Ordinary Egyptians resented Russians more than their own authoritarian government

Evidence

People appear to be more afraid of Russian reprisals than of those of their own rulers. Some, such as military officers who had dealings with them, complained of Russian crudity and bullying. Shop­ keepers, guides and others complained of their parsimony. In shop after shop, particularly in the quarters dealing with tourist goods, I was told how sad it was that the Americans and British were no longer coming—just a few very rapid French tour parties. “But you have the Russians,” I said. This was usually greeted with a storm of abuse. The Russians buy nothing and give nothing. They even get their cigarettes in their own clubs—and they won’t, if they are asked, give anyone a cigarette either. The Russians apparently have not yet learnt that one of the ways in which a foreign presence can make itself tolerable is by spending money—preferably not too lavishly, but noticeably—among local shopkeepers. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1298

Categorization

• XREF: Complicates the standard Cold-War binary that local populations welcomed the anti-colonial superpower; corroborates the transactional-client model of Soviet Third World influence in the same period as Said’s later critique of superpower rivalry over the Orient.