Revisionist Renaissance

Waadl Cartoonist
May 20, 2024
13 min read

Updated: Mar 7

Drawn on May 17, 2024 | Published from Miami | Updated on February 21, 2025

Putin repainting history. — Revisionist Renaissance

Religious Undertones

W a r ! In true Russian fashion, Europe once again faces aggression from a radicalized theological union between Russia's Church and State.

“Bolshevism is not merely a political doctrine; it is also a religion, with elaborate dogmas and inspired scriptures.”

— Bertrand Russell’s introduction to The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, 1921.

The year is 2024, there is a war in Eastern Europe. Air-striking across Ukraine is the skull-crushing BANG of a lopsided genocide jumpstarted by sadistic visions of Russian Orthodox Christian manifest destiny.

Long before the first missile fell, tensions had been mounting. By February 20, 2014, Ukraine was already grappling with corruption, economic hardship, and a tug-of-war between European integration and Russian influence. The struggle for an independent Ukrainian church, however, had been brewing for decades. After the Soviet Union's collapse, the Moscow-aligned church retained dominance, while the breakaway Kyiv Patriarchate fought for recognition. The former largely backed the pro-Russian government during the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests, while the latter stood with the protesters, deepening the religious and political divide – nailing the defiant martyr to the cross.

Indeed, between the February 2014 Crimean annexation and 2018, approximately 60 parishes affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate transitioned to the Kyiv Patriarchate [1]; a move supported by Ukraine and denounced by Russia as being discriminatory [2]. The Ukrainian fate was ultimately sealed in January 2019, when the All-Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople (what a name!) oversaw the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which brought together two other churches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) [3].

A Split Empire, Restitched

The Russian Empire, despite the seismic shifts of time and politics, had never fully split on November 9, 1989. Patriarch Kirill bestows his blessing upon Putin to address this looming challenge posed by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine's schism from Moscow, which threatens the integrity of the Russian Orthodox Church's canonical territory — the great survivor of the Soviet landmass. This play complements Putin’s aspirations of resetting the Russian Federation’s borders to at least match the ROC’s and, at most, occupy all nations where Nazis once lived. With Putin as its latest Emmanuel, February’s 2022 holy marching orders direct Russia’s crescively handicapped military to find yet more creative ways to slaughter valiant Ukrainians by the thousands. Unfortunately for Ukraine and Europe as a whole, the writing was on the walls since Yaroslav the Wise’s death in 1054. The Great Schism rolls on, uninterrupted.

The Personality Cults of Apostate Gods

It is no wonder that, sooner or later, these Sun-king types seem resolute in writing themselves into holy books as gods of their own creation, revising history as they torch cities and gut families. The frightening Mao Zedong, hoisted on a throne of famine, marches into Olympus on the pages of a red bible as the savior of China. Or more recently, a council of bearded wizards crowns Vladimir Putin as honorary pope of the Russian Orthodox Church [4] — a body which is more than happy to align with whoever runs Russia and wages war with Europe or Asia, whether Nikolai II or Lenin. Just the latest iteration of a personality cult, just another bully threatening you. Different grifters, same con.

The Illness of Whataboutism

A chief symptom linked to this expansionist ruse is runaway revisionism — a fancy term for alternative facts. Its broadcasters are the world's best liars, provocateurs stirring a caldron of half-lies and half-truths designed to evoke misguided cynicism from spectators while shielding their rhetorical deceptions with a veneer of plausible deniability. The key targets of this propagandist brainwashing are its collaborators, the undereducated, and that troubling breed of, perhaps well-intentioned, ballistic both-sides whataboutists with an ear for dog-whistling wartime pacifism who pathologically try to pin a formless and insubstantial double standard spin to absolutely everything under the sun. As a reminder, the fact that atrocities occur on both sides does not mean both sides are culprits in equal quantity or quality — a concept surprisingly lost on most people.

