Is there a Russian Black Legend? (a dispute about the morality of Russia's colonial expansion)
score:5
In what I can only hope is a coincidence, Lydia Black described a Black Legend about Russian Alaska, which was both started and countered in the United States. The introduction to her "Russians in Alaska" includes this story:
In literature and political speeches, the period when Alaska was under the Russian scepter is stereotypically represented as a time of unbridled exploitation -- indeed enslavement -- of Native peoples, and wanton rape and robbery of Alaska's natural resources.... The origin of the stereotypic view of the Russian period may be safely laid at the doors of Hubert H. Bancroft and William H. Dall, who desired Alaska's rapid Americanization. This view was challenged by the end of the nineteenth century by a pioneer historian of Alaska, Clarence L. Andrews.
A parallel "white legend" within the Soviet Union was described by Bolkhovitinov (machine translation):
... the thesis of a special "progressiveness" of the development of Russian Siberia and North America by Russians, the democratic composition of Russian settlers and their friendly relations with the local population has become increasingly widespread in our literature. It is significant that the word "Russian colonization" practically disappeared from the pages of Soviet publications, and it was increasingly replaced by the neutral term "mastering".
Upvote:-4
You will long search for a black cat in a black room. Because it is missing.
Russia fought with different nations. The Far East - the Chinese, the Caucasus - the Chechens, Finland - the Swedes :) , the Baltic - the Germans :). But after the "occupation" this territory received bonuses. Finland is captured - maximum autonomy, the Caucasus is conquered - resorts are built, Asia is conquered - the first railways, the Baltic states are annexed - industry is built. Russian joke: hordes of Russian barbarians broke into peaceful Asian auls and left behind factories, theaters and libraries.
Do you want a black legend? In the Far East, the Russian Cossacks (Gurans) brutally fought against the Chinese. China still remembers who are the Gurans.
Upvote:2
There is no such unified term regarding Russian excesses during colonization as Spanish Black Legend. Definitely, there was a lot of cruelty during Russian conquests, particularly, the massacre of Novgorod (which was not a colonial war though as Novgorod was located in Europe and was an advanced city-state at the time). There was a lot of cruelty against the Chinese in the Far East, in the Caucasus, Central Asia, during conquest of Kazan and Siberia, etc.
If you want a thing that is politically similar to the Black Legend accusations, that is demonizing Russia, the most of accusations against Russia are centered around Stalin's time and early Soviet times. These include
Accusations of cruel repressions against some ethnicities during WWII (Tatars, Chechens, Baltic peoples).
Accusations of war crimes, such as rapes, marauding, committed by the Red Army in Europe, particularly, in Germany.
Accusations that the hunger in Ukraine in the 1930s was artificially organized.
Other accusations include the Red Terror during Russian civil war, the Great Purge of 1937-1938, Moscow show trials, antisemitic doctors' affair in 1952-1953 and alleged plans to resettle the Jews.
The accusations may go as far as claiming that the whole Russian culture and mentality is inclined towards undemocratic, autocratic, totalitarian government, that Russian culture and/or genetics are polluted by the Mongols during the Tataro-Mongol yoke, that Russian culture is collectivistic, state-centered and opposed to European culture that values personal freedom and human rights, etc.
There is also an anti-Russian ideology, originated in Poland, and called "Prometheism" that alleges that many peoples conquered by Russia are suffering oppression by the Russian state (which is called a prison of peoples), and that those nations should help each other in combatting Russian imperialism.
Upvote:6
Yes, there was a forgery literally claiming that Russia wanted world domination, called The Will of Peter the Great. Interestingly, this was cited by Napoleon as evidence that the Russian regime had to be destroyed. I think that would be enough to give the forgery the same power as a "black legend," although there is no historiographical term for it.
Upvote:10
I can give two reasons.
- Black Legend is so well known because it originates in English literature. At some time Britain competed with Spain, and later it essentially won this competition. It was important to represent Spanish conquests in the darkest possible colors. As English-written history is the most popular history in the English-speaking world (surprise!) this Black legend is well known among English readers.
British interests did not collide with Russian interests that much. But they did few times. And we have another meme "Great game". (See Wikipedia). This is about British-Russian competition in Central Asia in 19th century. We also have a similar meme "Cold war" about another period. The term is also of British origin.
But other aspects (and periods) of Russian expansion did not interfere much with the British interests, so we do not have he corresponding meme. The English writers just did not care much about Russian expansion.
- Another explanation of the same is that history is mainly written by the victors, not losers. In the case of British-Spanish competition the British were victors. So they wrote most of the history that we read. In the case of Russian expansion the only victor was always Russia. (Perhaps the Russo-Japanese war of 1905 is the only exception!) So who is expected to introduce a negative meme about Russian expansion? Swedes? Finns? Poles? Ukrainians? Lithuanians? Balts? North Caucasus? Central Asia peoples? Unfortunately these people do not write much of history which is read by the rest of the world. How many of us read history in their languages? How much of it is translated into English? Not much. Much more is translated from the Russian. For this reason the Russian point of view dominates. And there is no "Black Legend" about Russian expansion for the English-speaking world.
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