You must be reading/watching stuff in a very narrow spectrum of books/movies. Broaden your horizons.
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Russian villains
- Thread starter Lidiya
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if you're from america, keep the commies out of our literature!
and on a serious note, it definitely depends on the genre, i think. and the time period, of course. i don't believe i've read too many books with russian villains, but definitely a lot of action movies. the formula worked in the fifties through the eighties. rocky iv, big soviet drago symbolized the america vs. ussr conflict. now that communism has fallen, eh, american movies have moved on. but i digress and i've pretty much restated what the lovely posters already said.
tl;dr something about those red army bastards just scream evil.
and on a serious note, it definitely depends on the genre, i think. and the time period, of course. i don't believe i've read too many books with russian villains, but definitely a lot of action movies. the formula worked in the fifties through the eighties. rocky iv, big soviet drago symbolized the america vs. ussr conflict. now that communism has fallen, eh, american movies have moved on. but i digress and i've pretty much restated what the lovely posters already said.
tl;dr something about those red army bastards just scream evil.
In the book I'm editing, one of my villains is a spy from an unknown country that is very clearly not Russia (ferny bushes and jungle abounds). I didn't write an accent into her dialogue, but when I reread her dialogue, because she's a spy, my brain always gives her a Russian accent. I find it hilarious because I know she's not Russian, but sexy female spy=Russian to me, thanks to movies and TV shows.
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Well, I've got another theory. Russians are safe to villainize because they're white. If you pit a white hero against a villain who's Black (African or American), Hispanic, Arab, or Asian, someone's gonna call you a racist.
are you raiding your parents' bookcase? A lot of older Ludlum, etc. DID have Russian villains--the books were written during the cold war, or shortly after, during the Soviet breakup and ensuing mess. It was a spectre then just like arabic terrorists are now (or Mexican cartels) but there's still a lot out there.
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I cannot say I read romance, but I think several novels by British authors are quite likely to feature evil Russian billionaires running around the home counties.
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