Rotting West
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"Rotting West" (or "rotten West", from Russian: загнивающий Запад, romanized: zagnivayushchy zapad, and гнилой Запад) is an ideological cliche, which first appeared in the 19 century in Russia in arguments between slavophiles and pochvenniks against zapadniks. The cliche is a metaphorical expression of suspiciously sceptical attitude towards ideas and values, which are typical of the Western World.[1] In Soviet and Russia propaganda the expression became a widespread political trope, mostly in the form of "rotting West", used to denounce the capitalistic West.
Origin[edit]
In 1841, the first issue of Moskvityanin magazine published an article by Stepan Shevyryov titled "The way a Russian looks at European education". Among other things, the article claimed that:
In our sincere and friendly close relationship with the West we do not notice that we deal with entity, which is akin to man, who carries evil and infectious disease, and who is surrounded by atmosphere of his dangerous breath. We kiss with him, we hug, we share a meal of thought with him, we drink a cup of a feeling with him.. and we don't notice the hidden poison in our frivolous talks, we don't feel, in the heat of a party, the smell of him, which is a smell of an eventual corpse he is turning into, and of which he already stinks
This thought was being repeated by Shevyryov on several occasions in his other articles, up to the point, that one of the correspondents for Moskvityanin wrote to their editor-in-chief, Mikhail Pogodin in 1844: "Do me a favour, calm down Shevyryov, he's gotten ruthless with his "rotting West"".[2]
These idea of Shevyryov met strong criticism by Vissarion Belinsky. In his piece called "The works of V.F.Odoevsky", he rejects the idea of "moral rotting of the West" and says instead, "Yes, Europe is sick - this is indeed true, but don't be afraid of this as it won't die. This is a temporary disease, this is a crisis of internal underground struggle between new and old...".
In his article titled "Russian literature in 1844", Belinsky turns to "illusive corpse of the West" yet again. And finally, in 1845, reviewing Tarantas by Fyodor Sologub, Belinsky, alluding to Shevyryov, writes ironically, that, according to opinion of some, "people of the rotting West have rodent nature, while we have pure bear nature". In this review, the literal form "rotten West" ("гнилой Запад") was used for the first time in press. This exact form was picked by zapadniks to make fun of slavophiles.
In one of his reviews, Saltykov-Schedrin also turns to the trope of "rotting West".[3] Turgenev uses it in the fifth chapter of his novel Smoke, where he makes zapadnik Potugin argue about the "rotting West", quoting:
Should ten Russians gather together, and the question of the meaning and future of Russia pops up instantly. And, of course, instantly, the rotting West takes a hit
In the first edition of Smoke in Russkiy Vestnik in 1867 these words by Potugin were removed by Mikhail Katkov, a then-editor for Russkiy Vestnik.
References[edit]
- ↑ N. Ashukin, M. Ashukina, ed. (1966). Крылатые слова [Proverbial words] (3 ed.). Moscow: Khudlit. pp. 155–157. Search this book on
- ↑ N. Barsukov (1894). Жизнь и труды М. П. Погодина [Life and works of M.P.Pogodin]. VIII. Saint Petersburg. p. 259. Search this book on
- ↑ Saltykov Schedrin (1970). Full collection of works. 9. Moscow: Khudlit. p. 40. Search this book on
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