trace its beginnings was known as Muscovy (in English) or Moscovia (as it was designated on maps).

As the French would say: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

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