Why Belarusians love Russians. What is the attitude towards Belarusians among residents of neighboring countries
According to a survey by Rating Group Ukraine, 55% of Ukrainians are friendly to Belarusians (43% are good, and 12% are very good). Only 2% have a "cold" attitude towards us.
The attitude of Russians towards Belarusians has slightly worsened, according to the results of a study by the Russian analytical agency Levada Center. 83% of Russians treat Belarusians well (against 87%). Poor - 8% (last year 7%).
Our southern neighbors love us too. According to a survey by Rating Group Ukraine, 55% of Ukrainians are friendly to Belarusians (43% are good, and 12% are very good). Only 2% have a "cold" attitude towards us, reports euroradio.fm.
The sociological survey conducted among Lithuanian residents in 2014 by Spinter tyrimai had a slightly different format. Respondents had to answer which neighboring countries they consider Lithuania to be hostile and which one to be friendly. 6.5% of Lithuanians call Belarus friendly, 19.1% - hostile.
The attitude of Lithuanians towards us has improved. In 2006, only 5% of Lithuanians considered Belarus a friendly country, but every second country was hostile.
At the same time, the Lithuanians changed their attitude towards the Poles. Rzeczpospolita is considered hostile by 26.8% of Lithuanians, which is 19% more than in 2006.
Political scientist from the Vilna Institute of International Relations and political science Vitas Yurkonis says that one should distinguish between the attitude towards the country and its people. The population has become more loyal to Belarus for many reasons.
"Economic cooperation, Belarus' investments in the port of Klaipeda also have an impact. Well, it's no secret that many Belarusians visit us on different reasons ", — states the opinion of a political scientist.
But the attitude towards the state can constantly change. For example, it depends on how events around the Ostrovets NPP develop.
The attitude towards Poland has deteriorated because it has fallen "from the radar" of Lithuania, explains Vitas Yurkonis. In Warsaw's foreign policy Lately more focused on big countries such as Germany and France. But new president promises a greater focus on regional cooperation, maybe after that overall picture will start to change.
By the way, 28% of Poles have warm feelings towards Belarusians. They just don't like us a little more - 29%, as evidenced by data from the Polish CBOS Foundation.
Political scientist Denis Melyantsov also emphasizes that one should distinguish between attitudes towards the people and the country. What matters is how the question is asked. If Lithuanians were asked about their attitude towards Belarusians, and not towards the country, the answers would be completely different. The media can also influence public opinion.
"In the media of the same Poland, Lithuania, the European Union, Belarus is presented as a country with negative connotations: both dictatorship, and violation of human rights, and in the military-political sense, Belarus is an ally of Russia," says the political scientist.
For example, in the Polish media, the Belarusian-Russian exercises cause outbreaks of hysteria, just like in Lithuania. The same "mirror" attitude is created in our media towards the NATO countries.
But if there is a lot of personal communication between the population of countries, media influence does not matter.
“Russians often repeat that no one loves them and they covet love, mistaking its absence for dislike.”
The topic was raised by Moscow bloggers who took away from Minsk a photo report that excited Belarusian users of social networks. At what point did the closest neighbors get so tired of Russian tourism that Muscovites became a sore point. Belarusians known to Minsk help to figure out why Russian tourists come to them, what offends the natives in their behavior, and how to deal with it.
Andrey Kabanov, entrepreneur:
As a rule, I pay attention to the poorly concealed show-offs of Russian tourists. Doesn't offend me, I'm laughing at this. Belarus is a kind of tourist meme for Russians: to come to the holidays without visas, good roads and cheap car service. They often improve the health of their horses, there were cases among my Moscow friends with seasonal diseases of foreign cars. But I don’t have native Muscovites among my close ones, all my friends, as a rule, live in rented apartments, and they come here to quickly waste some part of the dough for limited time, because walking in glamor prices on such a scale in Moscow is painful.
Evgeny Kurlenko, programmer:
Belarusians behave paradoxically towards Russians - almost no one will declaratively say that Russians are better in some way, but at the same time, Belarusians do not strive to look so “good” in front of anyone else. Almost every tourist, of course, compares Minsk with Moscow: this is “clean”, “no advertising”, “no people on the streets” and other completely accurate remarks, but every visitor reports this as the discovery of America, which we, the locals, are somewhat fed up with. In general, the Russians have somewhere to go, and Belarus is far from being in the first place in priorities.
