[War & Business] Europe's "Russophobia"

On the 13th (local time), a child participating in combat training in Mariupol, a city in eastern Ukraine, is removing live rounds from a rifle cartridge case. In Ukraine, as concerns over a Russian invasion spread, not only women but also children are undergoing military training. Mariupol (Ukraine) = AP·Yonhap News Photo by AP

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] As the possibility of Russia invading Ukraine has significantly increased, the term ‘Russophobia’ is once again gaining attention in Europe. This phobia, which has been rooted in European society for over 200 years since its emergence in the early 19th century, has greatly influenced the course of modern and contemporary European history.

The person who originally coined this term was Napoleon, who is said to have published articles about Russophobia in pro-government newspapers in France immediately after his failed Russian campaign in 1812. At that time, Napoleon propagated that "Europe is now inevitably at risk of becoming Russia’s spoils." After the Russian army defeated Napoleon’s forces and occupied various European countries, engaging in looting, Russophobia became deeply entrenched in European society.

Thereafter, Russia was classified as a region separate from Europe and was perceived as a backward, closed, and anachronistic dictatorship. After Russia brutally suppressed the Polish independence movement in 1830, and cholera, which had begun spreading in India, became a pandemic in Europe, major European media reported that Russia deliberately spread cholera to conquer Europe.

In the early 20th century, with the collapse of Imperial Russia and the birth of the Soviet Union?the world’s first communist state?the existing Russophobia intensified further by merging with the ‘Red Scare’ of communism. This is evaluated to have significantly influenced Britain and France’s tolerance of Nazi Germany’s rise to power and rearmament in the 1930s, which was hostile to Russia. It also laid the foundation for McCarthyism in the United States after World War II.

Russophobia, which had been somewhat forgotten after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, rapidly spread again in Eastern Europe following Russia’s invasion of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. President Vladimir Putin’s aggressive diplomacy, including military activities and weaponizing resources to restore Russia’s glory, plunged major Eastern European countries into security risks. For NATO member states in Eastern Europe, there is concern that if Ukraine and Belarus?countries that have served as a buffer?fall entirely under Russian influence, their own countries will become the frontline.

Non-Western countries, which are somewhat removed from the direct risk of war, are also worried about the economic pressures this may bring. Just as they were trying to recover economically after the COVID-19 pandemic, a new war variable has emerged. Ukraine, known as the ‘breadbasket of Europe’ and a key player in global wheat prices, and Russia, a resource-rich country with oil, natural gas, and various strategic materials, face supply chain crises that will only worsen if their economies halt due to war. Russophobia is now at a crisis point where it may expand from Europe to the entire world.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.