Absurd, Rabid Hatred of All Things Russian

 By Henry Srebrnik, [Halifax, NS] Chronicle Herald

The war fever in Canada on behalf of Ukraine, noble though it might be, suggests to me that this is a form of submerged Canadian nationalism that has been repressed for many years by our woke globalist ideologues and so dare not speak its name, lest it be called homophobic, misogynist, white supremacist, and racist (as the Ottawa truckers convoy found out).

So getting behind this war is cost-free and a safe outlet for this otherwise forbidden feeling, which is now projected onto Ukraine – a country that until a few months ago few Canadians cared much about, as it didn’t even exist until 1991, when the Soviet Union crumbled.

Call it “patriotism by proxy.” It’s a safety valve, a way of letting off nationalist steam, especially as it brings back memories of the Cold War, the iconic 1972 Canada-Soviet hockey series, and so on, when Canada was, in their eyes, a more robust and perhaps “normal” country.

There was nothing like this even during the years when we were fighting in Afghanistan 2001-2014, where Canada lost 158 soldiers and 7 civilians.

Nor it this feeling confined only to Canada. Our American friends have also succumbed. In an article entitled “The End of Citizenship,” Professor Michael Lind, who teaches at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin, wrote the following in the March 27 Tablet news site:

“With few exceptions, Americans of left, right, and center rallied around the national colours. Postmodern multiculturalism and anti-Enlightenment paleoconservatism suddenly were marginalized by romantic nationalism of the 19th-century variety.”

As war fever swept America, they joined in denouncing not only the enemy government but also the enemy people and their enemy music, literature, and cuisine. Americans displayed the national flag and pledged undying hatred of the nation’s foes.

But the nation that Americans celebrated was not their own, but rather Ukraine. “Liberal Americans who would have thought it vulgar if not fascist to wave the Stars and Stripes took selfies with the blue and gold of Ukraine’s national flag.”

The sudden outburst of vicarious Ukrainian patriotism on the part of many Americans seems like a Freudian “return of the repressed.” Taught that celebrating their own national traditions is racist and xenophobic, many Americans found an outlet for a lost sense of belonging by borrowing the national pride of another nation.

And the obverse, as in all ultra-nationalism, is unbridled demonization of “the enemy.” There is a pent-up rage that is finding expression in the hatred of all things Russian – its arts, sports, food, you name it. Even people dead for decades or even longer are “cancelled,” their very names and work erased. There are many such examples, from composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut.

Some actions verge on the ridiculous. FIDE, the International Chess Federation, forbade Russian chess players from competing under their nation’s flag. FIFe, the International Cat Federation, used the following language: “No cat bred in Russia may be imported and registered in any FIFe pedigree book outside Russia.”

Never before the outbreak of the war has there been such a pervasive urge to place an identity -- Russian -- under the yoke of collective responsibility. Google the website of the iconic Russian Tea Room, a landmark in Manhattan since 1927, and a special message appears informing you, in bold capitals, that “WE STAND AGAINST PUTIN AND WITH THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE.” The words “SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE” is superimposed on a Ukrainian flag.

Russian professionals have been summarily dismissed or prevented from working unless they denounce Russian President Vladimir Putin. When has the expectation become acceptable that artists, performers, intellectuals, academics, and sports stars of Russian origin should engage in public political rituals in order to justify their professional status?

New Republic writer Matt Ford in his March 7 article, “The Russian Cultural Boycotts are Going too Far,” emphasized that speaking out can be dangerous. “I’m uncomfortable with demanding that citizens of an authoritarian country must denounce a regime that is more than willing to kill those who criticize it, even if they live overseas.” This reeks of McCarthyism. How very sad.

If the desired aim is to divide the Russian ruler and his people, collective punishment is not how to do it.