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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   3166 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 18, 2023

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With Wagner in the news I’m wondering why they named themselves after a German composer? I can’t find anything on this on their Wikipedia page explaining it and it doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would a Russian merc outfit name themselves after a composer who is sort of a symbol of German nationalism.

“Wagner” was apparently the call sign of Dmitry Utkin, the founder of the group, while in the Russian special forces:

Utkin, who reportedly has a passion for the history of the Third Reich, had the call-sign Wagner, allegedly in honour of Richard Wagner.

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