History as recorded very often follows the desire of political pragmatists. Nineteenth-century French views of Russia are a good example. France was in conflict with Russia through most of that century. As racism grew across Europe, French historians presented Russians as brutish Asiatics and a mortal threat to civilized Europe. The Russo-French alliance in 1894 changed these views, but the stereotypes continued to hibernate in the collective subconscious of the West to be resurrected in times of political expediency.