The Russian soul comprehending and communicating the African spirit: Africa's image in the Soviet/Russian press

SUMMARY

Contemporary Russia is riddled with ethnic, racial, linguistic and territorial conflicts. While much is known about ethnic and territorial cleavages, our knowledge of racial attitudes – especially in relationship to black peoples – is extremely limited. This article traces the historical and cultural background of racial attitudes and prejudices in Russia with Africa as the point of reference, and the role of the press in communicating, shaping, reinforcing or perpetuating these attitudes and prejudices, and argues that ethnocentrism rather than ideology informed the nature of intercultural communication in Russia before and after communism. Two hypotheses form the basis of our discussion:

	Ethnocentric ‘blood’ is thicker than ideological ‘water,’ in other words, the more ethnocentric a culture is, the more it will dismiss, trivialise and marginalise Africans.
	‘There are no permanent friends; only permanent interests in politics.’ 1

The article will also explore the extent to which the changes in the former Soviet Union which led to the end of the Cold War and the subsequent demise of communism influenced intercultural communication during and after the rule of the architect of the changes, Mikhail Gorbachev. The research covers the periods between the immediate Gorbachev era and the post-Gorbachev era (i e the Yeltsin post-Communist era [1985-1993].