Selective Memory in Minsk, and Everywhere Else

Unfortunately, the Ukraine situation has not been spared from variations of this whataboutist refrain, as some argue that Russians committing mass-murder in Ukraine [5] should be somewhat forgiven in light of some truly odd arguments. A claim, for example, is that Ukraine's violation of Donbas territorial sovereignty, as outlined in the Minsk Protocol, justifies Russia's “defense” as their rightful retribution. This treaty, an unpopular armistice signed on September 3, 2014, was between Putin — the invader — and the former Ukrainian government. The document was designed to quell Russian hostilities that had been ongoing in Ukrainian Crimea since February 20, 2014. Needless to say, on the subject of treaty violations, it would be inconvenient to bring up the irony of Putin’s breach of the 1996 Budapest Memorandum on security assurances in connection with Ukraine’s accession to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Under this memorandum, Ukraine agreed to relinquish its nuclear stockpile and transfer all warheads to Russia for decommissioning, enabling it to join the NPT as a non-nuclear nation. In exchange, Russia would respect Ukrainian sovereignty. (Oops!) Of course, highlighting this breach could also be seen as whataboutism. More importantly though, would there have been a need for any sort of Minsk treaties had Russia not invaded Ukraine back in 2014, in the first place?

Amnesia over the Nazi-Soviet Pact

The revisionist playbook is designed to hedge bets on ignorance and Dunning-Kruger. Putin, a self-proclaimed historian, a weird man who fundamentally blames Europe’s spiral into yet another World War on the unfairness of The Treaty of Versailles, the appeasement policy of The Munich Agreement, and the inaction of Western Allies, understands this law well. But, if Putin were to be taken at his word, it appears Poles would be to blame for having brought a Blitzkrieg on themselves due to Warsaw's unilateral failure to negotiate the German problem away [6] rather than — you know — Hitler.

In a push to garner sympathy for the righteous Soviet Union, Putinist editorials, littered with soundbite truths of historical accounts to shield credibility from criticism, characterize innocent Russia as a virtuous actor stuck between a rock and a hard place. In reality however, for Russia, where anti-Semitic violence was so common that they had a name for it — pogrom — the fight against the Nazis was less about saving the persecuted and more about conquering Europe. As a clear example, the August 31, 1939, Polish “attack” of Germany, the Gleiwitz incident, was revealed at the Nuremberg trials by high-ranking members of the Schutzstaffel to have been an SS false-flag operation. This scheme to raise aggressive sentiment toward Poland had been orchestrated by the Gestapo leaders Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Muller, and endorsed by Adolf Hitler on August 22, 1939. This was a casus belli for Germany to invade Wieluń, Westerplatte, and Danzig on September 1st that year. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a Nazi-Soviet agreement to not only redraw German but also Russian borders across Poland, was signed in Moscow on the night of August 23, 1939. For those keeping score at home, the capture of Poland — from both sides — was planned before the invading powers had even formally signed their letter of intent! Seems Stalin’s diplomatic solution to rival expansionism was not only to accommodate the enemy, but to also stock up on breadsticks at the Land-grab Buffet.

To summarize, if Putin lies about the historical timelines of diplomatic agreements to substantiate his narrative, how could he or his minions be trusted with appraisals of modern treaties?

The Nazi Angle

Half-truths on annexation pacts notwithstanding, another argument pushed by Putin to justify Russia's 21st-century invasion of Eastern Europe, but simultaneously dissuade Western sentiment from engaging in this "special military operation to demilitarize and denazify," is the claim that Ukraine is corrupt and overtaken by Nazis. However, even if Ukraine does have corruption issues, is this reason enough to forgive Russia's pulverization of cities and people? If the dangers of a 4th Reich blooming in Kyiv were indeed genuine, would it not be more logical for Russia to seek assistance from US allies in liberating Ukraine, as Stalin did, rather than issuing monthly threats of nuclear war? Perhaps Putin's radioactive animosity toward Western nations is a carefully crafted deception to convince his people that Nazi elements have infiltrated other European governments as well, laying the groundwork for another casus belli to "liberate" more countries. This confusion mirrors the deliberate obfuscation that Putin painted it to be. As a comparison, France in the 1940s had significant corruption issues. Despite its resistors, for four-years, Petain's Vichy government flagrantly co-conspired with the occupier in the genocide of millions. Same recipe, different kitchen. Should the USA have left France to its own devices and given a pass to German plans?

