Line #48 Main/RussiaIsWestern


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eu_russia_territory.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Russia, the EU member state in an alternate universe.]]
3
4	->''"Russia's only real geostrategic option -- the option that would give Russia a realistic international role and also maximize the opportunity of transforming and socially modernizing itself -- is Europe."''
5	-->-- '''Zbigniew Brzezinski'''
6
7	Any sort of setting in which UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} (or UsefulNotes/KievanRus, if in this continuity it never disintegrated into Russia, Belarus and Ukraine) is an inalienable part of the Western community, closely integrated with the Atlantic powers, and a member state of EU, NATO or whatever conglomerate of Western countries. If the storyline involves any sort of geopolitical confrontation, it would generally be between this alliance of countries and some Eastern bloc, usually led by China or Islamic states.
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9	In RealLife, it is a matter of debate whether Russia should be seen as a Western country or as a separate entity (possibly a "bridge" between East and West); however, most agree that Russia is culturally closer to Europe and the West than to any other civilizational type (such as Middle Eastern states or Central Asian countries, which were previously part of the Russian empire). The issue is that if one were to look at works presented even before the east-west divide was cemented in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, the Russian Empire was considered to be distant enough (and also due to most of its land being east of the Urals and in demographics) to have a lot of Orientalist tropes applied to it. Nor is this idea exclusive to Western Europe. Russian monarchs as far back as Peter the Great even made it a point back then to "westernize", showing this idea is OlderThanSteam.
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11	Some of the nations that once were part of the Russian Empire such as the Baltics and Finland are considered western, however. The Central Asian nations are obvious, and the three Caucasus nations of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan find themselves in a similar bridge with Russia.
12
13	Compare HeroicRussianEmigre, for post-1917 Russian emigrants who are Western-oriented and opposed to the Soviet regime.
14
15	----
16	!!Examples
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18	[[foldercontrol]]
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20	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
21	* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', Russia is initially a part of the European Union, and later becomes a part of the Holy Britannian Empire (with St. Petersburg becoming the Empire's capital). The third bloc, which opposes both EU and Britannia, is the Asiatic Chinese Federation.
22	* In ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'' 2032 continuity, Russia, together with Germany, is the most important member of the franchise's version of the EU, and helped Japan to both rebuild after the disastrous 2023 New Kanto Earthquake, and to maintain its neutrality in the 2025 Sino-American war. Well, at least in one version of the timeline. The first episode, created just right before the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, discusses that the critical technology may leak to ''[[DirtyCommies the Communists]]''.
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25	[[folder:Literature]]
26	* In ''Literature/AdaOrArdor'' by Creator/VladimirNabokov, most of the world is ruled by a Russo-Anglo-American dominion (North America is settled extensively by Russians, and Russian is one of its languages, along with English and French). They are fighting the Golden Horde in this world's version of the Cold War.
27	* In ''Literature/TheBearAndTheDragon'' by Creator/TomClancy, US and Russia cement a friendship after the Cold War, and join forces to confront China.
28	* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' has the restored Russian Empire ally with America, the Catholic states, and the German and British empires against their common enemy, a MiddleEasternCoalition.
29	* In ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', Russia has conquered continental Europe to form the superstate of Eurasia, while the rest of Asia is unified as "Eastasia." Unusually for this trope, Great Britain (where the story is set) is ''not'' part of this European bloc, instead becoming "Airstrip One" of the US-dominated Oceania.
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32	[[folder:Music]]
33	* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV4oYkIeGJc Land of Confusion]]'' by Music/{{Disturbed}} is a negative version of this trope: [[UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin the Russian president]] is depicted alongside the evil Western leaders who oppress the world.
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36	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
37	* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' does this in its alternate history to our own; a second Cold War erupts after a [[PostSovietReunion surprise reestablishment of the USSR]] in 1997, which falls apart ''again'' just bare years later in 2004. This leads to a second Soviet Civil War, NATO intervention, and the fall of the Soviets for the second and final time after a failed attempt to [[TakingYouWithMe nuke everyone on their way down]]. Russia fractured into seven independent nations, most of which ended up joining NATO rather than deal with hardline Soviet fanaticism again.
