Human imagination helps to tame history – it creates stories to enable us to understand the unknown and make sense of what we fear. During wartime, such legends, which may be trivial or terrifying, become a vehicle for emotions and a tool for interpretation. Today’s propaganda, in particular Russian propaganda, is able to consciously exploit societal perceptions by reinforcing fears, fuelling chaos and constructing false images of reality. What happened during the Second World War is happening again during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Flavia Tosi spent the Second World War in the town of Novara, in north-west of Italy. The figure of a mysterious plane – elusive and circling over the town at night – recurs constantly in her memories. Its name was Pippo. Although no one had ever seen it up close, everyone had heard of it. It was the personification of anxiety and danger, as well as everyday life under occupation.
A British Mosquito bomber aircraft taking off for a night sortie from Foggia airport in Italy on 6 November 1944. Public domain. (accessed 30 April 2025) / Wikimedia Commons, Źródło: Imperial War Museums / Wikimedia Commons
‘Pippo was a plane that just appeared from time to time. Nobody knew whether it was hostile or friendly; whether it was German, American or Italian. It didn’t drop bombs. It wasn’t shooting. It just flew by and disappeared. People could hear it at night. When someone whispered, “It’s Pippo”, suddenly everyone felt the same anxiety.’

This quote comes from the memoirs of Flavia Tosi, an Italian woman who spent her childhood in German-occupied Novara.
Although Pippo probably never existed in reality, it became part of collective memory – a symbol of anxiety, the calm before the storm and childhood fears dressed up in the sound of the engine of a plane flying high.

In the 1990s, the Italian TV station RAI Tre launched the campaign ‘La mia guerra’ (My War) with an aim to collect accounts of daily life during the Second World War, especially during the German occupation, from 1943 to 1945. In many memories described in the letters sent to the TV station, there was one recurring character – a night plane called Pippo. It was everywhere and nowhere. No one knew which side it was fighting on or what its task was. But its presence was real because it represented something more profound than the facts, i.e. fear, vigilance and the daily stresses and strains of life in the shadow of war. It is also proof of the power of the imagination, which can fabricate facts and experiences that complement the official historical narrative. It serves as an example of how imagination can fill in the gaps in history creating alternative versions of events that are not necessarily true but emotionally real for those who lived through them. Moreover, it confirms that memory is not always based on facts. Sometimes, it may create its own facts, ones that are easier to bear.

War legends as a tool of propaganda

Professor Alan R. Perry of Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, a specialist in memory research, points out something seemingly trivial but extremely important – during both World Wars, legends and rumours were part of everyday life. Rumours were constantly circulating in the trenches, such as troops were to be withdrawn from the front or that someone was about to go on leave. There were also stories about the enemy who, on the one hand, was cruel and inhumane using the bodies of the fallen to produce candles and lubricants and, on the other hand, surprisingly humane and kind. For example, during the German attack on France in 1940, a story spread that soldiers from both sides met at wells, drew water together, asked each other for directions to their own lines and even warned each other of impending attacks.

Although often untrue, war stories were sometimes incorporated into official political and religious propaganda. This is well illustrated by two popular legends, ‘Angels of Mons’ and ‘The Miracle on the Vistula’. In August 1914, British troops surrounded by Germans at Mons (Belgium) were supposedly saved by angels who appeared over the battlefield and stopped the German advance. The story was publicised by Arthur Machen, a Welsh mystical writer, and the British tabloid The Sun still referred to it almost a century later, in 2001.

Similarly, the 1920 Bolshevik offensive on Warsaw was said to have collapsed due to the appearance of the Virgin Mary in the sky. In both cases, the legend was supported and used politically to emphasise that supernatural forces were behind one’s own troops. In the Polish case, the legend of the ‘Miracle on the Vistula’ was additionally used as an element of the political struggle. The term was coined by Stanisław Stroński, a right-wing publicist and opponent of Józef Piłsudski. He claimed that it had not been the commanders who saved Warsaw but divine intervention. This allowed the nationalist right-wing to discredit Piłsudski and left-wing circles, attributing the victory to supernatural, not political, forces.

 

 

Rumours and urban legends did not relate to soldiers only – civilians also created their own stories to help them cope with daily life during wartime. Tales about the mysterious Pérák, a figure popping out unexpectedly from dark alleys to surprise passers-by, circulated in occupied Prague during the Second World War. He was said to possess superhuman powers: he could jump great distances, avoid Gestapo patrols and disappear without a trace. Today, he would be called the Czech superhero – someone bordering fear, hope and fantasy.

