What Russians Think about America (Part 2): the U.S. Envy

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In our last post, we discussed the overwhelming ignorance that penetrates Russian society on the whole when it comes to its skewed knowledge of the U.S. This time, we will briefly describe "the U.S. envy."

More after the jump...

A weird mix of love and hatred has been cultivated in Russian people for at least the last seventy years, and especially during the Cold War. The Soviet government proclaimed that poor, working Americans were "our friends and allies" according to the communist manifesto that clearly worded that "proletarians of the world" were supposed to unite. So all those Americans who somehow expressed their support for the Soviet Union were heralded as real heroes, truth-seekers, even martyrs. One of the "nightingales" who sang praise to the crumbling regime was oh-so-charming Dean Reed, virtually unknown in America, yet a common household name in Soviet Russia. Source

Well, even though Soviet people were kept behind the well-guarded iron curtain, some true facts inadvertently and surely were slipping through the cracks. 

Even then, during the most chilling times of the Cold War, despite all the official propaganda, many Russians had a very clear understanding that the American economy was doing much better than the Soviet economy, that American cars were better than Russian cars, that American rock stars were more popular than Russian rock stars in the world. America was viewed as a rival that Russians had to beat in a competition for global dominance. One of the most popular slogans of the time was "Let's catch up and outperform/outrun America" that was first introduced by Lenin and later cited by Stalin in relations to the West. The same slogan was later popularized by Khrushchev, who coined the very phrase in his speech in 1957. 

At the same time, Russians were taught to be proud of their own country and its achievements. As a result of this love-hate relationship, a strange mix of attitudes towards the U.S. is still common in Russians.

If you tell a Russian that American weapons are more powerful, he or she will reply that AK-47 (Kalashnikov) is the most popular weapon.

If you tell a Russian that American cars are better made, he or she will reply that American cars are no match for notoriously bad Russian roads.

Russians that immigrate to America are almost automatically labeled as "Jews" by their former acquaintances because a "real Russian" would never deserve Russian land full of birch trees.  The same acquaintances secretly wish for them to die from poverty and alcohol abuse while rummaging through food scraps left in a dumpster somewhere under the Brooklyn bridge, while regretting their decision to leave Mother-Russia just so they can say, "See, they used to be professors in Moscow and ended up as hobos in America." That would make their day. 

Even Vlad the Impaler (A.k.a. V. Putin) doesn't shine away from mentioning the U.S. in every single speech. If one acquired a special skill how to read between the lines that came in handy during the Soviet times, one can pretty much figure out what bothers the Russian government. The most substantial claim Russian leaders have against the U.S. can be summed up in just one short sentence: we want to be a superpower just like you guys.     

Russians are not denying the obvious, they are just trying to preserve their dignity. A shard of a great Russian Empire shattered by the revolution, a chip from the old Soviet Block still perceived by most Russians as the pinnacle of Soviet achievement, they keep trying to figure out their self-identity, which resembles a sphinx, or rather a mutated eagle with two heads and a split personality, with one head looking forward to the West and another one turned to the East.

The U.S. envy manifests itself in buying American cars, smartphones, clothes, building American-style houses, eating hamburgers at McDonald's, and doing other things "the American way." After the West won the Cold War, one very popular song emerged, "American boy, take me with you." The song is the epitome of the way Russians view the life in America. In lieu of all recent developments and the rise of ultra-nationalism, this song quite understandably fell out of favor.

However, this recently blown out of proportions Russian pride does not allow most Russian people to admit that their country does not exactly stand up to Western standards, no matter what "arshin" you are going to measure it with. Russians will go into great length to prove to themselves (and through Russia Today, to the whole world) that they are by no means worse and in many ways are better than the inhabitants of the so-called civilized West. What most Russians fail to understand that it is not the cars or a more developed economy that places other countries "ahead" in the race. It is the rule of law, the respect for human life, and the golden "do unto others" rule. Until Russia as a country accepts these universal values, nobody is going to accept Russia as a legitimate player.  

During the 90s, there was a popular song. Here is an excerpt from the lyrics, translated:

They grew too small for me,

Your aged jeans

We have been taught to love your forbidden fruit

For so long

Goodbye America, oh

Where I will never be

Will I ever hear a song

That I'll remember forever?

Мне стали слишком малы
Твои тертые джинсы
Нас так долго учили
Любить твои запретные плоды

Гудбай, Америка, о-o
Где я не буду никогда
Услышу ли песню
Которую запомню навсегда