The imperialist mindset starts young

You’ve probably come across people who claim that Israelis have an imperialist mindset. I’m not saying Israel is perfect, far from it, but to accuse Israelis of being imperialists is not just ignorant but downright deceptive. Now, imperialism doesn’t always have to be bad. Look at the Roman Empire and how it brought civilization to many corners of Europe and beyond. A thumbs up/thumbs down gesture actually goes back to gladiator fights but, apparently, thumbs down was actually good and meant a gladiator was going to live. There are positive imperial influences and there are terrible imperial influences. Unlike Rome, Russia isn’t exactly a champion of bringing civilization with its imperial ”ideals.”

Now, when I’m talking about the Russian imperial mindset, I’m not just referencing someone else’s experiences. I have first-hand experience with how deeply-entrenched that mindset is in Russians.

My first contact with the Russian imperial mindset took place in 1997 or so. I was around 12 at the time. I was in London with a group of rather posh kids and we were driving around with a group of British guides from one cultural landmark to another. You get the idea. There was this rich Russian kid, Serghey. How do I know he was rich? Ordinary Russians couldn’t affort that tour, let alone a trip to the UK. Simple as that. I didn’t know more about him and, frankly, didn’t care.

I did speak some Russian even then and said something to him in Russian. His eyes lit up and he started telling me, ”Ty Russkiy! Ty Russkiy!” and he was adamant about it. I didn’t really pay attention to it, because I knew, even then, what Russians were like. If anything, I found it interesting. I was always a linguist and a sociologist at heart. So, you see, the Russian imperial mindset is really pervasive. It’s not rare. It’s just how most Russians are. At one point, Serghey and I chose not to go to a museum and went to a video game store in some other part of London instead. We didn’t ask anyone for permission, of course. You can imagine how ”happy” our British guides were to see us when we came back.

Our British guides didn’t differentiate between me, a Pole, and Russians. We were the same to them. Were they malicious or mean? Were they aware of what they were doing? No, they weren’t. They just didn’t really see Poland as an independent nation. They had likely been taught only the Russian perspective at school.

I mean, come on, what would you expect from a bunch of Brits, anyway (no offense). It’s different now, you’d have to be a real ignoramus to claim Poland and Russia are even remotely similar, but I’m talking 1997 or so. Sadly, there are real ignoramuses among us today. Just ask around and you’re going to find Ukrainians living in Israel who are automatically assumed to be Russian. Such brazen denial of their identity is deeply painful.

Russian was introduced as a foreign language in my elementary school. There were protests, for obvious reasons, given that Poland had just emerged from the Russian de facto occupation (some say it’s still going on, just much more subtle). I remember my first Russian textbook Ну, погоди! was the title. That damn hare just couldn’t catch a break, because the wolf was never far behind.  I remember seeing dobroye utro writen on the blackboard for the first time, by my teacher of Polish, no less (oh, the irony).

I had no idea what it said. We don’t normally use the Cyrillic alphabet in Poland and, contrary to what you might think, there aren’t that many Poles who speak Russian, let alone read Cyrillic.

Now, my Russian is pretty fluent, though I rarely use it, I can switch to it fast if need be. To some demented Russian nationalists living in la-la land, that makes me a prime candidate for Russification/a Russian. Well, wrong number, rebyata. Just because I speak Russian doesn’t mean I want anything to do with 99% of you. I make an exception for really rare Russians who have managed to break free from their imperial conditioning. Now, that, in itself, borders on a miracle.

Why do Russian elites hate Poland, you ask? Well, one of their tsars was forced to kneel in front of our king and was imprisoned by us. I can only imagine Vladimir Putin wanting to nuke the hell out of us just to erase the source of such humiliation. Sure, four hundred years ago, but still. Russian elites neve forget. They will, of course, never admit it and claim that Poland is but a squirrel for the mighty Russian bear to smack around and stomp to death.

Well, what else is new, eh? I can imagine Putin running around the Kremlin, screaming: ”Just you wait, you ungrateful Polacks!”