Wadded Jacket (ватник)

About

Wadded Jacket (ватник) is a Russian character meme often used to mock patriotic Russians on the Internet which uses a grotesque character based on a wadded jacket to satire those considered to be ignorant Russian patriots.

Origin

Wadded Jacket was created on the Russian-language social networking site Vk.com on September 9, 2011, when a user posted a crudely drawn image of an anthropomorphized and ripped jacket to an anti-Muammar Gaddafi group, see below.^[1] The name ватник comes from a slur used to refer to imperialist Russians, derived from a low-quality kind of jacket often worn by the lower class in Soviet-era Russia.^[2] It was later confirmed that the picture was originally drawn by ukranian Anton Chadsky (shown below, right).

Characterization

Wadded Jacket is portrayed as a stereotype of Russians who hold imperialistic or nationalistic views, always agree with the government and protect the idea, that Putin is the president who can rule Russia. He is often portrayed as seeing Russia as a heroic country that should have total rule over the world and rebuild USSR with Putin as new Stalin. Wadded Jacket is said to enjoy stereotypically Russian things, such as vodka, and dislikes foreign or "anti-Russian" things such as America. He is also seen to believe in conspiracy theories, hold strong xenophobic views, and believe anything he sees on TV.^[1]

Spread

Wadded Jacket spread significantly by 2012. In November of the same year, a page for the character was created on the Russian Lurkmore Wiki. A Vk.com group created for War Jacket boasts over 500,000 followers but got banned in 2014, new group based on Wadded Jacket has over 66,000 followers as of May 2015.^[3] The character increased in popularity as the 2014 Ukranian Revolution took hold as an insult for Russian patriots.

Little Rus'

Little Rus' is a group of Wadded Jacket parodies on Post-Soviet states, such as: Rotten Lard (Ukraine), Byelorussian Bulba (Byelorussia).

Example Images

Search Interest

References

^[1] Lurkmore.to – ватник

^[2] KyivPost – Ukrainian wartime glossary: Ukrop, Vatnik and more

^[3] Vk.com – РАШКА – КВАДРАТНЫЙ ВАТНИК