The brutal melee ends. Amid the corpses of Teutonic knights, Alexander Nevsky brandishes his sword and roars as he gazes at the dead: “This land was Russian, it still is, and it will remain so!” On this day, the warriors are actors in chain mail, history buffs gathered for a reenactment in the Russian village of Samolva, on the shores of Lake Chudes, shared between Russia and Estonia.
It was on this lake, then frozen, that the Prince of Novgorod, Alexander Nevsky, struck down, in April 1242, the soldiers of the Teutonic Order, originating from present-day Germany, who intended to conquer medieval Russia to convert it to Catholicism.
Eight centuries later, the figure of Nevsky occupies an important place in the imagination mobilized by Vladimir Putin to justify his offensive in Ukraine, presented as a defensive measure to protect Russian-speakers in the face of Western danger.
“Civilizational choice”
“We are now fighting against Europe as our ancestors did”, says Oleg Yakhontov, a 56-year-old former paratrooper, his face dripping with sweat. Armed with a shield and a sword, he comes to fight against Teutonic warriors. Vladislav Vassiliev, 23, has also just crossed swords for the show. “Nevsky symbolizes the defense of the fatherland and victory”sums up this guy still out of breath.
Around him, a few hundred tourists came with their families to watch the re-enactments, under a bright sun, in the smell of grilled meats and to the sound of rock groups that follow one another on a stage. The day ends with a demonstration of stabbing by a troop of horsemen led by a young blond actor playing Alexander Nevsky.
In September 2021, Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, inaugurated in person, a few meters away, an imposing metal sculpture representing the authoritarian Prince of Novgorod and his warriors. “The figure of Alexander Nevsky is truly grandiose”said the Russian leader, welcoming a “brilliant military commander” but also a “skillful diplomat”.
Because to defeat the Crusaders, Alexander Nevsky had chosen to collaborate with the great power of the time, the Mongols of the Golden Horde, who had devastated and subjected a large part of the Russian principalities. According to the Kremlin, this decisive rapprochement with Asia made it possible to save Russian traditions in the face of Western expansionism.
“His great accomplishment is his civilizational choice”told AFP the Orthodox priest Igor Fomin, 52, present at the reenactments. “He made this choice by privileging the spiritual aspect, his homeland, his people, without choosing comfort.”
A direction that seems particularly topical, while Russia, under massive sanctions from the West for its attack in Ukraine, advocates a great economic and political friendship with China.
Putin, the successor
Even in Soviet times, the heroic figure of Nevsky, yet a religious symbol, was exploited and engraved in the collective memory thanks to a propaganda film by Sergei Eisenstein, released in 1938.
In a famous scene, the veracity of which is considered dubious by historians, the Teutonic fighters, who were too heavy, drowned after having cracked the ice on Lake Chudes.
The work, commissioned by Stalin, aimed to mobilize against Nazi Germany. The film was then banned after the non-aggression pact between the USSR and Hitler, from 1939 to 1941, before being broadcast again as soon as the Third Reich attacked Moscow.
This pact is one of the less glorious episodes, such as the crimes of the USSR, which the Kremlin actively seeks to minimize in Russia, while repressing those who criticize its interpretation of history.
The cult of Alexander Nevsky is part of this policy of grandeur. And for most onlookers interviewed during the re-enactments, the name of his successor is beyond doubt. “Our president continues this work”, calmly asserts Oleg Davydov, a 52-year-old engineer. For him, Vladimir Putin embodies “the defense of the country, its strength, its assurance and its security”.
