A Letter from a Siberian Poet to the President of the United States of America: Natural Written Speech as a Reflection of Socio-Political Views

Abstract

The research objective was to identify the axiological values in uncensored free speech, i.e. natural written speech, of Soviet citizens. The axiological approach made it possible to identify individual life attitudes and values. The research featured a letter that the Kuzbass poet Mikhail A. Nebogatov wrote to the US President James Carter about the socio-political problem of dissidence. The author had no experience in professional journalism or in intercultural communication, which makes him a naive author. The text of the letter reflects the worldview and value system of the author himself rather than situational norms and pragmatic attitudes. M. A. Nebogatov represents himself not as a private person with a unique point of view, but as a speaker for the entire Soviet nation. He believed in the idea of the ideological and axiological unity of the Soviet society, hence the frequent use of the pronouns "we" and "our", as well as the general sense of self-righteousness. For him, Russian literature was the ultimate expression of the Soviet axiosphere, which resulted in numerous references to the authority of Russian writers. M. A. Nebogatov's expressive and appellative intention was to represent himself as a poet, which automatically made him the bearer of the national system of values, with Motherland and patriotism in its core. The axiological and conceptual analysis shows that natural written speech can help to identify the basic values of a social group, e.g., residents of a particular region.