Thread: "Russophobia" and "Russophilia" :)

I personally didn't notice it until ca 2004...

Although I remember in the 1990s bad guys/girls (gangsters) in Scandinavian films were always Russian. Or rather, people pretending to speak Russian.
It got really predictable; if a Russian person was in the plot, you knew that he was up to no good.

Personally, for my family, my dad lost a lot of money due to deals that went bad with Russia around 1991. Thank goodness the internet wasn't around in those days to document it. But it certainly didn't make me like Russia for the following decade, although it wasn't really anyone's fault in particular.

Before that - in my lifetime - no Russophobia in the extreme way we see now, although some of course disliked the USSR. I associated Russia with cosmonauts, ice hockey, chess, folk costumes and music/arts before then. A bit dull and old fashioned.... Some deep, artsy extentialist film on TV when you wanted something lightweight.

I think a couple of hundred years ago though, people in Sweden hated Russia because of the various wars and battles. There is a poem about it which people my father's age know by heart, against "Muscovites".
And I think Russians attacked at some point, and burned down a city in Sweden. But this is 100s of years ago... We did the same things to others...
So if you dig DEEP then yes, there is some Russophilia.

I think Poland has similar issues, maybe stronger in their case.

I know this is an awkward topic, but it's the reality of what's happening in Europe today.
It's a huge propaganda war against Russia.

I am against this type of either/or (for/against) approach; it tends to prevent reasonable debate. When categorized in either group, any argument (even a valid one) you might bring is somewhat devalued to begin with - as you are expected (and known to) to defend your category even at the expense of merit, logic or fairness.
In my opinion there exists a lot of middle ground. If you were born and raised in Russia, I would expect you to love and support your country; however that does not have to come at the cost of being completely blind. It also helps at times to be able to distinguish between country and government. The more dictatorial a government, the thinner this line of separation becomes.
If you are born outside Russia (like myself) you can easily have a very soft spot for Russia for:
* its deep culture and beautiful language
* its immense capacity for suffering and withstanding hardship
* its amazing pride and human spirit
* its significant contribution to history, all areas of science and politics
At the same time it is impossible not to recognize the harm and damage various Russian governments have brought to their own people (never mind others); many of Russia's/Soviet Union achievements (be it infrastructure, manufacturing, society restructuring or scientific developments) came at huge cost to the environment (think Nickel Norilsk) and damage to a section of the population (my own ancestors were caught up in this).
Be it as it may, I consider myself to be sympathetic towards Russia, but Russia as the country (its culture and its people) rather than the government. From a European perspective, I can only give a 'german' view; and there, I do not really see that extreme 'Anti-Russia' view. Most people are reasonable objective; yes - many are concerned about the recent Crimea/Ukraine activities, but so are they about the USA NSA spying activities and a lot of other issues.