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40	[[folder:Video Games]]
41	* A common outcome in ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' 2 if the 867 start date is picked. The Rurikids who rule over Rus will often convert to Catholicism due to proximity to, and power of the western catholic realms, and will not convert to the orthodox church. This will lead to close diplomatic relations with western kingdoms, them joining crusades, etc.
42	* ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth'' 2: Russia was added in the expansion as part of the Western civilizations (the Far East had Korea, Japan and China, while the Middle East had Turkey, Babylon and Egypt), allowing them to build Wonders such as the Parthenon, the Brandenburg Gate, and ''the Pentagon''.
43	* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn'' Russia is one of GDI's allies which is mostly supported by western countries in contrast to most of Eastern Europe and China which are either allied or controlled by Nod at the start of the war.
44	* In ''People's General'', Russia comprises the Western Alliance with the US and several other nations against [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld China-dominated]] Eastern Alliance.
45	* In ''[[VideoGame/OperationFlashpointCodemasters Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising]]'', the post-Soviet Russia is a Western-aligned country that's now locked up in renewed border conflicts in Siberia against China, in which they requested US support to regain control of the disputed Skira Island from the [[UsefulNotes/ChineseWithChopperSupport Chinese occupation forces]].
46	* In ''VideoGame/TerraInvicta'' the "Europe Ascendant" project allows the EU to adsorb Russia (either by politics or conquest).
47	* The end of ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'''s Allied campaign leads to President [[spoiler:David Hasselhoff]] declaring this of both Russia and Japan. There's enough of a resistance movement (combined with the Allies' ties to a CorruptCorporateExecutive) that it doesn't go anywhere in the expansion.
48	-->"We will share with our defeated enemies the fruits of capitalism and consumerism! For if they're shopping for cars or plasma [=TVs=], they won't want to build up massive armies or invent new weapons of war! They'll be enjoying the American Dream... sitting with their families on Super Sunday, watching the big game... with the rest of us."
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51	[[folder:Real Life]]
52	* Becoming a NATO and EU member is actually a possible scenario for Russia's future. Any nation at least partially in Europe is eligible to apply for membership,[[note]]Hence UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} being a long-standing NATO member and a candidate for EU membership, despite being significantly less European than Russia.[[/note]] although admission requires unanimous approvals from the governments of all current members. As such, at times when tensions between Russia and "the West" were low, it was openly speculated that this could happen soon. The growing hostility between Russia and NATO starting in 2014 has the idea on indefinite hold.
53	* From the cultural aspect, Russia (particularly its literature, music, painting, philosophy and architecture) is classified as a part of the West. The fact that Slavs as a whole are unambiguously European helps the case. For Asian countries especially, the description of the Soviet-US conflict during the Cold War as "East vs. West" is liable to cause some head-scratching (or else scoffing at the idea that white people think Europe and its ex-colonies are the whole world), since they see both Americans and Russians as part of the Western World.
54	* The Islamic countries invariably see Russia (and all the other Christian states) as a part of the Western world; a number of European scholars are also inclined towards this point of view (for details, check out [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East–West_dichotomy the Other Wiki]]). Ironically, Christianity itself originated in the Middle East, and the Russian Eastern Orthodox faith itself is a cousin to the appropriately named Oriental Orthodox churches such as those in Egypt and Ethiopia. Thus, while the Russian faith is "Eastern", Oriental Orthodoxy still treats it as western.
55	* The primary goal of [[UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat Tsar Peter I]] was for the rest of Europe to see Russia this way, by attempting to liberalise the country like Britain and France were at the time and to have the nation be officially recognised as an empire.
56	* Many Russians also think their country belongs in the West, while others may actually be inclined to [[JustForFun/XMeetsY Eurasianism]] which [[TakeAThirdOption rejects the idea that Russia can be classified as East and West]], so that it has a form of exceptionalism and special role in the world as a bridge. Interestingly, almost nobody among Russians thinks that the country is Asian, largely due to the above mentioned point of Slavs being a European ethnicity. While the majority of Russia's ''territory'' is in Asia, the majority of its population is both Slavic and living in west of the Urals, and thus European by any plausible definition.
