User:Herzen/Russophobia

'Russophobia' (also, Russians hostility or Antirussismus ) is a negative attitude towards Russia, the Russian or Russian culture. It is an expression of the xenophobia and is the opposite of Russophilia.

There are a variety of stereotypes about Russia and Russians who set up partly to justified criticism, partly on prejudice and as elements in political confrontation against the Soviet Union and the Russia are used arguments against Russophobia are widespread in Russia in right-wing circles, be used against democratic reform efforts and serve sometimes to construct myths about the fall of the Soviet Union.

The history of the connections between Russia and Western Europe and the successful integration of Western Europe, in the USA and emigrated to Israel Russians suggests that there is no general Russophobia the phenomenon of negative image Russia s has 500 years of tradition in the opinion of individual authors in recent times partly unnecessary false or Russian national perspective to an "ideology" developed.

It has also asked the question, "if not our image of Russia usually arises as a function of how Russia itself estimates ... Both types of images - external and self-images -. Have influenced the course of history of our mutual perceptions and relationships you are so far an idea provoked in a kind of symbiosis another ... What is sometimes hidden in these images of prejudice and what they can be used, has sometimes had terrible consequences. "

History

Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

First negative portrayals of Russians date back to the 13th century in connection with the struggle of the Teutonic Knights against the " schismatics" in the east. So the Russians, for example, in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle are called infidels who plunder the lands of the Christians.

At the turn of the 16th century intensified Muscovite-Lithuanian Wars between the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the heritage of the Rus. The claim of the Rurik Prince of Moscow, ruler of all the Rus was met with resistance by the personal union combined states of Lithuania and Poland. At this time, mainly Polish scholars and authors developed an anti-Russian slant which they spread across Europe In order to prevent the Russian alliances in Europe, King Sigismund I. of European rulers and to the Pope, the " Muscovite" were enemies of Christianity and were conspiring with the Turks and Tatars, to destroy Christianity

In connection with the Livonian War European travelers to Russia reported on the tyranny of the Russian Tsar Ivan "the Terrible" (correct translation: the Dread), whereby the image of a highly repressive Russian domination spread. The Oprichnina was directed against the old princely families at the beginning. Later the direction of the repressive policy was expanded to counter new threats. Ruslan G. Skrynnikov compiled an account with a list of names of those executed by the Synodikon Ivan Groznyjs.

Last time until the 19th century

Rise of Russian Barbarism. French Lithograph from the time of the Napoleonic Wars

Anti-Russian views were widespread in France in the 19th century. While the European intellectuals had overall a positive view of Russia, Leibniz, mentioned Tsar Peter I. several times, Russia being referred to as tabula rasa , where one can avoid countless mistakes of Western Europe. Montesquieu on the other hand referred to the Tsar, who applied his reforms using tyrannical methods, as "the biggest barbarian of humanity". Voltaire, in turn, praised the same in his "History of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great . Herder saw in Russia a future holder of European culture. "The Europeanization of the Russian court and the education of the Russian nobility, who adopted the French language and French customs was viewed positively in the 18th century. But observant visitors to Russia, whose numbers grew steadily from the 18th century on, noted the enormous gulf between the illiterate peasant mass and the educated minority unlike anything in Europe. "(. Cit Scherrer, unpag (p 5)) </ref>, Napoléon Bonaparte regarded the Russians as backward barbarians, who stood in the way of his liberal and revolutionary ideas Some authors cite the irreverence of French soldiers during the Russian campaign in 1812 to the Russian civilian population and culture as evidence of overt hostility toward Russians. , nevertheless the French troops plundered in other conquered territories raiding monasteries and churches, and using them as stables or military camps prompting Napoleon to decree the closure of many monasteries after 1806. Before his departure from Moscow Napoléon tried to blow up the towers of the Moscow Kremlin. After the French defeat there was increase in the negative attitude towards the Russians. Marquis de Custine visited the Russian Empire in the 1830s and left an itinerary that included a sharp critique of autocracy and of life in contemporary Russia.

In François Guizot s History of European Civilization (1828) Russia is not accorded a role, while Jules Michelet omits Russia from the "real" history. The suppression of the Polish struggle for freedom in 1830 sparked a wave of solidarity across Europe with Poland rebellious against the Czar's regime in Poland, giving rise to "preconceived images of russophobe journalism" . 1835 had [Alexis de Tocqueville] [] faced in his book Democracy in America America and Russia as world powers, which formed a contrast of democratization and freedom on the one hand and centralization and slavery on the other. A year later, the Philosophical Letters of Pyotr Chaadayev was printed, in which the conservative Slavophiles are compared with the reform-minded Westerners. Jutta Scherrer said, "the Slavophiles created in the dichotomy Russia / Europe for the first time images of self and other, we 'and' they '(' 'my i oni' '), from' Private 'and' strangers'." in 1843, he published Russia in 1839. of Marquis de Custine that was translated into English in the same year and German and numerous reprints experienced . Custine, who was well traveled with sympathies to Russia coined, disillusioned sustained the image of the local despotic form of government and an enslaved, submissive population. In contrast beschieben Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu and Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé a Russia that is the complete opposite of Custine. Also Jules Verne s play Michel Strogoff , which was premiered in 1880 in Paris, contributed to a reversal in French Russia. The same can be for example about say, Thomas Mann mediated Germany Russia in picture | Nietzsche, [Rilke] [Rainer Maria Rilke].

