# Why do the Russians hate the British so much? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 19, 2011, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908 "2011-02-19T13:10:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/41 "2011-02-22T17:59:51Z")
Thanks! As for the OP, maybe it’s just an old tradition by now? I remember all those Cold War novels of John Le Carre. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/42 "2011-02-23T01:15:46Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > That was very noble of the United States! What’s the evidence that the US sent troops purely out of friendship? Friendship to whom? The people of Archangel? Mehe? Never said it was noble, and I assumed it was obvious the friendship was with the Russian leadership. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/43 "2011-02-23T02:58:11Z")
Perhaps the Russians remember the British powered Mig-15 couldn’t reach the Canberra bomber spy planes That flew over their territory. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/44 "2011-02-23T13:11:31Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Thanks! > > As for the OP, maybe it’s just an old tradition by now? I remember all those Cold War novels of John Le Carre. Do you mean the use of the term ‘British’? That is correct – citizens of the UK are called ‘British’ (it’s in my passport), which I admit doesn’t help the political quabbles over the status of Northern Ireland, but is the correct term. There is no other term for ‘citizen of the UK’. Residents of Northern Ireland will call themselves ‘British’ or ‘Irish’ (and possible both) depending on their own affiliations. To confuse you further, ‘GB’ is often still used to refer to what is actually the UK – particularly in sports, e.g. [Team GB](http://www.olympics.org.uk/teamgb.aspx) is the UK olympic quad, and will still have GB on their shirts during the olympics. You can put that down to old tradition, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/45 "2011-02-23T14:17:50Z")
To get back to the O.P. There are “difficulties”, between the U.K. and Russia at the moment because we expressed very strong disapproval in the not so disant past,at the Russians assasinating people in London who have fled the Russian union for political reasons. The Russian diplomatic way is that if you are guilty; shout a lot, act like a bully and maybe you’ll scare your accusers into silence . Of course it doesn’t help that Britain has the special relationship with the U.S. whom the Russian leadership still consider to be a cold war enemy, inspite of the fact that the Russian Federation is profoundly capitalist rather then communist now. The Russians don’t in fact have a great love for any of the Western nations whom it considers to be "obstacles " to its being able to run roughshod over any inconvenient international diplomatic and business conventions. And I suspect that it will be a very long time before their attitude alters in any meaningful way. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/46 "2011-02-23T14:29:55Z")
Holdover ill will from the [Great Game](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game)? ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/47 "2011-02-23T15:18:47Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > To get back to the O.P. > > There are “difficulties”, between the U.K. and Russia at the moment because we expressed very strong disapproval in the not so disant past,at the Russians assasinating people in London who have fled the Russian union for political reasons. > > The Russian diplomatic way is that if you are guilty; shout a lot, act like a bully and maybe you’ll scare your accusers into silence . > > Of course it doesn’t help that Britain has the special relationship with the U.S. whom the Russian leadership still consider to be a cold war enemy, inspite of the fact that the Russian Federation is profoundly capitalist rather then communist now. > > The Russians don’t in fact have a great love for any of the Western nations whom it considers to be "obstacles " to its being able to run roughshod over any inconvenient international diplomatic and business conventions. > > And I suspect that it will be a very long time before their attitude alters in any meaningful way. I saw the same situation with their news programme Russia Today, when I first watched it, it seem alright, some good documentaries about Russia in general, then the avalanche of anti Western melodrama came about, so I quickly got bored of it. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/48 "2011-02-23T16:00:15Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > Mehe? Never said it was noble, and I assumed it was obvious the friendship was with the Russian leadership. Like I said, what evidence is there that America sent troops to Russia out of “kindness”, and not for the same geopolitical reasons that the UK did? With respect, assuming that any country does something out of “kindness”, and not for advantage one way or the other, is kind of naive. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/49 "2011-02-23T19:02:47Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > Like I said, what evidence is there that America sent troops to Russia out of “kindness”, and not for the same geopolitical reasons that the UK did? With respect, assuming that any country does something out of “kindness”, and not for advantage one way or the other, is kind of naive. First off, don’t ever put words in my mouth. You are stating, by using quotes like that, that I said it was kindness. If you want to use quotes for emphasis, make sure to be clear about it. Moreover, you’re completely mistating what I wrote. I reccommend going back and reading it again, because it’s obvious you weren’t paying attention. I **never** said anything about kindness, nor did I say there were no geopolitical reasons involved. The two are not wholly distinct. Only one of us is naive, and the completely cynical view is far more naive than the opposite. Government form critically important relations for a wide array of reasons. Friendship - or if you want to be cynical, then certainly informal relationships based on mutual interest, culture, or situation - are hugely important. Britain did not have one with Russia. _But America did_. We weren’t competitors in any sense, while we had a mutual interst in keeping European governments out of involvement with our affairs. We we both large, northern-hemisphere nations playing catch-up (probably in real terms, but _definitely_ in perceived ones) with the core European powers - partly Spain, but mainly England and France, and later Germany. Both were non-colonial nations (having relatively few and small holdings), but having a major interest in keeping the big colonial powers from excercising dominance. Culturally both were young, vital, and expanding - but still partly revolving around the cultural orbit of Europe. Furthermore, we did business on a very relaxed level, and some notable non-P.R. moves helped solidify things. America had a good working relationship with the Russian government. We had few geopolitical inetersts involved, apart from geenrally despising Communists. So yeah, I call it friendship. And you’re being awfully pedantic about it. