Alexandra Filippenko - about the enemy

Americanist Alexandra Filippenko in an interview with Irina Babloyan (included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents) says :

“There is an old joke about how an American worker goes to Soviet Russia and says: “I know that freedom of speech is a little difficult there, but I’ll write you a letter if anything happens.” If everything is okay, I will write to you in a blue pencil, and if everything is bad, I will write to you in a red pencil.” They receive a letter in blue pencil. So everything is fine. It is written: “Oh, how wonderful, it’s so good in Russia, the Soviet Union, prosperity, so much food, people are so friendly, complete freedom, come to me soon. There is only one small problem - I can’t get hold of red pencils.” This is <...> a well-known American joke regarding <...> the Soviet Union.

There is an understanding of what is happening there, but, in general, the attitude is condescending, a little funny. He's some kind of enemy there. But not the enemy. Namely, that he is not an enemy. They are there somewhere, but they don’t have red pencils. <...>

That’s why there are these two columns: government and people. They vary significantly. And the image of the enemy, it is gradually being formed very much from the Russian side. On the American side this was not the case for a very long time.

<...> When Biden speaks and says that Putin is the main dangerous character in international politics, he does not mean dangerous specifically for the United States. Still, we are talking about Europe, of course. And that’s why there is such an attitude towards the Soviet Union.

Now, if you and I were doing a podcast in English, then I would definitely agree with all the historians and say: yes, let’s start with 1946, let’s start from there. But since we are doing it in Russian, and we still look, first of all, from the Russian side, from the Soviet Union, that’s why I say that no, this image of the enemy, it started earlier after all.”