At the beginning of May 2023, news about a curious case in the Volga region spread across the Internet. We checked whether Volgograd residents really received unusual May Day cards.

As reported, utility workers distributed May Day greeting cards to mailboxes in the Voroshilovsky district of Volgograd. They featured the phrase, “In the face of a great goal, no sacrifice is too great,” placed between two images of a hammer and sickle—a quote said to be from Adolf Hitler. The publications were usually accompanied by two photographs, allegedly taken by a local resident in her entrance.

These postcards were reported in such publications as “News Live", "Divoglyad" And "Apostrophe" The news was especially widespread on Telegram, where the channels “Cotton swamp"(350,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Nexta Live (335,000), "Ukraine Online» (291,000), Ateo Breaking (200,000), Pravda Gerashchenko (157,000), "Ukraine | News"(156,000) and Mikhail Khodorkovsky (112,000). This information was also distributed through Twitter.

First, let’s talk about the quote. The saying “In the face of a great goal, no sacrifice seems too great” is usually attributed to Hitler on Russian-language resources. Indeed, it concludes the notorious work of the German politician “My Struggle”, in Russia recognized extremist. The statement is not abstract; in the original source we are talking about a specific goal related to racial politics.

What is confusing here is the fact that without mentioning Hitler, this statement is practically not found on the Internet. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that the employee responsible for compiling the postcards could accidentally come across a motivational quote and not notice that it belongs to the Fuhrer. Of course, if we exclude the version with deliberate provocation.

The design of postcards is of particular interest. The people whose images appear above the quote strip have an Asian appearance. Indeed, as the image search service shows Teeneye, a picture mirrored on both sides of the postcard is often found on Chinese pages related to communist themes. Apparently, the compiler of the postcard used a free template, drawing Z and V signs on people.

*On the left is a picture from the template, on the right is a fragment of a postcard*

The distribution of photographs with postcards began on May 1 from Volgograd public pages and Telegram channels. So, at 18:16 Moscow time they appeared on the channel “Volgach", and a few hours later - in public "Overheard. Volgograd. Krasnoarmeisky" And "I ♡ Volzhsky» on VKontakte. In all three cases, the pictures were accompanied by the text: “Thank you to our municipal services for the postcards (Voroshilovsky district). It seems like a small thing, but it’s nice. Happy holiday everyone!” (the author's spelling has been preserved). Moreover, on Telegram, the channel administrators forwarded a message to a certain Lyudmila, and on VKontakte, in both cases it was posted by the same person account - Lyudmila again, with the surname Basova. As of today, this profile is closed. You can only read that his owner is from Volgograd and graduated from the local medical university (Volgograd State Medical University). At the same time, the web archive contains copy profile on VKontakte with the same ID - there the user’s name is already Elvin Isakhanov, the profile is also closed. The PimEyes facial recognition service identifies the face in the photo indicated in Lyudmila Basova’s profile as belonging to the VKontakte user Natalia Petruk (Mamchich) from the city of Staraya Rafalovka, Rivne region of Ukraine. Moreover, the girl in one of the photos from Natalya’s profile is also very similar to the girl from Lyudmila’s userpic. At the same time, posts on Natalia’s wall have not appeared since 2016, but in 2020 her daughter participated in sports competitions in the Donetsk region, where she was photographed with her mother. Thus, with a high degree of probability it can be argued that other people’s photographs were used in Lyudmila Basova’s profile. Note that the word “communal”, present in the message in the Volgograd public pages, is written with an “i” (albeit with one “m”) in the Ukrainian language.

May 2 at the Volgograd City Hall at the request of a local information site v1.ru commented on the disseminated information as follows: “District communal services, in principle, do not lay out or distribute any propaganda products, including those of a congratulatory nature. In addition, the administration of the Voroshilovsky district also did not receive any reports of leaflets, booklets or other printed products containing extremist statements or quotes from Adolf Hitler appearing in mailboxes.”

Thus, the source of the news about the postcards was a post from one user, sent to several Volgograd channels at once. Judging by the photos on social networks, this user is not who she claims to be. There is no other evidence of the existence of such postcards. The Volgograd mayor's office even denied the possibility of their distribution by public utilities. All this suggests that this is a fake, for which a quote from Adolf Hitler was specially selected.

Cover photo: social networks