57	** Another school of thought in Russia makes a distinction between "Europe" as a historical and cultural entity and the "West" as a political bloc, typically associated with NATO and US leadership. This school of thought is generally sympathetic to the former and critical of the latter, and defines Russia as "European but not Western".
58	** After the end of the Cold War, this was distorted to very unfortunate undertones that still endures to this day, especially when dealing with products made in Asian countries (and Russia) and exported to western countries, and it can be classified to any of these following cases: Any reference to "the West" in English-speaking media (and other western countries, for the sake of fairness) could be refering to 1) all western countries, plus Russia, Latin America and the Slavic countries, 2) all the member countries of the NATO, 3) all the countries from the Anglosphere, and in the most extreme cases, 4) the U.S. and Canada, and finally, 5) [[EagleLand the United States exclusively]].
59	* Defied by UsefulNotes/NaziGermany. Part of their propaganda effort to justify Operation Barbarossa during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII was the claim that Russia was an Asiatic country, often accompanied by racial imagery of the Soviet Union's ethnic minorities.
60	%%* Russia and the Slavic countries are not the only ones which suffer of this dilemma, as there's some countries with similar situations:
61	%%** UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} is a very notable example, and for a myriad of reasons: While it is located in Asia, specifically in West Asia (aka The Middle East), cultural and politically speaking it belongs to both the Western and the European sphere of influence. This is because most of its native population are immigrants from other countries, mainly Europe and America, and as such, their culture is very different, even if compared with other Asian countries outside the Middle East, like India, Japan, both Koreas, China, etc. Even Japan and South Korea, both East Asian countries with very notable western influences, are still very different regarding their relationship with western culture compared with Israel.
62	%%** UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} is in a similar situation to Israel, except the continents are swapped: Turkey is culturally Eastern but politically part of the Western world due to a combination of reasons, including having a secular version of Islam and being a member of NATO.
63	%%** While not as exaggerated as the previous examples, UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} is this as well in regard to its relationship with both English-speaking North America (U.S. and Canada) and the rest of Latin America. While being a Latin American country at heart, Mexico is more related to the already mentioned countries mainly because traditionally Mexico has always sought help from both of them when needed, and it rarely does with their Latin American neighbors. This is also for many reasons: Mexico, along with Costa Rica and Puerto Rico, was one of the three Latin American countries which didn't suffer being ruled by military dictatorships that were in vogue in the region during most of the 20th century, and its role was to be the OnlySaneMan or being a neutral actor with regards on regional politics. On the other hand, being close to the States caused Mexico to assimilate many elements of the American culture more easily compared with its neighbors, but despite this, Mexico has traditionally kept a neutral, or negative stance regarding many of the politics from the U.S. and sometimes, it has even defied them without serious consequences, compared with everyone else in the region.[[note]]The reason why the States had not dealt with Mexico with the same severity as the rest of the region is due to its geopolitical position; destabilizing it would likely cause millions of refugees to try to enter the U.S., something that already happened on a minor scale during the Mexican Revolution and the Cristero War.[[/note]]
64	%%** UsefulNotes/{{Africa}} is also in a very similar situation like Russia and the Eastern European countries, but unlike those countries, Africans consider themselves as a very separated entity from the western civilization, due to the centuries-long history of European colonization. Some Asian countries, especially East Asian ones, consider Africa as part of the western world due to the already mentioned points, something that angers many Africans to no end. Western countries generally see African countries as separate from them however.
65	%%** Latin Americans zig-zags with this trope, [[BrokenBase depending of which person you're talking to]]: Unlike Africans, the people of that region, mainly those with mixed ancestry (mestizos) or with European origins, consider their region as part of the western world, no matter what other western countries says otherwise, due to their more intimate links with both European and North American culture. On the other hand, those with Native origins consider their continent as a very different culture from the European one for the same reasons as Africans, a fact that piss them off continously, especially during the anniversary celebrations of the Discovery of America.
66	%%** Oceania is a very extreme version of this trope: UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} and UsefulNotes/NewZealand are considered western countries by anyone else, including their close neighbors, by the fact European colonization was much deeper than any other country of that continent and their ties with both Europe and the rest of the Anglosphere are also much closer, with everything that goes with it.
67	[[/folder]]

Context Main / RussiaIsWestern