New Russiaphobia and McCarthyism

Although the ongoing war in Ukraine reminds of the Cold War and the bipolar conflict, the West’s handling of the crisis seemed irrational in many of its actions, and reminded the audience of the era of McCarthyism’s control in the fifties of the twentieth century on cultural life and public space in the United States, as a result of the procedures of the Parliamentary Committee that It was led by the right-wing Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was the head of one of the subcommittees in the Senate, and who practiced cultural terrorism through his committee, and imprisoned a number of important figures on charges of belonging to the Communist Party, and this era was the beginning of a rightly expressive of the dominance of the Cold War laws, which extended for four decades later. .

Sergei Plukhy, professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University, mentioned criticizing Vladimir Putin’s thesis on (the historical unity between Russians and Ukrainians), which was used as a Russian argument in the recent invasion. In the Financial Times just before the last war: “The origins of this claim go back at least to the middle of the nineteenth century, when Russian imperial thinkers, in order to accommodate the rising Ukrainian national movement, formulated a concept of the Russian tripartite nation of great Russians (or Russians in today's understanding). for the word) and (Little Russians), or Ukrainians, because Ukraine in Russian literature was known as Little Russia, and (White Russians), or Belarusians.”

The same was the case for President Leonid Brezhnev, who was born and raised in central Ukraine and ruled the Soviet state between 1964 and 1982 and thus became the second longest-serving Soviet leader after Stalin. And also Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko, was another Ukrainian who reached the upper echelons of power, and led the Soviet Union for a short period, succeeding Yury Andropov from 1984 to 1985, as was the case of the last President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, who was born near Stavropol, North Caucasus, to a peasant family who emigrated from Chernihiv, It is a city in the north of Ukraine, and he is half Ukrainian, as his father is Russian and his mother is Ukrainian.

Russiaphobia, or the phenomenon of intimidating manifestations of fear of everything Russian, appears simultaneously with the recent war in Ukraine, and is reflected in the form of a floundering wave of populism in various Western countries in the fields of culture, academic life, art, sports, and even on the shelves of shopping centers. For example, the administration of the Italian University of Milan Bicocca requested to postpone a course on the famous Russian writer Fedor Dostoevsky against the background of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and it was to be presented by the Italian writer Paolo Nuri, who comes from the Alps region, who commented on the matter by saying: “In Italy today, being Russia is wrong. Apparently, even if I was a dead Russia, (as) Dostoevsky was sentenced to death in 1849, and his reading was forbidden.” And the writer continued, “What is happening in Ukraine is a terrible thing that makes me want to cry, but these reactions are ridiculous. When I read this email from college, I couldn't believe it.

In this context, a more strange, and perhaps we can say, more ridiculous decision came from the University of Florida, which changed the name of a classroom bearing the name Karl Marx and replaced it with a number only, as reported by “ABC News” on March 16, 2022. The university said in its comment on The report said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine affected its decision to delete Marx’s name, without clarifying the relationship between the two matters, as she indicated: “In view of the events taking place in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world, we have decided that it is appropriate to remove Karl Marx’s name, which was placed on a study room.” Collegiate at the University of Florida in 2014. Note that Marx is German and has nothing to do with Russia.

In the field of art, the mayor of Munich terminated the contract of the Russian conductor, Valery Gergiev, with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, due to his “unclear positions on the ongoing war in Ukraine” and “suspected support for Putin.” His previously agreed concerts in Italy, Paris, and a festival were also canceled. Swiss Lucerne. The international Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko has suspended all her concerts in European cities, after canceling her concert in Hamburg, Germany, and her concerts at the Bavarian Opera and La Scala in Milan, Italy. In the same context of the Russiaphobia campaign, the Royal Opera House in London canceled the summer season of the performances of the famous Russian “Bolshoi” Ballet. Although the slogan of international sports institutions, especially the International Football Association, is (not to include politics in sports), we find that the Russiaphobia campaign has violently penetrated the sports field, as the International Football Association “FIFA” prevented Russian football teams from playing their matches on their soil And it decided that its domestic matches will be played on neutral ground and without a public presence, and no Russian team will have the right to bear the name of Russia in any international competition, and it will be replaced by playing under the name “Russian Football Association (RFU)”, and it will be forbidden to raise the Russian flag or play the anthem The Russian national team in any matches of Russian national teams or clubs. FIFA hinted at the possibility of completely excluding Russia from its tournaments if it did not back down from its invasion of Ukraine soon. Putin (honorary) Federation.

And the limits of Russiaphobia reached the shelves of shopping centers with the campaign launched by various Western companies against Russian products and demanded to prevent their sale. The most prominent example of this was alcoholic beverages, the most important of which was Russian vodka, against which advertising campaigns were launched demanding that it be banned in Western markets. American states launched a broad campaign to boycott Vodka and Russian alcoholic drinks, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the campaign expanded to include Canadian provinces, British companies, and a senator from the US state of Arkansas wrote on his Twitter page: “Get rid of all Russian vodka and send ammunition, missiles, as well as empty bottles to Ukraine for use in Molotov cocktails. And from banning Dostoevsky's studies at university to banning the sale of Russian vodka in supermarkets, my heart, do not be sad.