But there is a category of Russians, and not so small, which organically simply cannot go where they would not be corny understood at the language level. As a result, their geography does not extend further than xUSSR and Turkey and Egypt. What distinguishes a Muscovite tourist (precisely a tourist, and not a person who travels from Minsk to Moscow regularly) is the subjective perception of the cheapness of Minsk in everything. Moscow tourists believe that everything here costs a penny and begin to squander money even where it is neither modest nor profitable for them. Everything else depends, of course, on cultural level guest. If it is low, we notice arrogance, low empathy, over-egocentrism. And there is another type of tourists who go to see the country of the victorious Lukashenka. I don’t think that this is at least a statistically significant percentage, but it’s precisely in the media field that they make the weather, so they cannot be ignored. This type of tourist is the most unpleasant for us - a person specially goes to step on a corn that hurts us and, moreover, write about it later.
Vladimir Matskevich, philosopher and political scientist:
Personally, I'm indifferent to the Russians. I have no love for them, and no dislike. But sometimes you have to speak sharply against the Russians. I'll try to explain what caused it. You see, love is the greatest miracle in this world, and as the best thing in the world, it is rarely found. This is a gift to be rejoiced at, to be grateful for. But love cannot be demanded! The most stupid and ugly thing is to extort gifts, to demand gifts. Russians often repeat that no one loves them, and in the absence of a gift, they seek love, mistaking its absence for dislike, although this is a common attitude. Well, there are Russians in this world. There are Papuans, Pygmies, Luxembourgers, Vepsians and Russians. And enough of them. But no! An ordinary Russian will come to some country. And they answer him there not in Russian!
“Oh, they don’t like Russians here?” Yes, it just doesn’t care about the Russians, everyone is equal. And in Belarus they don't like Russians. We just want to see a person in everyone, and if it is important for a person that he is an Armenian, Pole, Jew, Turk, Gascon or Catalan, we will understand. That's enough. For some reason, some Russians behave unworthy of love, and, having not received it, they think of themselves not as a person, they mean by themselves a whole nation - Russians. Be human and maybe someone will love you.
Olga Rodionova, blogger:
We treat Russians like Romanian border guards treat Ostap Bender. Remember, in the film "The Golden Calf", when the hero of Jurassic illegally walked across the ice across the border, hung with gold, and tried to bribe customs officers? And they chorus: “Bran-zu-let-ka!” And they begin to "pluck" it. Final frame we see Yursky, shielding the camera with his hand: “The millionaire didn’t work out of me, I’ll have to retrain as a house manager!” I, perhaps, do not like Russians very much, despite the fact that these are the main readers of my blog, and I even managed to somehow get into matrimonial relations with a citizen of the Russian Federation. I constantly see in Minsk those who came from Moscow for the weekend to have a go, like a “gentleman from Paryzh”, relying on myths and legends “about Belarus”. They still believe that a banknote of 5,000 rubles will immediately make a scene from the Eurotrip movie for them, and then they swear loudly, looking at the bill. And immediately they understand everything up to 50 Belarusian rubles, despite the usual “I can’t figure out these candy wrappers of yours.” But we know that none Russian city there is no such ordinary landmark for us as the town hall: “when we already had the Magdeburg Law, the Muscovite washed his face with a brick!” So, personally, I consider myself quite right to troll the guests of the capital of the 2014 World Hockey Championship, for example, by offering to take something from a drawer, because “a desk drawer” is a long time to pronounce!
Nikolai Khodasevich, TV presenter:
They are often given away by the accent, gait and slightly haughty look of a Russian - all this is a continuation of the usual imperial presentation of our eastern neighbors about ourselves. The Russians still consider their country great, successfully continuing to experience all the wealth given by nature. The belief of certain types that you can buy everything and everyone - it causes the greatest bewilderment. Just two years ago there was a boom. My friends from Russia called with a request to book accommodation, make a cultural program for them, and so on. There went some nix, which in Belarus is very low prices literally everything. Well, one visit was enough to dispel the myth. In general, it’s probably great to come to us for many reasons: it’s not far away, there is no language barrier - such a small island of silence in the center of Europe. True, the Russians themselves have a huge choice of this silence - any city outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow. But I don't like that guests (not only Russians) are served in restaurants and cafes in Minsk at an order of magnitude higher level than their own. Such is our mentality.
