The origin of the term lies at the beginning of the nineteenth century. At that time, the imperialist pretensions of the British Liberals clashed with the Russians, which spread in Asia and hindered the desire for colonization of England. To protect its interests, England used propaganda against the Russians, saying that the Russians were cruel, autocrats, poor and backward, and the Westerners of Europe were linked to progress and civilisation. During the Napoleonic wars, French propaganda sent a similar message to that of the Russians. Napoleon himself stated that “Russia was a nation of savages.”

In 1807, an anonymous pamphlet appeared. He presented Russia as a savage, retarded and cruel empire, saying that he oppressed small nations and that his gigantic army had the capacity to destroy Europe. The pamphlet had a false will from Tsar Peter the Great, which had great influence over the next two centuries. Hitler also used it as a justification for invading the Soviet Union. In the supposed will, Tsar Pedro I, founder of the Russian Empire, advised his heirs “to conquer and dominate the whole of Europe.” For British writer and diplomat David Urguhart, Russia “was a despotic, tyrannical, non-civilized country that wanted to dominate the whole world.” The Russian elites defended themselves against these stereotypes and thus emerged the term Rusophobia, invented by the Russian poet and diplomat Fiodor Tiutchev. Repeating over and over again “if we do not stop the Russians, it will spread to the whole of Europe” was used to strengthen internal solidarity.

Fears about Russia were exaggerated and used to encourage further militarism and further justify the British imperialist pretensions. Through propaganda, they led people to believe that Russia was very expansionist and that it intended to spread throughout Europe. But Russia did not conquer land in Europe. On the contrary, Great Britain took the land from France, the Netherlands and Spain (Gibraltar). He also said that when the British did something it was to expand freedom and that the Russians were always going to destroy freedom.

The chapter of the Crimean War (1853-1856) stands out. Before the war, the Turks had been seen as attackers, as Islamic forces terrorizing Christian Europeans. Following the outbreak of the Crimean war, the British propaganda presented the Ottomans as innocent victims, while Russia behaved as a savage aggressor. This chapter of Rusophobia was preceded by the defeat that the Russians caused to Napoleon in 1812. This defeat led the British to replace the eternal French enemy with the Russian enemy. From there, Russia would be the main enemy of the powerful British and never accepted the Russians as Europeans.

This Blonde has led Russia to blame for many things:

• In the 1920s, there was a great boom in the labor movement in Britain. To crush them, liberal propaganda said they were receiving the help of the Russians who had most hated themselves for their state of health. To this end, the leader of the Communist International (CPI) created a false letter in which he ordered the British Communist Party to participate in subversive activities. The letter was found to be false, but by then the Labour Party had already been destroyed.
• In the 2016 elections, Bill Clinton created and financed the Steel report in order to damage Trump’s image and invented a link with Russia and Vladimir Putin. He organized it together with former American President Barack Obama. He was later accused of false hacking and the entire network of hidden servers.
• Perhaps the most significant case in recent years has been the false flag of the Nord Stream pipeline. A clear demonstration of what can happen when there is strong opposition to a country. The blame was thrown at Russia, but what would the pipeline collapse for if it was enough to close the key to cut off the gas supply? The United States and NATO took advantage of the incident to further militarize and escalate the wars in Ukraine.
• The massive migration taking place from Mexico to the United States is being accused by Russian agents. They would be responsible for the ongoing migratory crisis.
• In recent years, especially since 2017, bedbugs have appeared in France, especially in Paris, which have polluted a lot of furniture and beds. French propaganda attributes the plagues to Russia’s hybrid war.

This anti-Muslim sentiment feeds on mass propaganda. It has risks. In 1830 the Chronicle magazine asked for Rusophobia to calm down because “if we remain obsessed with threats that don’t really exist, we will be ridiculous.”

Joan Mari Beloki Kortexarena