# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [March 7, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/61 "2011-03-07T20:44:15Z")
> [@A.Gwilliam](#): > > Apparently you’re unaware that when the USSR was invaded by Germany in 1941, the UK was the only country to become its ally? Not at all. I’m also aware that when similarly threatened by Germany before WW1, the UK also allied with a very different Russia. Britain’s foreign policy isn’t always right, but it has always been governed by a certain calm and coolness of judgement, and that includes allying with nations which it doesn’t like and/or may have other, longer-term strategic arguments with. > [@](#): > > 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? You don’t actually know anything about the history of colonialism, and what separates the U.S. and RUssia from the big colonial powers, do you? IIRC\< even Germany wound up with mroe colonies than the U.S. > [@](#): > > And as for Russia being culturally “young”…! Whether it was true or not, one impetus for the burgeoning democracy, socialism, and communism movements was a sense that Russia’s time had arrived - that it was now a real nation able to forge its own destiny as a Great Power, a partly nationalistic and partly ethnicist. In the half-century before WW1, Russia went from being a considered a backwater power of almost no importance to an industrializing nation, and with accompanying fertility in literature and science. The famous Russian Academy, though older than that, became important and very well respected. In short, Russia transformed from a late-medeival society into a modern nation. ---
**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, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/62 "2011-03-07T21:21:58Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > You don’t actually know anything about the history of colonialism, and what separates the U.S. and RUssia from the big colonial powers, do you? IIRC\< even Germany wound up with mroe colonies than the U.S. Actually, I know quite a bit about the history of colonialism. Do you not realise that the western two-thirds of the United States, and Asiatic Russia, were not nineteenth-century acquisitions of vacant land? ---
**Author:** ![Denchius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Denchius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Denchius)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/63 "2012-04-10T21:19:21Z")
We dont hate british people 🙂 We have many more important problems going on in russia And our government is fucked up because of Putin and Medvedev And we dont always drink vodka) ---
**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:** [April 11, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/64 "2012-04-11T12:36:32Z")
> [@Denchius](#): > > We dont hate british people 🙂 > We have many more important problems going on in russia > And our government is fucked up because of Putin and Medvedev Glad to hear it! > [@Denchius](#): > > And we dont always drink vodka) Why not?! ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/65 "2012-04-11T12:56:15Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > This is getting confusing. So is the country Great Britain or the United Kingdom? And if it’s not the United Kingdom, why is UK always used for the country in the media and never GB? Maybe the Russians are simply pissed off by all this confusion. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/66 "2012-04-11T13:14:05Z")
> [@Denchius](#): > > And we dont always drink vodka) Then you’re not a real Russian. Your opinion is invalid. Another way to look at the question is to ask what the Brits are doing to piss off the Russians so much. And what they hope to acomplish by it. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/67 "2012-04-11T13:44:05Z")
Except possibly for Chechnya, little of what the Russians have done post-WWII seems to have been motivated by hatred for any particular nation. Their primary motivation is fear or paranoia, I’d say. OTOH, lots of folks hate them some Russians. (Western) Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians, Georgians, and others who were part of the former USSR have no fondness for Russians, in my experience. This is especially true of people who are old enough to have grown up under Russian domination, though there are youthful nationalists too. ---
**Author:** ![Sri\_Theo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Sri\_Theo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sri_Theo)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/68 "2012-04-11T14:56:12Z")
This thread is a whole heap of confusion. But suffice to say that anybody who follows British politics would have no problems with the statement ‘why do the Russians hate the British so much’ even if it is way to broad. First there’s little to no animosity between the general populations, its not exactly a Serbia-Kosovo affair. Secondly its also a recent occurrence not a historical one, although there have been many periods of hostility between the two in the past there’s no real link to current contentions. So I would point out several specific events that have poisoned relations between the countries: 1. The [Alexander Litvinko affair](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko) which pissed of the British government because they assassinated someone in the UK in 2006 2. The Russians[caught us spying on them](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/19/fake-rock-plot-spy-russians) which we strenuously denied until we admitted it. Also 2006. 