Before he became a military star in Ukraine, Strelkov was already a star among war reenactors. These men arm themselves with old weapons, dress in military uniforms, and gather in deserted places to act out long-ago battles. Strelkov “the cat” particularly loves the 1918-1920 battles of the Russian civil war, where he usually plays the role of a White Guard officer. Essentially, he is now playing the same role in Ukraine: his haircut, his mustache, his manners, and even his military tactics are almost all copied from images of White Guard officers in Soviet films.
One of Strelkov’s idols is the White Guard general Mikhail Drozdovsky, killed in a battle with the Bolshevik army in the south of Russia in 1919. While Strelkov’s soldiers held on to Slavyansk, the entrance to the city was decorated with an enormous banner blending allusions to the “Drozdovites” with images from the film “300.” Another fun fact: When Strelkov rewarded his fighters with St. George’s Crosses (the main award given to soldiers in czarist Russia), he thanked on the antique forum a friend who runs a Moscow antique shop for providing him with authentic crosses for free. It is unclear if Strelkov has any real military experience: He is said to have fought in Chechnya, though that is unconfirmed.
They say that real actors dream of playing the greatest roles in real life beyond the confines of the stage. This may also the dream of war reenactors who play at battle while fantasizing about the real thing. What had once been a game for Strelkov has now become a real war, with real deaths, real shootouts, and real assaults. If Putin does not want to become a sponsor of international terrorism in front of the whole world, he will have to do all he can to stop Strelkov. The Ukrainians think this is very simple: Putin orders Strelkov to return to Moscow, and the Donbass is at peace. To me, this does not seem very realistic: I doubt Strelkov would take orders from Putin.
I met Strelkov in Crimea in February, several hours after the “polite people” in unmarked Russian military uniforms took control of key points of the peninsula. I didn’t know his first or last name—only one and a half months later, after seeing him on television, did I realize I had been speaking with Strelkov—but I observed his role as an emissary from Moscow when he accompanied Crimea’s new Prime Minister, Sergei Aksenov. Dressed in a dark green civilian suit that somewhat resembled a military uniform, Strelkov led the negotiations between Aksenov and the Ukrainian seamen who were to give themselves up to the Russian side. Russian naval officers also took part in these talks, and next to them Strelkov looked like a real diplomat, clever and subtle. The Russian officers insisted on negotiating from a position of power: “if you don’t surrender, we’ll destroy you.”
But Strelkov preferred to speak of an officer’s honor and an officer’s oath, which he respects. It was precisely this tactic that led Ukrainian Admiral Denis Berezovsky, now serving in the Russian navy as deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, to be one of the first to come over to the Russian side.
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