‘Krymnash’ Meme Part of Russian Society’s Return to Late Soviet Times

Street art in Russia depicts a monument to sunken ships in Sevastopol juxtaposed over the St.Basil cathedral in Moscow  

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Edited by: Paula Chertok

“Krymnash” [Crimea is Ours] arose as a serious meme in March 2014, an expression of the patriotic pleasure Russians felt in taking Crimea and demonstrating the power of their country. But since then, it has become an ironic expression, one that recalls Soviet times, and people use it as almost a throw-away line – “our toilets don’t work but at least Krymnash!”

As a result, those who still believe in its original meaning now insist on spelling it out in two words and capitalizing both as “Krym Nash” [Крым Наш] in order to ensure that no one misunderstands what they mean, according to Mikhail Suslov, a scholar at the Uppsala Center for Russian and Eurasian Research in Sweden.

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