3. Russia kicked the British Council out of its Yekaterinburg offices in 2007 and harassed British diplomats. 4. Berezovsky talks about overthrowing the Russian regime in London - UK refuses to extradite, Russians get more pissed. 5. 2007 UK expels 4 Russian diplomats, some stuff about an important Russian spymaster accusing Britain of undermining Russia but I can’t remember the details 6. 2008 more intimidation of the British council [after British officials are questioned by the Security services](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7191411.stm) Foreign secretary sends an angry message concerning Russia joing the WTO and EU free trade deals. 7. Another billionaire Russian seeks refuge in London (its always London). Yuri Nikitin I don’t really know what happened. There’s a lot more stuff about Nabucco and various oil pipelines through the Baltics and Turkey which the UK hasn’t supported but this is what I believe has really poisoned govt. relations between the two in the last decade, no matter who was in power. And of course the general criticism of human rights that the UK regularly makes doesn’t endear us to them anyway. PS: I tried to find cites but much is of the top of my head, so feel free to correct me. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/69 "2012-04-20T21:47:47Z")
Christ I’mn out my fucking head but I love being back with Dopers, I’m Very Very,now see you tomoirrow! tire d ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/70 "2012-04-20T23:36:20Z")
OP, I think you’re just suffering from confirmation bias. You’re far more likely to notice hostility between Russia and the UK than between Russia and any other country. There certainly was hostility between Russia and Germany in the '80s. Remember the Berlin Wall? It’s certainly not something I’ve ever encountered in Russians I’ve known - and I’ve lived in Eastern Europe and taught EFL for 13 years so have met more Russians than the average Brit (I was out with a few Russians last weekend), so you’d think that at least once it would come up that our countries don’t like each other. If there really is more Russian hostility to the UK than to other European countries, it’s probably just because of the cold war when the UK and the US were so closely allied against Russia. However, most of Western Europe was involved in this too, plus a lot of the rest of the developed world, and the Cold War is long over, so this still doesn’t seem very likely to me. ---
**Author:** ![Sri\_Theo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Sri\_Theo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sri_Theo)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908/71 "2012-04-21T10:19:41Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > OP, I think you’re just suffering from confirmation bias. You’re far more likely to notice hostility between Russia and the UK than between Russia and any other country. There certainly was hostility between Russia and Germany in the '80s. Remember the Berlin Wall? > > It’s certainly not something I’ve ever encountered in Russians I’ve known - and I’ve lived in Eastern Europe and taught EFL for 13 years so have met more Russians than the average Brit (I was out with a few Russians last weekend), so you’d think that at least once it would come up that our countries don’t like each other. > > If there really is more Russian hostility to the UK than to other European countries, it’s probably just because of the cold war when the UK and the US were so closely allied against Russia. However, most of Western Europe was involved in this too, plus a lot of the rest of the developed world, and the Cold War is long over, so this still doesn’t seem very likely to me. Except he’s talking about the present day, so the Berlin Wall and the Cold War have nothing to do with it. And there is very clearly high level hostility between the leaderships of the UK and Russia, the general pop don’t give a crap so its unsurprising your friends don’t have any hostility to the UK. Compare and contrast Putin’s attitude towards Gerhard Schroder versus Tony Blair, Schroder’s commitment to Gazprom and the Nord stream pipeline (what I alluded to earlier) put Germany on very good terms with Putin who saw the two countries energy interests aligned. The UK on the other hand favoured the interests of the CEEC’s which was directly opposed to Germany’s (well Schroder’s, there was a lot of opposition) and Russia. When you have an important country directly opposing you in your key market that does not make for friendly relations. Also France sold Mistrals, an amphibious assault ship to Russia and Britain objected to that as well. More reasons for the Russians to get annoyed. All of this was underlying that little time line I posted earlier. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-russians-hate-the-british-so-much/571908.md?page=3)