After marking the 2015 Victory Day parade with a portrait of Joseph Stalin for the first time since the Khrushchev Thaw in 1956, Putin has been incrementally brightening a light of pride on the Bolshevik leader’s achievements. Capitalizing on the deaths of tens of millions of Soviets at the hands of the Axis — a painful memory very much alive in Eastern Europe — serves as a powerful tool to revive patriotic sentiments and national wartime vigor. Great propaganda for the unification cause if you ask me.

Restoring Borders

Vladimir Putin is on a mission to build a fictitious, revisionist storyline geared at restoring the Russian Orthodox map, effectively attempting to retrace the outline of an extinct Soviet Union with visions of all-out war in Europe.

Despite proclamations of Russophone deliverance, this Kremlin's Einsatzgruppen roll-out in Donbas is even causing local Russophiles to question their allegiance to Vladimir's troops [5]. Putin, the indisputable aggressor, did not stop at Mariupol, Bakhmut, Sevastopol, Adviika, Robotyne, or Krynky [7]. His rockets still rain on Kyiv, and he is hellbent on entirely taking Ukraine, expanding his campaign into the Baltics, Poland, and — again — anywhere else there used to be Nazis [6]. Like in our cartoon, his paint bucket is full, and his brush strokes are broad!

Expansionism vs. NATO

Opposition to intervention in the face of crimes against humanity, akin to the stance of figures like Gandhi and even supported by notable voices as influential as Pope Francis [8], often depicts a picture of utopian pacifism, advising victims to “offer themselves to be shot or thrown into the Dead Sea without raising a little finger against them [their enemies]” [9] in lieu of resisting. This contrived state of opinion, if left unchallenged, creates a fertile ground for confusion, allowing distrust to take root and revisionist tendencies to grow.

Blame drooling domestic detractors like the renegade contrarians who have abandoned skepticism for cynicism, becoming fresh prey to revisionists aiming to conflate the larger concept of 'expansion' with the invasive significance of 'expansionism'. For clarity, expansion does not need to be motivated by expansionism, whereas the latter does result in the former. Indeed, misunderstanding this subtlety has risen Western antipathy toward NATO. Coining “expansion” muddies the motivations, echoing the tactics of Putin's alternative-news that insidiously forces a geometric correlation between a NATO cube and a circular Soviet Union hole.

But what is NATO, and how does this behemoth fit into our epic?

According to Putin's selective memory of a promise that never was, James A. Baker III — former United States Secretary of State — had given his word to Mikhail Gorbachev, then-leader of the dissolving Soviet Union, that NATO jurisdiction would not extend "one inch to the East" [10]. As a matter of fact, however, where one might expect such consequential concessions to be immortalized, absolutely no record of them features in the signed version of the Two-Plus-Four Agreement between the two German states and the four victorious powers of World War II [11]. Even when confronted with this purportedly weighty stipulation, which at no time was ever printed into any deal at all, Baker himself describes the compromise regarding NATO's presence in Eastern countries as having been structurally inconsequential to the negotiations, thereby exposing the irrelevance of Putin's vexatious remarks.

Although imperfect, NATO is a military alliance, consisting of 55% of the world’s GDP, a coalition designed to preserve peace for predominantly democratic nations; it is neither a single country nor a governing state. No matter how tantalizing the premise may sound, NATO simply is not the same as the expansionist Russian aggressor. Critically, while Russia seeks to expand its borders through puppetry and war, NATO focuses on preserving the borders of its sovereign members. Rather than indiscriminately seeping onto the map like a mischaracterized ink stain, NATO occasionally offers the opportunity for candidacy to non-member nations and then carefully debates their inclusion. Biology provides a clear comparison, illustrating NATO's symbiotic benefits in contrast to Russia's parasitism. Extending this metaphor, while Baltic states fend off Russian infection, NATO acts as a nurturing probiotic.

