Excerpt from 'Political Cosplay' by Mattia Salvia (Chapter 8)

Translated from Italian for the European Review of Books (unpublished)

This excerpt comes from a pre-publication draft of Mattia Salvia’s forthcoming book, Political Cosplay, due out with NERO Editions in June. The selected chapter explores the symbolic role of Soviet imagery in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, centering on the real-life case of Anna Ivanovna — a Ukrainian woman whose brief, viral appearance with a Soviet flag was spun into propaganda by both sides — and her unlikely echo in an eight-year-old Russian girl’s patriotic performance. The translation was commissioned by the European Review of Books as part of a standalone excerpt for publication. The text required sensitivity to tone, pacing, and rhetorical structure, as well as a close reading of layered political metaphor. The Italian source was an unedited PDF circulated by the author for blurbs.

« I wanted to show them we, too, had a Russian flag at home, » she says in an interview. « A flag from when we fought together. » To her, the Soviet flag was « a symbol of love and happiness that belongs to every family, every city and every republic ». She added that she also wanted to ask the soldiers for Putin’s number so that she could call him up and ask him to stop the war. When the soldiers ripped the flag out of her hands and walked all over it, she was terrified. Despite the video’s dramatic ending, the situation quickly calmed down: she picked up her flag, her husband accepted the food and the pair went back inside.

The following day, the soldiers returned to drop off more food. Later, they also helped her and her husband evacuate Velyka Danylivka after their home was hit by Russian artillery. Once Ivanovna’s true political affiliations became clear, Putin’s propaganda machine quietly dropped her image. In the end, after her fifteen minutes of fame, all that was left to Ivanovna was hostility: her neighbours kept believing her to be a traitor and ostracised her from the community.

ORIGINAL:

«Volevo fargli vedere che avevamo anche noi una bandiera della Russia in casa»,

spiega in un’intervista, cioè «una bandiera di quando abbiamo combattuto

insieme a loro». Per lei, la bandiera sovietica rappresentava «un simbolo d’amore

e di felicità in ogni famiglia, in ogni città e in ogni repubblica». Voleva anche

chiedere ai soldati il numero di telefono di Putin per chiamarlo e dirgli di fermare

la guerra. Quando i soldati le avevano strappato di mano la bandiera e l’avevano

calpestata, si era spaventata a morte. Ma in realtà, anche se il video finisce in

modo drammatico, dopo la situazione si era tranquillizzata: la donna aveva tirato

su la bandiera, il marito aveva accettato il sacchetto con il cibo ed erano rientrati

in casa. Il giorno dopo, i soldati erano tornati a portarle da mangiare, e in seguito

avrebbero aiutato la coppia a evacuare Velyka Danylivka quando la loro casa era

stata centrata da un colpo d’artiglieria russo. Scoprendo che Ivanova non era

filorussa, la propaganda putiniana aveva smesso di usare la sua immagine; alla

fine, passati i 15 minuti di celebrità online, tutto ciò che era rimasto a Ivanova

era il disprezzo e l’odio dei suoi vicini di casa e degli altri abitanti del paese, che

l’avevano messa ai margini considerandola una traditrice.