With or without fake noses, they seek to dynamite Western unity in the face of the destructive madness of Vladimir Poutine. Out of anti-Americanism, out of hatred for our liberal democracy, those who are nicknamed the pro-Russians and the “useful idiots” of the Kremlin are active on social networks and in political spheres. We thought they were condemned to silence since the Russian invasion, they have never been so dangerous.
Pierre de Gaulle, guest of honor at the first congress of the International Russophile Movement, in Moscow? At Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, his illustrious grandfather must have turned in his grave, he who, when it came to choosing sides, always knew how to keep his distance from Stalin and Krushchev. His grandson does not bother with the same precautions. This March 14, 2023, right behind his desk, under the glass roofs of the Pushkin Museum, he testifies to his unwavering attachment to the regime of Vladimir Putin. “To be Russophile is to refuse the diktat of the single thought which says that the Russians are bad, he confided, after his speech, to the Russian channel RT. American films have widely propagated this image of the aggressive and hostile. That’s not true.” At the same time, the Russian army was pounding the Ukrainian soldiers in the ruins of Bakhmout.
In the seven pro-Russian families, Russophiles occupy a prominent place. They vibrate for the heroes of Dostoyevsky, evoke the Bolshoi, Russian values… “In France, we fantasize a lot about the Slavic soul, whimsical and very far from our Western reserve”, comments Iegor Gran, son of the Russian dissident Andreï Siniavski and author of the essay Z as zombie (POL). “But how does having great novelists make us indulgent towards the Kremlin and its deadly war? soft-power Russian is efficient…”
“And for good reason! Let’s not forget that the soft-power was invented by Olga Kameneva, Trotsky’s sister!” underlines Natalia Turine, publisher of Russian origin, owner of the Globe bookstore in Paris. “In the 1920s, she had Bolshevik authors translated into French in order to disseminate their ideology in intellectual circles. This propaganda still exists today. Why do we speak of ‘Russian culture’? Of ‘Russian music’? Stravinsky refused to say that his music was Russian. Do we say of Don Juan that’s Austrian music?”
“A Russian exception”
Added to this is a certain fascination for a “Russian power”, which would share the same heritage with France, a “common reference”, in the words of historian Maurice Vaïsse. From the battle of Borodino (1812) to the Normandie-Niemen squadron (1942), “this awareness of a common history has long fueled the idea that there was a Russian exception and that Moscow had the right to have a zone of influence, comments Marie Dumoulin, director of the Wider Europe program at the European Council on International Relations. This conviction circulates among those nostalgic for a certain French power, which is now in decline.”
Did the Boutcha massacre and the explosion of the Kakhovka dam calm the ardor of these Russian romantics? Probably not, so strong is this vision of a Russia that guarantees traditional values which, they say, are withering in France. “But this vision is false! exclaims Vera Grantseva, political scientist and professor at Sciences Po Paris. 1 out of 2 Russian marriages ends in divorce; it is estimated that more than 40 million euros are paid in alimony that are not paid by the fathers; and only 4 to 8% of the Russian population attends Orthodox churches! This ‘moral Russia’ is totally fantasized.” The country’s declining population, rising crime and Moscow’s growing isolation on the international stage may well dispel this mirage.