While European Conservatives tend to see Russia as the "savior of Europe" and the stronghold of legitimate monarchy and preserver of Christian faith tradition in the first half of the 19th century, Russia is often depicted as the "Gendarme of Europe" by liberal, the notion adopted and disseminated by left revolutionary circles, including by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Numerous pamphlets by exiled Poles appear, in which the "uncultured" Russians are described as being of an Asian-Turanian origin .

The fear of the Russian bear went to Russia's leading role in the reactionary | back [Holy Alliance] [Holy Alliance]. In particular, the suppression of national independence movements in Russian-ruled Poland was denounced. In the Holy Roman Empire too strong gain in power of Russia was at the expense of the Ottoman Empire feared for Austrian Habsburg Monarchy, however, the Christian Russia was an important partner in the centuries-long Turkish war s. England worried about its overseas trade. It made ​​efforts to a Russian advance on the Bosporus out into the Mediterranean, and a Russian expansion into Persia and Central Asia - and possibly even India - to prevent. This British-Russian conflict of interest was calculated as Great Game known and led to the Crimean War, also at the France participated.

20th century

At the beginning of the 20th & nbsp; century France and England approached politically again Russia, whereas the relations Germany to Russia, which were very good traditionally and through centuries and Austria-Hungary s cooled down strongly with Russia. Both wanted a Russian aggrandizement in the power vacuum after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire on the Balkan contain the sign of Panslavism, which in these two states strongly with Slawophobie and nationalism who was was also directed against other nations, intertwined. were added Austro-Russian conflicts in the Balkans. In 1914, large parts of the could Left identify with the struggle against perceived as anti-progressive tsarist in Germany. This facilitated the entry in the World War I and was the so-called Burgfriedenspolitik benefit. During the war was Austria-Hungary numerous Russophile Ruthenians deport, where thousands of them died in concentration camps like | Thalerhofstraße or [Theresienstadt] [Small Fortress Terezin].

Lenin and Bolsheviks leakage methods committed originally for the Habsburg coined term prison of nations on the Tsarist Empire. The hopes raised so desssen in non-Russian border areas on independence but were not fulfilled. Later the term was "prison of nations" on the Soviet Union-related.

The October Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Civil War with its atrocities on both sides ended in the early 1920s with the victory of the Bolsheviks, the vainly sought to be prevented by military inventions, the other major powers had. This was an international increase in Russophobia result after the Communist movement was soon dominated by Moscow and Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union the capitalistic powers with the World revolution threatened. A brutal repression inside, especially since the beginning of the Stalinism, and closure and diplomatic isolation of the Soviet Union also favored anti-Russian tendencies of the inter-war period.

Soviet POWs in the Mauthausen concentration camp. Soviet prisoners were treated more cruelly than prisoners of other nations.

A racist founded Russophobia in Germany as a combination of anti-Semitism and anti-Bolshevism to fighting the so-called Jewish Bolshevism was predominant in the Time of National Socialism. Hitler described the Russians in his book Mein Kampf as incapable of self-organization sub-human s, were able to build an empire only thanks to the "Germanic elite". The Nazis saw the Soviet Union as a major Lebensraum in the East for the German master race. After the Final Victory decimation, enslavement and large-scale deportation of the population was included in the General Plan East, where cities such as Leningrad and Moscow should be razed to the ground. Although these plans were never realized, is the large-scale destruction of human life and cultural heritage in the Soviet Union, in particular the starvation of over one million people during the Siege of Leningrad in German-Soviet war with the Nazi ideology and planning (see also hunger Plan) in connection.

In Cold War mistrust fed from this political-ideological struggle between the Western world and the socialist Eastern Bloc. In particular, conservative and right circles West Germany s saw in the post-war period a threat from the East . The fear of the Communists and against the atomic threat shaped the consciousness in the United States since the early 1950s. President Putin stated that Russophobia of the West and the East European countries would go to the assistance of the Soviet Union in the GDR in Hungary and the Czechoslovakia back.

