Subject- Aleks Tyaga’s narrative on Bakhmut and the “Special Military Operation”
Classification- Advanced Disinformation Assessment
Focus- Cognitive exploitation, narrative engineering, psychological manipulation, ideological warfare
Summary
“Сквозь морок” (Through the Gloom), authored under the pseudonym Алекс Тя Га, presents a stylized, quasi-memoir perspective on events in and around Bakhmut during 2022–2023. Structured as a hybrid between personal recollection and ideological tract, the document fuses tactical vignettes with overarching claims about Russia’s “spiritual struggle.” Despite a superficially conversational tone, the content constructs a calculated and ideologically rigid narrative built on selective memory, historical inversion, euphemistic brutality, dehumanization, Russocentric exceptionalism, and information warfare.
The core message reconfigures Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a moral crusade while externalizing blame for every hardship onto Ukraine, NATO, and imagined internal saboteurs. This report systematically exposes the document’s manipulation mechanisms, including narrative fallacies, cognitive biases, militarized victimhood tropes, and Russophobic projection.
Narrative Construction- Myth Over Truth
The author operates from a first-person vantage point claiming proximity to combat events, but consistently blurs verifiable detail with spiritualized abstraction. Bakhmut is framed not as a city under siege but as an allegorical battlefield between “light and darkness.” The introductory lines—“A devilish gloom descended on the southern Russian lands, sometimes called Ukraine…”—function not as metaphor but as foundational distortion. Ukraine does not appear as a sovereign nation in the author’s framework. Instead, it is reduced to a demonic fog or puppet state.
False Premise Construction-
The opening recasts occupied territory as inherently Russian. Historical annexation and modern military aggression vanish in the mythologized fog of “ancestral lands.” The linguistic structure eliminates Ukrainian agency and frames resistance as satanic rebellion. No evidence supports this premise. The rhetorical structure creates a self-reinforcing loop in which moral superiority justifies aggression.
Dehumanization and Hate Normalization
Throughout the document, Ukrainians are consistently labeled with racial and derogatory epithets- хохлы, укропы, нацисты, свиньи. These slurs are not incidental. They function as psychological demarcation tools that strip the enemy of humanity and allow the author to describe grotesque violence without moral conflict.
Examples include-
| Phrase | Psychological Function |
| “Укропы идут как стадо” | Denies individual agency; enemy becomes cattle |
| “нацистская мразь” | Conflates national identity with fascism |
| “свиньи в грязи” | Links Ukrainians to filth; symbolic impurity |
Such framing primes the reader for justification of mass violence. Execution anecdotes are described in clinical or comedic tones, encouraging emotional detachment. Killing becomes routine, even casual.
The Cult of Wagner and Airborne Forces
The author glorifies both Wagner and elite military units such as the VDV, portraying them as warrior-priests in a metaphysical war. Failures of command, logistical disarray, and friendly-fire incidents are blamed on corrupt or “soft” state structures. The professional army, especially the Ministry of Defense, is derided, while Wagner is described with terms suggesting honor, grit, and transcendent mission.
This structural manipulation splits Russian military identity into dual factions-
- Degenerate Bureaucracy- Cowardice, corruption, lack of will
- Holy Mercenary Vanguard- Discipline, sacrifice, brotherhood
That duality operates as a narrative purifier, absolving the author and his chosen comrades of complicity in failed strategies or war crimes.
Victimhood Reversal and Strategic Projection
Russian combatants are described as victims not just of the Ukrainian army, but of NATO psy-ops, foreign propaganda, and even Russian incompetence. This displacement mechanism allows the author to claim perpetual moral innocence while remaining embedded in a unit committing atrocities.
Examples-
- Repeated claims that “the world does not understand us” imply global conspiracy.
- The deaths of comrades are always portrayed as martyrdom; Ukrainian deaths are ridiculed.
- NATO is accused of “genocidal psychology” without evidence, despite Russia initiating full-scale invasion.
The cognitive dissonance allows the author to frame himself as oppressed aggressor- a paradox central to modern Russian disinformation.
Manipulative Techniques and Fallacies
| Technique | Example | Function |
| Appeal to sacred values | “Мы несём свет в этот тьму” | Moral absolution |
| Anecdotal fallacy | “Я сам видел, как укропы пытали бабушку” (no citation) | Emotional charge without verification |
| False equivalency | “А разве американцы в Ираке лучше?” | Shifts focus, justifies present abuse |
| Euphemism masking violence | “Мы обнулили точку укропов” | Sanitizes war crimes |
| Heroic victim trope | “Нас кинули, но мы выстояли” | Strengthens internal cohesion |
The narrative thrives on contradiction. Every defeat is cast as temporary. Every Ukrainian success becomes “Western intervention.” No introspection or reevaluation occurs. The structure enforces cognitive closure.
Metaphysical War and Neo-Imperial Theology
Warfare is not described in geopolitical or legal terms. Instead, it becomes a purification ritual. Lines such as “fighting against piggishness” or “bringing light back to Southern Russian lands” recode military occupation into cosmic redemption. This theological framework erases international law and human cost. It reduces combat to exorcism.
The invocation of Orthodox symbolism, Soviet military mythos, and eternal struggle constructs a perpetual mobilization psychology. Peace becomes morally unacceptable.
Impact Potential and Propagation Risk
Repackaging of this narrative into memes, voiceover shorts, Telegram posts, and nationalist forums is already occurring across pro-Russian digital propaganda circuits. The text’s flexible structure and aphoristic cadence make it ideal for disinformation fragmentation- each paragraph can stand alone and circulate virally.
Audience Risk Tiering-
| Target Audience | Vulnerability Indicators | Propaganda Entry Points |
| Russian youth | Dissatisfaction with MoD, pride in VDV | TikTok shorts, Z-memes |
| Diaspora (Germany, Serbia, Kazakhstan) | Nationalist nostalgia | Telegram forwards |
| Conspiracy circles | Anti-NATO bias, spiritual warfare | Q-adjacent spaces |
| Pro-Palestinian agitators | NATO blame-shifting | Anti-Western crossover memes |
Narrative designs of this type are structurally modular and therefore resilient to platform moderation. Each segment functions as a standalone ideological payload.
Conclusion
“Сквозь морок” constructs a comprehensive disinformation scaffold that transforms military failure into heroic redemption, mass violence into spiritual cleansing, and invasion into sacrament. The narrative repurposes familiar Soviet-era myths and merges them with the modern aesthetics of asymmetric warfare, hate propaganda, and cognitive domination. Language is weaponized. Memory is filtered. Victimhood is manufactured. The author emerges not as a witness, but as an architect of distorted truth.
Intervention at narrative incubation points is required to dismantle its influence architecture. Monitoring of derivative content across VK, Telegram, and fringe forums remains essential. Public inoculation campaigns in target regions should expose the document’s dissonance, discredit its claims, and deconstruct its false moral logic.
