Why is there still ill-feeling and even hatred towards Russia in Europe? Why hasn’t it disappeared? Why is it that for years, decades, centuries after, the European phenomenon known as “Russophobia”, or enmity towards Russians, has been here to stay and is as felt as ever?

The impression is that Russophobia is part and parcel of the European mindset, that it is handed over from generation to generation. That Russophobia is strongly making itself felt in Europe yet again testifies to the fact that Europe is facing a new crisis, which the Europeans are trying to turn into a smear campaign against Russia. Europe puts the blame for all its troubles on Russia, without any intention of acknowledging its own mistakes.

These anti-Russian sentiments are deeply rooted in the past.

Here is a document titled “The First Political Will” which was written by King of Prussia Friederich the Great in 1752: “For deterring Russia, Prussia needs to fortify the eastern border, needs sufficient influence on Poland in order to have a tangible defensive stronghold on Vistula….Prussia would benefit most from a civil war in Russia and lack of unity in Russia. A strong Sweden, a strong Scandinavian counter-balance to Russia in the Baltic, plays into Prussia’s hand too…»

In 1578, Count of Alsace thought of “a plan to transform Moscovia into an imperial province”. The Count’s assistant Henrich Staden wrote: “The new imperial province Russia will be ruled by one of the emperor’s brothers. The power in the captured lands must belong to imperial representatives, whose objective will be to provide German troops with everything needed at the expense of the population. To this end, each military camp should have peasants and tradespeople assigned to it – on a territory of twenty miles – so that they will pay maintenance to our warriors for their safety and provide our forces with everything needed…. We must take away from Russians their best horses, and their best riverboats…”

In 16^th-19^th centuries Europe saw a large number of publications of Russophobic books, which created an anti-Russian public opinion. Among those were “The Notes on Muscovite Affairs of 1517” by Sigismund Herberstein; “The Country and Rule of Muscovites” by Henrich Staden, 1576; “The  Secret Notes on Russia of the Reign of Catherine II and Paul I” by Charles Masson, 1801; “The Notes on Russia” by Baroness Germaine de Stael, 1812, and others in which the  European authors portray Russians as “white barbarians”, “slaves by spirit” and “aggressors”.

Undisguised Russophobia became particularly pronounced in Europe when Russia, having defeated Napoleon, became a major military power – it happened during the rule of Emperor Nicholas I (1825–1855). It was then that Marquis de Custine published his book “La Russe en 1839”, which marked an important stage in the information and propaganda war run by Europe against Russia. The Russophobic book became a European model for assessing Russia and the entire Russian nation. Even though de Custine received a hearty welcome in Russia and  became a guest to Emperor Nicolas I, the final version of his book revealed a lot of false information on Russia. Although the publication was presented to  the European reader as “documentary notes”, it contained a large number of untrue stories and their  interpretations.

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