Especially in the era of Ronald Reagan attacked Hollywood - productions on stereotypical images of Russians. After the political changes and the collapse of the Eastern bloc warned especially Sovietologists former dissidents from Central and Eastern Europe and Russia before an overly optimistic picture of Russia. It was a strong interaction with the US Eastern politics. Many new states such as the Baltic States or the Ukraine built their national identity also from a confrontation with Russia. Another factor was the Russophobia fear of spreading Russian Mafia, the image of a criminal and kleptocratic in the 1990s coined Russia. On the other hand, supported the West the course of the Russian President Boris Yeltsin and largely avoided criticism of his policies. The Russia Expert Boris Reitschuster said, Putin "is russophob, which is what he accuses others: He has a low opinion of the people in Russia, because he considers it immature and treated like children children who performed strongly. must be and sometimes want spanking "

Germany

They criticize the Russia reporting in Germany is partly or mainly of a negative attitude and lack of sophistication marked. Difficulties and misunderstandings in the correspondent activities are added. In particular, the focus on Vladimir Putin Russia and the political crises in the Western media to draw some commentators a distorted picture of the actual conditions in Russland.

Starting points of Russophobia

Russophobe ideas consist in part of a long term consistent negative thought . Key policy approaches for fundamental Russia criticism based on an alleged inability to self-government and a resulting tyrannical form of government, or the people are "blind to the power of absolute power of the ruler" subordinating . This is often brought also with an alleged Russian imperialism and the Russian Orthodox Church as a "religion of slaves" in connection.

Theory of Russophobia as an ideology by Oleg Nemenski

The concept of Russophobia was an integral part of the ideology Russian nationalists The Russian historian Oleg Nemenski has a theory of Russophobia as ideology developed. Similar to some of the classic Normannismus the German historian of the 18th century with respect to the establishment of the Russian state or launched by Marquis de Custine conception of Russia as a "prison of the people", according to this theory founded the present Western political science and journalism, which tend to the presence of a free public opinion in Russia to deny and to attribute the view taken by the Russian majority positions of state propaganda. Traditionally, such approaches lead to inappropriate conclusions and lower prediction quality of the events in Russia . Everything specifically Russian would be perceived as hostile to freedom. This would affect not only the "despotic" political power, but also the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian Orthodoxy as the "religion of slaves." The juxtaposition of "Western freedom" and the "Russian slavery" have experienced different forms in different eras. After the formation of nation-states, the Russians would be represented as a carrier of the imperial body of thought as enemies of the free National, while they are at the juxtaposition of neoliberal globalism and national sovereignty, conversely, as a carrier of the "backward" National.

However, since the era of the nation-state has not yet passed, dominated the idea of Russians as "eternal imperialists". Neighboring peoples, the Russians were under the "Russian Knute". Since absolute power by definition, qualitative and quantitative growth, ie must strive expansion, the Russians would be understood as "slavish people" as a tool in this endeavor. This was closely intertwined the conviction that the Russians sought after the conquest of Europe and not diminishing fear of Western man in front of a Russian invasion ("The Russians are coming!"). Any freedom would object as a potential destruction of the Russian tyrants and the freedom hating Russians viewed.

Russian suppression of the November Uprising 1830). Contemporary allegorical representation of Poland as the victim of an Asiatic nomad

The attempts to explain such a striking "otherness" of the Russians usually two reasoning strategies were observed: historically and genetically. According to the first, the Russian culture of tyranny and slavery as a combination of two main sources is limited, the Byzantine orthodoxy and the Tartar despotism. After a developed historical conception was claimed that Russia has inherited the Golden Horde, by having taken over the main characteristics of the political culture of the nomadic structure. Russia and the Golden Horde was the typical stereotype Russophobe, both in historical essays, as well as in journalism.

Often enough, however, it would apply to statements that make a particular genetic tendency of Russians to unfreedom responsible. Accordingly, the Russians tolerate the tyranny, because they are naturally disposed to do so. After this representation, the Russians are not just a backward people, but as genetically inferior and incapable of receiving the Western values​​. Numerous journalists alleged in the course of history, the Russian genetics was corrupted by the historical experiences of the people: bondage, war, repression, revolution, etc. Experimental results of such a perception were felt not only in World War II, but certainly also today. Thrust of the US attorneys who specialize in deaths of Russian adopted children in American families, often based on the supposedly special genetic inclinations of the Russians .

See also

• Anti-Slavic sentiment
• Russia reporting in Germany

Literature

• Gabriela Lehmann-Carli, Yvonne Drosihn, Ulrike sweatshop-Sowitzki, Hilmar Preuss: Russia between East and West Poised ?: national identity . Frank & Timme, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86596-338-3.

External links

• Germany radio: Double standards? The coverage of Russia and the USA , 1 March-2013.
• Rudolf Maresch: Between Russophobia and Russophilia in Heise online, 7th Januar of 2009.
• Jutta Scherrer: Russia Pictures in Europe - Voices from France, Germany and Poland. Meeting in gene Hagen / Brandenburg 1.-2. Dec. 2006 [11]

References

Russia Category:Russophobia