Philip Chmyr, musician:
Snobbery always offends when it comes from someone you consider a friend. Then he starts to annoy, and then you start to punish him. It seems to me that we are already at the stage of irritation. I would not generalize all Russian tourists, but people of low culture have common features. The problem is that recently there have been many tourists from Russia with these traits. They do not follow traffic rules, ignore parking rules, talk loudly in in public places and allow themselves loud appraisal statements. To which there is always something to answer. Any answer begins like this: "Great nation ..." And then the options: 1) Build a road from Moscow to St. Petersburg. 2) Make your own mobile phone, car, and so on… Belarusian hospitality is a myth. Belarusians are not tolerant, they are even more unacceptable to the appearance of other species, they are vindictive: an example is the partisan movement. And therefore, the answer to rudeness can be special services in our cafes (slowly), damage to their cars in the parking lots, subsequent repairs at three prices in our service stations and careless proceedings by the cops themselves. I think the cops themselves will soon begin to fine them for such skating. As they say, "the earth burned under the feet of the invaders."
Vasily Andreev, designer:
I wanted to write something bad. I knew it for sure. I remember that the first point of advice to a Russian tourist began with the following: “You shouldn’t take out 20 thousand rubles in front of the exchange office and ask with a smirk: “And ... how much money is that?” Because (bitches) one dollar is your 30 rubles!” But the trip to Barcelona changed me. In the morning, under the balcony, I see a mocking inscription: “Now look at this beautiful balcony, a resident of Barcelona is standing on it.” And the events in Kyiv changed me. And the way we drove from Sweden to Denmark changed me. “Welcome to Arabian Scandinavia,” Stefan said, meaning that the Danes, according to the Swedes, do not follow the laws, traffic rules, and generally drink a lot and everywhere. We have not yet got what Scandinavia lives with: a bunch of immigrants who ask in line at the exchange office: “Why do they have coins with holes?” But this is Scandinavia, cold, white and windy. Now remember the number of tourists in southern Europe. I have strong doubts about the tolerance we impose on ourselves. We simply do not know if we are tolerant, because so far they have not let anyone in. And we already have a lot of questions. Because we get irritated in line when we hear the question: “Ha ha, what can we do with these five thousand?” And the Russians, who come to Minsk with a ridiculous number of tourists, are our test of tolerance. I'm afraid we haven't passed it yet."
Below are the reasons for fierce hatred Belarusians to Russia.
But this is not observed about Ukraine. Muscovy took Ukraine from the Poles, and the Poles took Ukraine from Lithuania / Belarus, and earlier Ukraine was taken from the Golden Horde. On the territory of the Wild Field Russian empire exterminated the nomads, creating new Russian lands, later transferred to Ukraine, they are sometimes called Novorossia. The USSR transferred Galicia, Novorossia and Crimea to its composition, created a powerful industry (however, throughout the USSR, as well as in the BSSR). Cons: the leadership of the Ukrainian SSR staged the Holodomor for foolishness.
At the same time, Belarusians considered it best to be friends with Russia, and Ukraine considered it best to be at enmity with Russia, believing that it brought them many disasters.
So explain to everyone, Ukrainian patriots, what did Russia do to you worse than what it did to the Belarusian people?
According to the survey, only 21% of Poles have sympathy for Belarusians, and 32% of respondents feel antipathy towards us. Another 31% of Poles have a neutral attitude and 16% could not decide on their preferences.
The most warmly Poles are Czechs and Italians (44%), Americans and British (43%), Slovaks and Hungarians (42%), Spaniards (40%) and Norwegians (38%).
Our neighbors have the most negative attitude towards Arabs (62%), Gypsies (59%), Russians (49%), Ukrainians (40%), Germans (36%) and Jews (33%).
With regard to Belarusians, sociologists recorded one of the largest drops in sympathy - by 16% over the year. By the same amount, the sympathy of the Poles decreased only for the Germans.
Why did the attitude towards Belarusians in Poland deteriorate so sharply, and why did the neighbors, with whom the Poles have no serious historical and modern conflicts, ended up at the bottom of the list of preferences? With such a question, Svoboda turned to Polish intellectuals.