In spite of its recent efforts to join, Ukraine, an ex-Soviet-bloc country, has been explicitly denied full access to this protective alliance due to Western fears of provoking Putin, in turn rendering it more difficult to reach agreements on aid packages. This is not to say that the idea of Ukraine’s membership hasn’t been considered, but its potential entry remains a protracted and convoluted process, especially when compared to Russia’s high-octane strategy east of Kyiv [12]. In this context, wouldn't it be more accurate to see NATO's restraint as the opposite of expansionism? Three million active-duty troops strong with a One trillion-dollar collective budget [13], NATO is a defense force to be reckoned with, which is probably why the coalition is hesitant to pull any trigger on Russia. In fact, whether subterfuge or unwitting, qualifying NATO as expansionist betrays one’s wisdom on the matter, perhaps offering up an opportunity for stable skeptical bystanders to counter revisionism in situ and denounce misinformation before it metastasizes into far more dangerous disinformation.

Rampant Revisionism in America

Finally, when considering the effects of revisionism in America, recent events underscore the dangers of this mindset. Despite initial shock at certain foreign policy moves, such as the mobster threat of greenlighting Russia to deal with “delinquent” NATO allies by the debilitatingly confused ex-leader of the Free World [14], it becomes clear that for individuals with fascist inclinations, such actions serve a purpose. For strongman Putinist Americans like Trump, revisionism has more to do with the United States serving as a Lebensraum for affluent white Christians.

Before discounting this matter of fact as alarmist, consider its examples which range from twisted historical opinions on voter fraud to rebranded hot-takes on the US Civil War. If the root cause for Confederate rebellion had indeed been about Northern subjugation of the South, perhaps the movement's president, Jefferson Davis, should have practiced more clarity when declaring that his position was "thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world" [15]. Today, Trump's infamous rhetoric on cultural identity suggests that his party's reelection would empower Christian Nationalists to leverage their dogmatic Southern State apologetics to hunt down undesirable "human scum" [16] within US borders [more here].

Interesting to see how while revisionism has propelled Russia to manifest its destiny outwards, the American drive is redirected inwards. Each of them formal enemies [17]. An observation on American isolationism which, WAADL accepts, could be premature, given the new Trump administration's antagonistic gestures toward Canada, Panama, & Greenland [more here].

Conclusion: The Genesis Myth that Started it All

So, where does all this leave us? History doesn’t repeat, but in Russia’s case, it certainly rhymes.

The genesis geography of Russia is believed to have been Kyivan Rus’, a mid-9th Century amalgam of principalities that stretched from Kyiv up to the Baltic North and down to the Black Sea. With that in mind, think of Putin’s Russia as an Italy without Rome. The creation myth of Romulus and Remus was a powerful tool for leaders like king Vittorio Emanuele II, and later Benito Mussolini, to consolidate the various independent domains of the Italian peninsula which were already rubber-stamped by the Papacy's Catholic border. Putin’s game is to re-lace his own Italian boot, using the Russian Orthodox footprint as the spiritual border to rebuild a Russian protectorate. However, unlike Italy's historical unification, Putin’s brutality, cruelty, failures, and cramping hunger for a larger Soviet landmass have completely deterred the former Slavic kingdoms — including Ukraine — from ever wanting anything to do with Russia’s reversion.

Ultimately, as good faith arguments degrade into an imbalanced cesspool of dishonest false equivalencies, it seems Moscow — not Florence — is the new fiefdom to reap the riches from this Revisionist Renaissance.

[1] A secessionist movement:

Rudenko, O. (2018) Ukrainian orthodox switch allegiance from Moscow to Kiev-linked churches, National Catholic Reporter. Available at: https://www.ncronline.org/news/ukrainian-orthodox-switch-allegiance-moscow-kiev-linked-churches (Accessed: 2024).

[2] The ROC/UCO divorce legislation:

Goble, P.A. (2017) Ukrainian legislation about religion will finalize divorce between Kyiv and Moscow, Euromaidan Press. Available at: https://euromaidanpress.com/2017/05/19/ukrainian-legislation-about-religion-will-finalize-divorce-between-kyiv-and-moscow-euromaidan-press/#arvlbdata (Accessed: 2024).

[3] The threat of a split:

Metodiev, M., Liik, K. and Popescu, N. (2019) Defender of the faith? how Ukraine’s Orthodox split threatens Russia, European Council on Foreign Relations. Available at: https://ecfr.eu/publication/defender_of_the_faith_how_ukraines_orthodox_split_threatens_russia/ (Accessed: 2024).

[4] Debrief on the role of the Russian Orthodox Church:

Luchenko, K. (2023) Why the Russian Orthodox Church supports the war in Ukraine - Carnegie endowment for international peace, Carnegie Endowment For International Peace. Available at: https://carnegieendowment.org/politika/88916 (Accessed: 2024).

[5] UN report on Russian lead genocide of Ukrainians, a.o. 15/03/2024:

Sen, A.K. (2022) Is Russia committing genocide in Ukraine?, United States Institute of Peace. Available at: https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/09/russia-committing-genocide-ukraine (Accessed: 2024).
Farge, E. (2024) Russia systematically tortures Ukraine pows, UN Commission says | Reuters, Reuters. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-systematically-tortures-ukraine-pows-un-commission-says-2024-03-15/(Accessed: 2024).

[6] Putin’s objectives: A Russian revisionist dogwhistle implying that wherever the Nazis were, Russia (the Soviets) will return. It subtly underscores Putin’s ambition to make the Baltic states a Russian protectorate, a.o. 18/06/2020:

Putin, V. (2020) Vladimir Putin: The real lessons of the 75th anniversary of World War II, The National Interest. Available at: https://nationalinterest.org/feature/vladimir-putin-real-lessons-75th-anniversary-world-war-ii-162982 (Accessed: 2024).

[7] Wartime map, a.o. 21/02/2024:

Visual Journalism Team, T. (2024) Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia, BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60506682 (Accessed: 2024).

[8] Jorge Bergoglio pushing Ukranian capitulation in an act of Pacifism, a.o. 09/03/2024:

Pullella, P. (2024) Pope says Ukraine should have ‘courage of the White Flag’ of negotiations | Reuters, Reuters. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-says-ukraine-should-have-courage-white-flag-negotiations-2024-03-09/ (Accessed: January 2024).

[9] Ghandi, November 26, 1938. Excerpt of a publication in the in the Harijan called “The Jews”:

Rothbart, Z. (2024) Gandhi’s 1939 rosh hashanah greeting to the Jewish people (2022) The Librarians. Available at: https://blog.nli.org.il/en/gandhi (Accessed: 2024).

[10]Baker, P. (2022) In Ukraine conflict, Putin relies on a promise that ultimately wasn’t, The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/09/us/politics/russia-ukraine-james-baker.html (Accessed: 2024).

[11] Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (AKA Two-Plus-Four Treaty):

Federal Republic of Germany et al. (no date) UNTC, United Nations. Available at: https://treaties.un.org/Pages/showDetails.aspx?objid=08000002800b8042&clang=_en (Accessed: 2024).
FRG and GRD (2009) Two-Plus-Four Treaty on Germany (September 12, 1990), GHDI. Available at: https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=176 (Accessed: 2024).

[12] NATO (2024) Relations with Ukraine (Updated), NATO. Available at: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_37750.htm (Accessed: 2024).

[13] According to U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis.

[14] Donald Trump “encourages” Russia to invade delinquent NATO members, a.o. 12/02/2024:

Gera, V. (2024) Fact-checking Trump’s comments urging Russia to invade ‘delinquent’ NATO members, PBS. Available at: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-trumps-comments-urging-russia-to-invade-delinquent-nato-members (Accessed: 2024).

[15] Davis, J. (2008) Confederate States of America - Mississippi Secession - 1861, Avalon Project - Confederate States of America - Mississippi secession. Available at: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_missec.asp (Accessed: 2024).

“A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union. Confederate Congress. April 29, 1861.”

[16] "Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country." —

Donald Trump, Truth Social, May 27th, 2024, 9 A.M.

[17] Caglar, E.B. (2024) Russia formally declares the US as ‘enemy’. what next?, TRT World - Breaking News, Live Coverage, Opinions and Videos. Available at: https://www.trtworld.com/us-and-canada/russia-formally-declares-the-us-as-enemy-what-next-18170984 (Accessed: 2024).