“The Slavs are Invincible”: Otto von Bismarck’s Fictional Statements in Contemporary Russia

Abstract

The author focuses on the phenomenon of fictitious quotations attributed to the German statesman Otto von Bismarck, which are common in contemporary Russian information space. This topic, as well as the problem of fictional quotations of historical figures in general as a form of collective memory of the past, has not yet been the subject of independent research. The goal of the present article is twofold. First, to identify the role and function of quotations falsely attributed to Bismarck in contemporary Russian information space. Secondly, to examine the reasons for attributing these statements to the Iron Chancellor, i.e. Bismarck's place in contemporary Russian historical memory. To this end, a wide range of materials have been drawn upon, from scholarly works and press articles to online entertainment texts that contain fictitious quotations ascribed to Bismarck. The author concludes that the key thesis of the most popular pseudo-Bismarck statements is the principal invincibility of Russia and the Russian people. Emerged at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, they quickly gained popularity primarily within “patriotic” discourse and, due to their widespread popularity, are perceived even by some members of the academia as a well-known truth. The choice of Bismarck as fictitious author of these statements is determined by his position as a “non-friend” in the collective memory, i.e. a foreign figure who had no sympathy for Russia, yet recognised its strength and favoured good relations with it.