…Aaand this is why I mostly stick to reading books and academic journals.
BTW, I linked to you in the footnotes of my latest review…the point had to do with the author promoting the trope “West=enlightened/desirable” and “Russia=Asiatic/backward”.
You’re right in that but books & academic journals are not completely free from ‘this’ – not all of them, of course, but still. In relation to Russia… it was rather common to view such Western vision in Russia as some sort of wink-wink-nod-nod-they-can’t-be-serious. I think many people in Russia including yours truly realized by now that it’s not just ‘propaganda’, this is how ‘they’ actually see ‘us’. I’ve written a draft post on my almost 4 year observation of this phenomenon on my blog. It’s not mere ‘Russophobia’ (hate this term tbh) or stereotypes (klyukva) – it’s a worldview thing, and a coherent method of constructing Russia-narratives.
P.S. I’ll check your post! Thanks for sharing.
Now that you mention russophobia…tbh I’m not a fan of the word either. It’s one of those words that has been repeated so much in the ‘Russosphere’ that it’s lost much of its impact or meaning. Not that there was an agreed-upon definition of what russophobia is and is not in the first place…fear of Russia and Russians? Hatred of Russia? Refusal to interact with Russia? A smear word used to deflect criticism of Russia?
The word’s a bit too one-dimensional for the phenomenon it’s trying to describe.
Russian Universe 
Seriously?
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Da! 😎
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…Aaand this is why I mostly stick to reading books and academic journals.
BTW, I linked to you in the footnotes of my latest review…the point had to do with the author promoting the trope “West=enlightened/desirable” and “Russia=Asiatic/backward”.
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You’re right in that but books & academic journals are not completely free from ‘this’ – not all of them, of course, but still. In relation to Russia… it was rather common to view such Western vision in Russia as some sort of wink-wink-nod-nod-they-can’t-be-serious. I think many people in Russia including yours truly realized by now that it’s not just ‘propaganda’, this is how ‘they’ actually see ‘us’. I’ve written a draft post on my almost 4 year observation of this phenomenon on my blog. It’s not mere ‘Russophobia’ (hate this term tbh) or stereotypes (klyukva) – it’s a worldview thing, and a coherent method of constructing Russia-narratives.
P.S. I’ll check your post! Thanks for sharing.
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I can’t wait to read your post as well.
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Now that you mention russophobia…tbh I’m not a fan of the word either. It’s one of those words that has been repeated so much in the ‘Russosphere’ that it’s lost much of its impact or meaning. Not that there was an agreed-upon definition of what russophobia is and is not in the first place…fear of Russia and Russians? Hatred of Russia? Refusal to interact with Russia? A smear word used to deflect criticism of Russia?
The word’s a bit too one-dimensional for the phenomenon it’s trying to describe.
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Exactly! It was overused. So it became a shadow of its former meaning(s). I wrote a post on it in 2014 (https://russianuniverse.org/2014/01/28/russophobia-cultural-racism/), but now I rarely use this word.
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