We have a relationship with England that goes back more than 500 years. Unfortunately, more often than not we were taken advantage of. We most often gave them duty-free trade, fought for them and accepted all sorts of assurances of respect from them. No matter what nasty things the local media have written about Russians over the centuries and those in power have said.
Although usually Russophobia most often affected only the aristocracy and the middle class. The lower classes did not care about all this. They thought about their daily bread, which was always expensive in England.
Mr Bean is not the real England
Today England is different, filled with Asian migrants and Russian nouveau riche. All the more curious is the view of our ancestors on the local nation on the eve of the First World War. Moreover, England then stood at a crossroads, not knowing which side to get involved in the war on. She has always been distinguished by commercialism, and not by banal words about peace and justice.
Already at the beginning of the last century, many nations called the British hypocrites and traitors. However, their defenders tried to justify the unflattering reviews about them with one word — big egoists. Over the past centuries, they essentially did not have a peasantry, so they grew up in cities and colonies, to which they were indebted for their proud arrogance or, as foreigners said, swagger. They themselves allowed only foreigners to bow to the British. Moreover, the British have a rather rough, without nuances, language. There is no ambiguity in it, whereas the French language is made for wordplay, sometimes to the point of indecency.
In late Sherlock Holmes England, it was customary that certain topics were only acceptable in clubs, smoking rooms, or bedrooms. Thanks to such snobbery, even the lower classes did not allow their emotions to be shown in their circles. Ambiguity or shallow jokes were not allowed even in the servants’ kitchen at the common table. Benny Hills and Mr. Beans are just TV shows whose goal is to gain more monetary audience. Like our current post-Soviet humor.
A contemporary of Kipling noted that, having spent several months in the area of a large industrial center in England, she had never seen such disgusting scenes that infested the Parisian boulevards. An Englishman may be depraved to the core, but in conversation he will always be decent. Some will call it hypocrisy, others civilization.
As foreigners wittily noted, John Bull, of course, is no less susceptible than others to the temptation to covet his neighbor’s wife or his donkey, and also violates the seventh commandment no less often than other nations do. But he doesn’t brag about it, on the contrary, he tries to hide it.
The Englishman never comes out of his shell. He lacks initiative, has difficulty assimilating with foreigners, and despises foreign languages. All this was more than compensated for by immigrants from the same England, who, having screwed up their homeland, created the USA in the 18th century. However, even foreigners most often saw treachery not in the people, but in the rulers of England. And what nationalities were there and are to this day… Both the German kings and the prime ministers were by no means because of the Round Table of King Arthur. It was they who for centuries set traps for different countries, gaining their trust, they bought everyone and resold everyone.
Whiskey, suit and nationalism
It’s funny that our ancestors, more than a hundred years ago, noted the main «microbe» of England — alcohol. Yes, most often several bottles of beer are equivalent in degrees to a bottle of whiskey. But cheaper. Both the rich and the poor drink. The first, the Germans reported, swallow whiskey, cocktails and expensive wines from France, while the poorer ones sit on cheap overseas gin and beer. In this regard, there is a complete classless “swill” society here. Already in the time of Charles Dickens, it was not unusual for servants to pick their masters and guests out from under the table in the morning. And batteries of bottles were taken to the trash heap. True, the tables were made of mahogany, and the drinks cost the owner a lot of pounds.
On the platform, in the pulpit, in elections, an Englishman most often becomes attached to some idea. And like a mantra, he repeats the same phrase, driving it like a nail into the head of himself and his interlocutors. The purpose of his oratory is to convince a person, and not to charm him, like the French. There is no need for emotions here; this is the key to correct policy.
Although not everything is so simple, world history tells us. After five Britons have fallen for your nail, a club appears. Or a party? A good place for like-minded people, where you can smoke and talk. But only about your “nail”.
We don’t always treat our clothes with reverence. In England they loved to dress.
“The English love their suit more than a woman loves her dress,” said contemporaries of Jerome Klapka Jerome.
One of the topics, besides the same politics, is fashion. Most often you could hear on the street — what a gorgeous coat you have. If an Englishman notices a manly chin or sensual lips, there will be no facial hair. It is not surprising that already on the eve of the First World War, many officers went without mustaches. Which was not the case in India or the Boer War.
Opinions about the English here remind me very much of an interesting 1966 report about the London fashion boom. The French look at women, the English want women to look at them.
Indeed, sixty years later everything was falling into place again. Walks through Hyde Park, Piccadilly, Bond Street, where men displayed the creations of their tailors, hats, boots. But most often the Englishman didn’t care what their women wore. But the average bourgeois woman was ready to lose her dress so that only her lover could have a decent suit.
And finally, the British, as our ancestors claimed, are complete nationalists. They are proud of their race and no other. Maybe that’s why, speaking about the inhabitants of Foggy Albion, they noted: “It’s not for nothing that they managed to conquer the whole world and are everywhere as if they were at home!”
Der Friedensstifter 