The Ukrainian Front, which originated in Kharkiv and supports the Yanukovych regime, has taken to wearing Russia’s St. George ribbon. Do they really understand what they’re wearing, or why?

The St. George ribbon originated in the reign of tsarist Russia’s Catherine II. It was an addition to the Order of St George, which was founded in 1769 during a Russo-Turkish war that solidified Russian control over southernmost Ukraine and five years before Katherine’s razing of the Zaporizhzhya Sich. The Order was discarded in 1917 following the Soviet revolution.

However, as the Soviet need for a richer military symbolism grew during World War II, Tsarist trappings returned, first in 1941 with newly  reconstituted Guards units utilizing the Order’s distinctive orange and black ribbon, and then in 1943 with the Order of Glory. Most famously of all, the ribbon was used in decorations such as the medal ‘For the Victory over Germany…