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[Laura Mabee]

... In our modern societies the swastika makes us mainly think about Nazism, that's why I said it was disturbing....

Exactly my point. The Swastika is only a symbol of hate in context with modern society.
Prior to Nazism, nobody who used it saw it as a symbol of hate, but success and luck. Therefore, what I am getting at, is although this symbol now brings up disturbing thoughts and feelings, there was nothing disturbing about the swastika in the context of its use with the Romanovs. I'm unsure if that's what you meant in your previous post, so I was just reiterating what I meant in mine.

[lulururu]

Laura, don't worry : when I saw the swastika on the car for the first time I knew that it wasn't disturbing in 1914-1918... WWII, Nazism and Hitler really interest me so I perfectly knew this but nevertheless as a XXIst century French student it's disturbing, now the symbol is disturbing because most of us thinks about Nazism when we see it. I'm not saying it's good or bad but it's clear that Nazism has a stronger impact than an old superstition about success and luck.
I also noticed that in French we make the difference between the religious symbol (called "svastika" in French and which is the equivalent of swastika in English) and the Nazi symbol (called "croix gammée" in French but in English there is no equivalent, it's swastika again even if the meaning of these 2 symbols are completely different !). So, in fact, the sign on this car is a "svastika" and not a "croix gammée".

[Laura Mabee]

Thanks Lulururu!
Your post was really interesting! I had wasn't aware of the different names between a  "svastika" and a "croix gammée"! Thanks for your insight!

...Now the symbol is disturbing because most of us thinks about Nazism...

I agree wholeheartedly. I wonder if the stigma around the symbol will ever fade. It's interesting how -roughly- 20 years can change the meaning of a symbol which has meant something else for thousands of years.

[lulururu]

"Svastika" and "croix gammée" help us to make a difference between these 2 signs but in fact it's not a very good idea because a lot of persons uses the expression "croix gammée" (which designates ONLY the "Nazi swastika") instead of the word "svastika" (which designates the religious sign which is used in the "croix gammée"). In fact, when you use the word "svastika" instead of "croix gammée" it's not very problematic because the origin of the Nazi symbol is in deed the swastika but when you use the expression "croix gammée" (which necessarily implies the Nazis) instead of "svastika" it's much more problematic.
Well, in order to sum up : "croix gammée" necessarily implies the "svastika" but the contrary is not true because a "croix gammée" is a kind of "svastika" but the "svastika" is absolutely not a kind of "croix gammée" ! I know, the French language is full of nuances...

Concerning the stigma I think that WWII definitively combined the swastika and the Nazis... the swastika is definitively linked to Nazism (fascism + racism) and to the 6-7 millions of persons who died in the camps. The "croix gammée" is much more recent (less than 100 year-old) and "its" ideas are much more extreme than the original swastika, in fact we still are in a post world-war context.

[Geglov2-3]

http://pushkin-history.info/fotoalbom-2/4865.html

Фото Цесаревича в стрелецкой форме.
Photo of Cesarevitch in streletskoj to the form.

[Sarushka]

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