he's not russian, he's just vaguely russian-coded to sound evil. he is evil, yes, but also herbert felt like painting him russian for reasons... he failed a bit because harkonnen was taken from a finnish surname afaik.
The origin of the name Harkonnen is Härkönen, a Finnish name. Herbert apparently saw that name in a phone book and thought it sounded Soviet. As always, libs do no research and just assume whatever the fuck they want.
"There's another Emperor I want you to note - a Vladimir Putin."
Wait I thought Vladimir Harkonnen is the Putin of Dune’s universe? Is he the descendant or something? I’m not familiar with the lore.
he's not russian, he's just vaguely russian-coded to sound evil. he is evil, yes, but also herbert felt like painting him russian for reasons... he failed a bit because harkonnen was taken from a finnish surname afaik.
Probably Cold War reasons. Let's not forget the original novel was written in 1965
The origin of the name Harkonnen is Härkönen, a Finnish name. Herbert apparently saw that name in a phone book and thought it sounded Soviet. As always, libs do no research and just assume whatever the fuck they want.