Urban war legends in the smartphone era: the invasion of Ukraine

Although we live in the Internet era, war legends have not disappeared – they have simply moved online. Modern wars also give rise to their own myths, rumours and stories, which spread rapidly and gain prominence due to the viral power of social media. In the Russian army, a legend about the so-called beliye kolgotki (white tights) has been circulating since the 1990s. Allegedly, these were beautiful female snipers from the Baltic states, dressed in white, who were believed to spread terror at the front. They appeared not only in the stories from Chechnya and the war with Georgia but also on the front line of the war in Ukraine.
In February 2022 another story circulated the world – one about a mysterious Ukrainian air force pilot who, operating alone on a Mig-29, was said to have shot down as many as ten Russian military aircraft. The narrative was confirmed by Ukraine’s special services and a video of the heroic pilot’s aerial combat was even posted online. A few months later, however, they admitted that the whole story was a lie and that the ‘Spirit of Kyiv’ never existed, however, it embodied the ‘collective spirit of the well-trained pilots’ of the Ukrainian army. The footage that circulated online came from a computer game – a fighter simulator on YouTube.
There is no doubt that the character of the ‘Spirit of Kyiv’ was created to boost the morale of Ukrainians in the initial, extremely difficult, weeks of the Russian invasion. In the face of Russia’s massive military superiority, especially in the air, the story of a lone pilot shooting down one enemy machine after another conveyed the message that the fight was still even. It was necessary and it resonated with the public mood.

Propaganda-inspired imagery

The Russian aggressor consistently employs urban legends, false information and online mystification (called ‘hoax’) to reinforce its message, directed to both its own citizens and international public. Domestically, such actions are intended to sustain public morale in view of the protracted ‘special operation’ and justify further acts of aggression. Internationally, the aim is to discredit Ukraine and undermine its position as a victim of war.

*hoax widely disseminated, often fabricated bottom-up, false information or deception designed to mislead the recipient. This type of manipulation is intended to evoke emotions (shock, laughter, anxiety) or directly influence attitudes and views. Examples of such manipulation include fictitious messages sent out on 1 April (April Fools’ Day), made-up articles about miraculous discoveries, crafted social media graphics and false emergency calls.

According to analysts, Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine is based on five main narratives:

Main elements of Russia’s propaganda narratives about Ukraine:
  • A civil war is raging in Ukraine.
  • Ukrainian society is extremely Russophobic.
  • Nazism is spreading in Ukraine.
  • Ukraine is a failed state.
  • Ukraine is a puppet of the West.

Urban legends, conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns are built around these very narratives, reinforced by pro-Russian influencers, bots and influence agencies.

One of Russia’s most perverse manipulative strategies in the first months of the full-scale war was a campaign to convince the West that there was no war at all, and that all military action and Russian crimes were a hoax.

‘Bucha mystification?’ Russian propaganda continues to undermine the facts

Three years have passed since the Bucha massacre – a crime committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian civilians in March 2022, killing around 400 innocent people. Despite evidence, photographs, witness accounts and international reports, Russia continues to deny that this crime took place. On 2 April 2025, during a UN meeting, Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, once again questioned the events in Bucha. In his narrative, it is the West that is creating a bubble of lies, while Russia is merely trying to ‘uncover the truth’. According to this vision, it is not the Russian army but Russia as a state that is the victim being manipulated, accused and unfairly demonised by the ‘regime in Kyiv’ and its Western allies.

Russian manipulation of the truth about the Bucha massacre

But let’s ask ourselves a simple question: do we know what really happened in Bucha three years ago? Do we care about the truth? It’s obvious that as far as the Kiev regime and its Western backers are concerned, they definitely do not. And they do not want the others to ask these questions as well. They feel quite comfortable in the bubble of lies about Russia that they have been consistently developing for at least two decades. And since the ‘Bucha hoax’ is one of the core elements of this bubble, the West is aggressively resistant to any attempts to question the Bucha narrative.