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/50 "2011-02-24T03:12:39Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Do you mean the use of the term ‘British’? That is correct – citizens of the UK are called ‘British’ (it’s in my passport), which I admit doesn’t help the political quabbles over the status of Northern Ireland, but is the correct term. There is no other term for ‘citizen of the UK’. Residents of Northern Ireland will call themselves ‘British’ or ‘Irish’ (and possible both) depending on their own affiliations. > > To confuse you further, ‘GB’ is often still used to refer to what is actually the UK – particularly in sports, e.g. [Team GB](http://www.olympics.org.uk/teamgb.aspx) is the UK olympic quad, and will still have GB on their shirts during the olympics. You can put that down to old tradition, I think. Thanks for that, too. But in that post, I meant maybe it’s just tradition for the Russians to hate the British. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/51 "2011-02-24T03:36:06Z")
Perhaps they do, but truthfully I’ve never heard of Russians hating the English — many of the older generation in Eastern Europe still hate Germans, balanced by others ( and the same if Polish ) hating the Russians — or now or historically hating any country in particular on a permanent basis: they’ve been alternately allied with or fighting against practically every European nation at some time; as with any adverse relationship between nations, there’s no point in taking it personally. Each nation at the time is looking out for it’s own interests, as it should Some Russians hate the Poles. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/52 "2011-02-24T18:32:32Z")
> [@villa](#): > > In English it is indeed the Republic of Ireland. But if I am speaking English, and I refer to Hamburg as being in Bundesrepublik Deutschland, I have not made a mistake. For whatever reason\* Éire \*is to my mind rarely used in English. It has a slightly negative connotation, or at least sounds old fashioned when used that way. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/53 "2011-02-24T18:37:50Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > For whatever reason\* Éire \*is to my mind rarely used in English. It has a slightly negative connotation, or at least sounds old fashioned when used that way. It could be an age thing with me - I remember it being used a lot more commonly when I was growing up. What name to use for countries is always a question - Ivory Coast or Cote d’Ivoire, for example. I certainly didn’t intend anything negative by using Eire. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/54 "2011-02-24T19:24:18Z")
\*Éire \*reminds people of Dev. Not even Irish people want to think about Dev a lot. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/55 "2011-02-24T22:10:54Z")
> [@villa](#): > > It could be an age thing with me - I remember it being used a lot more commonly when I was growing up. What name to use for countries is always a question - Ivory Coast or Cote d’Ivoire, for example. I certainly didn’t intend anything negative by using Eire. Ah yeah I know 🙂 just pointing it out. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/56 "2011-02-25T02:56:07Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > For whatever reason\* Éire \*is to my mind rarely used in English. It has a slightly negative connotation, or at least sounds old fashioned when used that way. I remember it as a standard crossword-puzzle answer. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/57 "2011-02-25T07:08:49Z")
Most of this thread isnt related to the OP. I still fail to see any remote evidence of a deep distrust or hate from Russia towards UK/G-B. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/58 "2011-02-25T16:19:15Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Ah yeah I know 🙂 just pointing it out. Admittedly, I did initially type “Filthy Fenian Bogtrotter Country” but I deleted that, I swear. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/59 "2011-02-25T20:18:46Z")
> [@villa](#): > > Admittedly, I did initially type “Filthy Fenian Bogtrotter Country” but I deleted that, I swear. That would be more acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![A.Gwilliam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@A.Gwilliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.Gwilliam)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/60 "2011-03-07T15:13:29Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > Hmm… thinking back to my history, I can also say that the British have been utter dicks to Russia for quite some time. Almost as soon as the RUssians came onto the world scene, they wound up being opposed to the British a series of minor diplomatic feuds. And now that I think of it, most of these were the British kneecapping the Russians from accomplishing something. Apparently you’re unaware that when the USSR was invaded by Germany in 1941, the UK was the only country to become its ally? > [@smiling bandit (talking about Russia and the USA)](#): > > Both were non-colonial nations (having relatively few and small holdings), but having a major interest in keeping the big colonial powers from excercising dominance. Culturally both were young, vital, and expanding - but still partly revolving around the cultural orbit of Europe. Russia and the US were “non-colonial nations”?! How exactly do you think both countries had (only fairly recently) ended up covering such a large extent of territory? And as for Russia being culturally “young”…! > [@An\_Gadai](#): > > For whatever reason\* Éire \*is to my mind rarely used in English. It has a slightly negative connotation, or at least sounds old fashioned when used that way. “Éire” was formally adopted by the UK government in 1938 to describe what’s now more conveniently known as the Republic of Ireland. Just as it took time after 1937 for people to stop referring to the “Irish Free State”, it also took time for people after 1949 to stop referring to “Éire”. (Having the latter term appear on stamps maybe gave the term longer currency than it might have?) I suspect that “Éire” was always more commonly used in the UK than in the Republic! I would also guess that there’s more of a tendency for Conservatives and Unionists to use the term (not necessarily as a conscious thing). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908.md?page=4)