Searching for the Soul of Russia: British Perceptions of Russia during the First World War

摘要

British attitudes towards tsarist Russia were often extremely negative before the First World War, despite the Anglo-Russian entente of 1907, since the country was still widely seen as a backward land ruled over by an autocratic government. The outbreak of war meant that Russia became a vital ally for Britain in the struggle with the central powers. Its presence in the allied coalition nevertheless made it difficult to present the conflict as a fight for liberty and democracy against Prussian militarism. Although official propaganda focused on presenting a positive image of Britain to other countries, numerous informal efforts were made during the war to promote a more positive image of Russia to a British audience. Writers and journalists such as Stephen Graham and J.W. Mackail built on the growing pre-war interest in Russian literature and ballet to suggest that the country had its own vibrant culture, and could not simply be rejected as a backward nation, but was instead a suitable ally in the war against Germany and Austro-Hungary. There was nevertheless always a tension between those who believed that the vibrancy of Russian culture existed despite the autocratic government of Nicholas II, and other ambassadors of the Russian ‘soul’ who feared that political liberalization would in time undermine a valuable Russian exceptionalism.