How Old is the Idea that Eastern Europe is Inherently Gloomy?
Hello,
While chatting with acquaintances, memes making light of Eastern Europe as some sort of perpetually-overcast place where the men are grizzled tough guys and women are invariably old crones were shared.
Naturally those were just jokes, but it occurred to me that, even though those specific memes were mostly rooted in post-Soviet malaise, there was a non-zero chance the stereotypes themselves were older than the Soviet Union... and perhaps rooted in something specific.
While I do have a hunch, in that it comes from the same wellspring that paints Russian history as a string of perpetual failures (and thereby maybe inspired Fomenko to "lash back" with his infamous Phantom Time Hypothesis), I do not have anything concrete or rational to base it from.
I'm thus wondering just how old are stereotypes about Europe beyond the Oder and the Dolomites being gloomy are. Would an educated Englishman in the XIXth century hold such preconceptions? An Italian noble in the XVIIIth century? A decently-informed burgher in Germany in the XVIth century? Perhaps even further back? Or are these stereotypes entirely modern?