In many sources, the authorship of the catchphrase is attributed to the Russian generalissimo of the 18th century. We checked how true this attribution is.

Nowadays, the proverb “Englishwoman shits” is used to describe Britain’s veiled unfriendly actions towards Russia. For example, it was used by the famous writer Eduard Limonov, commenting decision of the London High Court in the case of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. The fact that the idiom goes back to, or at least is attributed to, Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, is reported by such sources as "Regnum", "Free press", "Red Star", "Mirtesen", The Moscow Times, TheUK.One, "Strategic Culture Foundation", various meetings aphorisms, as well as a famous TV presenter Dmitry Kiselev.

There is a complex, centuries-old history of relations between Russia and England. Thus, despite Great Britain’s participation in the Second Anti-French Coalition (1799–1802), many in Russia believed that the British were trying to minimize the use of their soldiers and gain benefits through the wrong hands. And none other than commander Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov in his note to Rostopchin about the results of the 1799 campaign wrote: “It is true that no one will gain more than England from the continuation of the war.” However, this, you see, is not at all “an English woman doing shit” - nothing like that was found in documents related to Suvorov.

We do not see such an expression in publications of the first half of the 19th century. Moreover, if the expression originally meant a monarch, then Great Britain was ruled by kings, not queens, from 1714 to 1837. It was only during the reign of Victoria (1837–1901) that such a context for the saying became possible. If “English” is such a generalization of the country as a whole, then initially in the Russian language the masculine gender was used in such situations. And the example that we will give below is generally considered the first known use of the construction “[a representative of the nation] shits” in print.

At the beginning of the second appearance of the famous play by Nikolai Gogol "Inspector" Postmaster Shpekin, having learned that a certain official is heading to the city, tries to prophesy: “...There will be a war with the Turks. <…> Right, war with the Turks. It’s all the Frenchman crap.” The last phrase became a catchphrase - throughout the 19th century it was quoted when it was necessary to explain all domestic troubles as the machinations of foreigners. “When something is wrong in us, we look for reasons outside of us and soon find: “It’s the Frenchman who is crap, it’s the Jews, it’s Wilhelm...” Capital, the bogeyman, the Masons, the syndicate, the Jesuits are ghosts, but how they ease our anxiety!” — wrote Chekhov to Suvorin in 1898.

It is not surprising that other foreigners eventually replaced the “French” in a stable structure - the political situation was unstable. And indeed, in 1868 in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski wrote: “Our ancestors, in unfortunate circumstances, used to say thoughtfully: “It’s all the Frenchman crap”; descendants replaced the name of one nationality with another.” Another author a couple of decades later will notice: “Invariably someone will spoil us, sometimes a German, sometimes a Pole, sometimes a Jew. Really, it’s time to put an end to such infancy and schoolboyism, perhaps our affairs would go better.”

As for the “Englishman,” he was mentioned from time to time, but not very often, without becoming an idiom. For example, critic Nikolai Dobrolyubov in 1860 mocked over “well-meaning people” who cannot find an explanation for the military and political successes of the revolutionaries and “can’t find anything better than to say that it was the Englishman who did the shit...”. His namesake and colleague Mikhailovsky has already hesitated between an Englishman and a Frenchman: ““Everything the Frenchman craps.” It seems French, and maybe English. I don't remember the quote. But this, perhaps, is indifferent, because absolutely everyone spoils us, except ourselves, of course.”

And only towards the end of the 19th century, the previously unheard-of “Englishwoman” began to supplant “French” in the stable phrase. This is how people nicknamed both Queen Victoria and Great Britain a little earlier, that recorded famous writer Alexander Engelhardt. More precisely, the designation appears in Russian folklore during the Crimean War (1853–1856) - the only significant clash between the Russian and English armies in history. In the soldiers' songs of those years there were words “We already sang songs and surprised the Englishwoman” or “I’ll tell you, brothers: fought with an Englishwoman".

And in 1898, P. F. Yakubovich writes in "Russian wealth": “It’s funny, really, and a shame to say: we still don’t have a single somewhat independent, free and respectable political newspaper... There are, of course, plenty of people who are political. One, foaming at the mouth, is trying to prove in its editorials that in the interests of culture and civilization it is necessary as quickly as possible... to plunder China, to give a good piece to each strong power; the other, meanwhile, never tires of winking at the Englishwoman, who, they say, spoils everything for us and who, therefore, should have been pelted with hats long ago.”

It was then, at the turn of the century, that the formula “Englishwoman shits” became widespread - for example, it was mentioned by a famous writer Vladimir Korolenko. And the main impetus for the popularization of the maxim was the Anglo-Boer War, which caused a great resonance in Russian society. Politician and publicist Vasily Shulgin remembered: “A significant part of Russian society at that time condemned England for this war and was on the side of the Boers. The attacks on England were especially supported by the newspaper Novoye Vremya. In a vulgar sense, this mood was expressed in the famous formula: “The Englishwoman shits.” <…> To vilify England under the slogan “An Englishwoman craps” was a bad road. It was easy to walk with her.”

Another couple of decades will pass, and the popular saying will be mentioned General Krasnov, And Demyan Bedny, and, slightly altered, Vladimir Mayakovsky. We can confidently say that by that time the expression had already lost all connection with Gogol’s “The Inspector General” and took on a life of its own. However, it has nothing to do with the currently known statements of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov.