The photo commemorates the culture war between Ukraine and Russia

This image looks like a quiet shot from a battlefield in Ukraine: a group of soldiers in armor gathered around a makeshift table strewn with food and playing cards. Some are laughing or smoking, and one of them is lying on the floor, smiling as he scrolls through his phone.

The picture is different from others Ukrainian front That has mobilized people in Ukraine over the course of the war – there is no cannon fire, no soldiers emerging from the trenches, no wounded fighters with their faces contorted in pain.

However, over the past year, the image has been widely shared online by Ukrainians and praised by government officials, who recently displayed it at the capital’s main exhibition center because it struck at the heart of the Ukrainian identity struggle caused by Russia’s large-scale invasion. invasion.

The image – taken and captured in late 2023 by French photographer Aymeric Louiset – reimagines a famous 19th-century painting of Cossacks stationed in central Ukrainewhere current Ukrainian soldiers stand in place of legendary horse-riding warriors. The soldiers’ stances and expressions are the same, although swords have been replaced by machine guns.

The topic is at the heart of the matter Culture war Between Russia and Ukraine, which has intensified since the launch of Moscow Its comprehensive invasion For almost three years, with the Ukrainians Seeking restoration And emphasizing an identity that Russia says does not exist.

Both Ukraine and Russia have claimed the painting as part of their heritage. Not only does it depict Cossacks, a people both countries consider their own, but it is also the work of Ilya Repin, an artist born in what is today Ukraine but who did much of his work in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the then capital. of the Russian Empire.

It is a cultural battle that Russia has dominated for a long time. The most famous version of the painting is on display in Saint Petersburg, while another, less well-known version is located in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine. Repin was classified in Russian in International exhibitionsThis frustrated Ukrainians who consider him one of their own.

But the Russian invasion of Ukraine happened Institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art have prompted reconsideration of this classification Repin was renamed Ukrainian.

Through his reinterpretation of the photographs, Mr. Lewiset seeks to further challenge the Russian narrative by drawing a direct line between the Cossacks, who at times resisted the rule of Tsarist Russia, and the current Ukrainian army.

“You can’t understand this war if you don’t understand the whole issue of cultural appropriation,” Mr. Lewisett, 41, said in a recent interview in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. “This is a real culture war.”

Painting — “The response of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey“—familiar to most Ukrainians, as copies adorn many family homes. The photo shows a group of Cossacks from an area straddling present-day Zaporizhia region in southern Ukraine laughing heartily as they wrote a satirical response to the sultan’s ultimatum to surrender in 1676.

The Zaporizhzhya region is now partly under Russian occupation. The rest has come under Russian air strikes increase In recent months.

Although historians say the scene depicted most likely never happened, the sense of defiance it carried resonated deeply in Ukraine.

“This painting was an element of self-identity formation for me,” said Tetyana Osipova, 49, a Ukrainian soldier in the photo. She recalled that her grandmother kept a small copy “in a place of honor” near Orthodox Christian icons in her home, where it served as a reminder to “stand up for yourself.”

Mr Lewiset said he first realized the painting’s significance when he was in Kiev during the 2014 uprising that broke out in 2014. He overthrew the pro-Kremlin president. He recalled seeing protesters carrying banners with copies of the artwork to symbolize “their willingness not to give up, not to submit.”

When he returned to France, the painting faded from his mind.

Until Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Mr. Lewisett was inspired by a news report about a Ukrainian border guard being challenged and… A radio message loaded with obscene words An upcoming Russian naval attack. The insulting response immediately reminded him of the painting.

“For me, this was the Cossacks’ response to the Sultan,” he said. “It seemed amazingly clear.”

He decided to capture this spirit of challenge by recreating Repin’s painting in a modern setting. He spent months negotiating with the Ukrainian military to persuade the armed forces to take the photo and find a safe place north of Kiev to take it. Some of the soldiers came straight from the front lines, their mustachioed faces conjuring up the image of unruly Cossacks.

“They looked like they came out of the painting!” Andriy Malik, press officer of the 112th Regional Defense Brigade of Ukraine, who participated in the project, said.

Mr. Lewisett wanted the image to be as close to the painting as possible. He meticulously arranged the thirty or so soldiers, placed their hands and asked them to freeze in bursts of hearty laughter to replicate the energy of the original scene. The objects in the painting are replaced by modern synonyms: the slouch hat becomes a helmet; A rifle turned into a rocket launcher; The mandolin was replaced by a portable amplifier.

A drone hovers in the sky, indicating a plane that no longer has a crew Clear on the battlefield.

Mr. Lewisett released the photo a few days later Social mediaIt was quickly embraced by Ukrainian media and government officials as a symbol of the country’s spirit of independence. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense published the photo On the social media platform X With the caption: “Cossack blood runs in our veins.”

For Ukrainians, the photo was a way to reclaim a masterpiece they say has long been wrongly attributed to Russia, despite its Ukrainian roots.

“Some people think the painting is Russian, not Ukrainian,” said Edward Lopolyak, a combat medic pictured. “It’s a way to remind them that this is our cultural heritage, not Russia’s.”

Russia, for its part, He says that Repin is a Russian painter And that all his works should be considered Russian.

The painter was born in present-day Ukraine and studied art there before moving to Saint Petersburg to further his career. Oleksandra Kovalchuk, vice president of the Odessa Museum of Fine Arts, said Repin maintained strong ties with Ukraine through friends there and by supporting Ukrainian artists. In order to portray the Cossacks authentically, he traveled across the country and worked closely with local historians, she added.

In many ways, the picture was Ukraine’s response to Russia’s reinterpretation of the painting. In 2017, Russian painter Vasily Nesterenko, a favorite of the Kremlin, He reimagined Cossacks in modern Russian uniformIn a work entitled “A Message to the Enemies of Russia.”

The project also carries a more urgent mission for Ukraine: helping it rebuild cultural heritage destroyed by nearly three years of war.

Russian bombing of museums and theaters They destroyed countless Ukrainian cultural treasures. The occupation forces in Moscow also looted institutions such as Kherson Regional Art Museum in southern Ukrainewhich has lost almost its entire collection.

To help process the loss, Mr. Lewisett traveled to Kiev late last year with a large copy of his portrait and donated it to Alina Dotsenko, the museum’s director. “Today the Kherson Museum is an empty building,” he said. “For it to become a museum again, it needs a new collection.”

The photo was displayed for a day at the Ukrainian House, a major cultural center in Kiev, alongside empty frames left by the Kherson robbery. Like most artworks in Ukraine, it was then stored in a safe and secret location to protect it from Russian attack. It will be moved to Kherson when the museum reopens, which is practically impossible today because it is less than a mile from the front line.

Private Malek said he hopes to visit the museum when the war ends to show the picture to his children. He said the photo, like the painting, captures an important moment in Ukraine’s history.

He added: “We hope that it will be passed down through generations.”

Daria Mityuk Contributed to reports.