Statement by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyansky at a UNSC Arria-Formula Meeting on Disinformation and Sabotage of Peace in Ukraine from 2 April 2025

 

In May 2022 this post suggesting that Ukraine was fabricating reports of Russian crimes using media mystification appeared on Twitter. According to its authors, the footage showing the alleged war victims was in fact a scene from a climate protest in Austria, where activists were ‘playing dead’ as part of the event. The tweet spread quickly, getting thousands of shares and comments, fuelling the narrative that Ukraine was manipulating global public opinion and creating a ‘theatre of war’ for the Western media. Source: YouTube / Matthew Holroyd, ‘Ukraine war: Five of the most viral misinformation posts and false claims since the conflict began’, Euronews, 24.08.2022.

Modern propaganda often doesn’t look like crude or obvious agitation. It often appeals to critical thinking, common sense and even the fight against disinformation. And this is precisely where its strength lies – because manipulation disguised as scepticism more readily appeals to audiences tired of chaos, information overload and the declining trust in the media or state institutions. Urban legends are spreading in contemporary Russia, either inspired by the authorities or independently of them.

In March 2022 the Russian Ministry of Defence officially accused the Ukrainian authorities of testing the spread of biological weapons with birds and bats. General Igor Kirillov argued at a press conference that the migration routes of birds crossing the Ukrainian territory were, for example, to be used to spread H5N1 avian influenza.

Such a narrative must have influenced Russian society, still recovering from the trauma of the coronavirus pandemic. The Russian Federation was among the world’s leaders in the so-called excess deaths, and the authorities promoted their own Sputnik vaccine, blocking access to WHO-recommended preparations. The fear of the virus and biological threat proved to be an ideal tool to legitimise absurdity.
Black Volga GAZ-21, CC BY-SA Oliver Tank, Wikimedia Commons. During the socialist era, almost every child in Central and Eastern Europe heard the legend of the Black Volga, a GAZ-21 luxury car, that would kidnap unwary children from the streets at night. It was a dark tale of mystery and terror, perfectly suited to the atmosphere of distrust and silent fear that accompanied life in the Eastern Bloc countries. Today, this legend is back in a new version and a new context. In 2023 an urban legend about men handing out perfume that allegedly caused poisoning circulated in Russia. The scenario is similar: a mysterious car, strange men, a seemingly innocent action and a hidden threat. The difference is that the modern version of the story fits in with the official anti-Ukrainian propaganda. It is no longer a spontaneous urban legend but an emotional tool of disinformation, reinforced by the narrative of the state.
In January 2023 one of the recordings published on Telegram was viewed by more than 9.5 million people. The footage purported to prove that Ukrainians were calling Russian children and manipulating the conversation to encourage them to turn on gas, which was to cause an explosion in a residential building. The story was reported by the official Russian media, and the TASS agency issued a dispatch warning ‘against possible provocations to children undertaken by Ukrainian Nazis’.
Meanwhile, independent Russian journalists from prosleduet.media who investigated the recording found that it had been published first in 2018. In their view, the outbreak of rumours about the Ukrainian manipulation of children was a Russian response to a rocket attack on a residential building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Forty-five people were killed in the Russian attack, many were searched for among the rubble and the case did not leave the headlines of the Ukrainian and Western media for a long time. According to journalists, the spread of the legend about ‘Ukrainian provocations to children’ was a defensive psychological reaction in an attempt to shift the blame.
This mechanism had already been described by Alan Dundes, an American anthropologist studying the structure of urban legends and myths. According to him:

‘A person who commits a crime often blames the victim, attributing bad intentions or actions to him or her in order to justify one’s own action.’

This pattern was evident, for example, in medieval legends about the ritual murder used as a pretext for violence against Jews.

Centrally controlled imagination? Myth in the era of war and the Internet

War has stimulated the human imagination for centuries. Uncertainty, fear and a sense of danger combined with clearly identified enemies and allies make ideal conditions for the birth of myths, legends and urban tales, often very hard to believe. Today, this process has not stopped at all. In the era of smartphones and social media, the creation of new myths is not only easier but also faster. Moreover, they can achieve a greater reach and be more controllable. Modern tools for image and sound manipulation, viral formats and algorithms that amplify what is emotional, shocking or seemingly plausible come in handy. As a result, collective imagination nowadays can be centrally managed – almost like a media narrative.

Bibliografia

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„Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej” 21 (2023), z. 1, s. 100, https://doi.org/10.36874/RIESW.2023.1.6.

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