Katarzyna Kwiatkowska-Moskalevich, reporter, author of the book Kill the Dragon. Ukrainian revolutions»
“We don’t like Russians for Katyn, Ukrainians for Volyn, Germans and Jews for conspiracy code-named “Polish death camps.” Only the fall in sympathy for the Belarusians cannot be explained by a just insult.
Almost everyone loves Belarusians in our region. A friend from Minsk once told me that while traveling through the conflicting Balkans, she was greeted everywhere with sympathy. In Serbia, for the Serbian-Belarusian-Russian union of Orthodox Slavs, which "Belarusians did not betray, like vile Ukrainians." In Croatia, Belarusians were perceived as oppositionists who suffer from the last dictatorship in Europe.
They were good for everyone. And if we agree that it is impossible not to love Belarusians, then the fall in sympathy indicates that the Poles, unfortunately, do not love anyone. And this serious problem because he who does not love anyone does not really love himself either.
Zemovit Scherek, writer and journalist
“Poles don't know much about Belarusians, except that they are some kind of 'Russians'. The Ukrainians managed to break out of this stereotype, but the Belarusians did not.
But even those Poles who know something about Belarus do not know who a Belarusian is: a hipster from Minsk who insists on speaking Belarusian and wearing a white-red-white flag, or a post-Soviet person who was already instilled with Belarusianness by Lukashenka, having made the streets and districts clean, introducing "order", which the Belarusian is proud of, because this distinguishes him from the Ukrainian and the Russian.
But the truth is that the heroes of this sad poll are not those who know something, but those who "do not like Belarusians", because in general they "do not like Russians", within the stupid line of power of PiS (the ruling right-wing national-conservative party "Law and Justice" - BP note). Publicly expressing bad assessments of other peoples in Poland is no longer considered in bad taste. This is an element of "rejection of the dictatorship of political correctness" and "getting up from your knees."
But there is also a positive side. From my experience it follows that even if theoretically a Pole "does not like Russians", then when it comes down to it, when Poles get to know them, they not only love, but even boast about them in a friendly circle.
Agnieszka Romaszewska, director of Belsat
“The main reason is that the Poles simply do not know who the Belarusians are. During the elections, Belarus is more or less mentioned, but it's all gone. Today, few people are interested in Belarus in Poland.
The Poles have always said: "Russians trade on the market," but few of us understood whether they were Russians, Belarusians or Ukrainians. The Belarusians were never mentioned. Most people associate Belarus with Lukashenko. The Poles do not like Lukashenka, and someone can translate this dislike into Belarusians.
If in public and political life something reprehensible happens in Poland, they call it “Belarusian standards” or “like in Belarus”. But I do not see any reasons for such a significant change in sympathy. I generally find this unlikely. It's something unreal. The Poles simply do not know anything about Belarus and Belarusians.”
Jakub Maimurek, political commentator
« This poll shows a radical decline in Poles' sympathy for representatives of almost all nationalities. It can be assumed that this follows from the growth of xenophobic and nationalist sentiments that inspire the PiS and the media that support the authorities.
It's hard to say why Belarusians are so low [in the poll]. During recent years we did not have strong anti-Belarusian propaganda. Poland is not waging any "war of memory" with Belarus - one of the few neighbors, there are no disputes on the basis of historical politics.
Unlike Ukrainians, there is no large Belarusian economic emigration, which could potentially be a reason for nationalist agitation. Maybe the reason is that Belarus is often associated with Russia, whose policies are worrisome in Poland.
Belarus also has the image of a poor and backward country ruled by a grotesque dictator. And, perhaps, the fault lies in the weak "soft power" of Belarus in Poland. However, even taking all this into account, I am not only upset by this figure, but also surprised.”
The study was conducted during the first week of February. 1057 people took part in it. It is noteworthy that in the survey, residents more often spoke about sympathy for other nations. big cities, people with higher education and high-income youth, atheists and left-wingers.
The Center for Public Opinion Research draws attention to the fact that last year's survey showed an atypical result, which indicates a very large increase in Poles' sympathy for other peoples. "That's why latest results should be perceived as a certain amendment to last year's ones," the authors of the study write.
