wonder if the Germans hated Europe too...
russians are still dining out on WWII because they have nothing else... Galeev has written how originally glorification of WWII happened under Brezhnev to give the USSR a new national story.... instead of "We're building communism!" (by that time it was clear that building communism was a stupid thing to be doing) they chose "We beat the nazis!".... and nothing has replaced that because of the fundamentally stagnant nature of russia society...
"We were first in space!" didn't work
"We invaded Hungary and Czechoslovakia!" russians don't hate hungarians and/or czechoslovaks for that to take
"Our terrible brinkmanship almost led to Nuclear War!"
"We had the biggest nuclear accident!"
"Our system is so terrible it crashed and burned!"
"We've unleashed mafia wars!"
russians desperately need a new story but..... there are none in sight. the russian ruling class absolutely depends on the vast majority of society to be passive and unquestioning... and passive, unquestioning populations are not known for producing very much that's notable.