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The Imperiia Project

Strong men put their hands in their pockets.

That is, according to DALL-E. We asked the image generator to show us "six strong Russian men with beards wearing simple 18th century clothing." We wanted a contrast with the images of sailors from Kherson and we got it. Plus, we learned that AI 1) is good at generating variations on a theme, 2) has a single idea of what "strong" looks like, and 3) associates "simple clothing" with the peasantry. The men arrested for stealing watermelons in Nikolaev were not peasants. If we could somehow mix elements of this image and the image of the Kherson sailors we might be closer to the truth. But here they are regardless, the faces of rabble-rousing in late 18th century Ukraine.

Contents of this annotation:

On Sunday August 10, 1796, the crowds at the market place in Nikolaev (Mykolaiv) yelled "ura!" and seized 6 carts of watermelon. 6 men were arrested: Korochkin, from the 90-gun Sozon, Stepan Efimov, who arrived on a cutter transporting officers from the brigantine Nikodim, Osip Baskakov, who came with officers from the frigate Nikon, a skipper named Koverin, a ship carpenter named Filip Kuz’min, and a garrison soldier named Yakov Yakovlev. Tales of their exploits would soon make their way to Kherson.