The Discourse of Patriotism in the Political Process of Modern Russian

Abstract

The article analyzes the discourse of patriotism in the context of influence of various conflict-­provoking factors in the development of modern Russian political process, with the aim to study technologies for maintaining civil harmony in ethno-­political diversity. A complex range of problems of patriotism as a value phenomenon in the political life of society is being actualized. The procedural nature of the discursive construction of political reality, as well as the axiological content of discourse analysis as a method of political science are substantiated. It is noted that it is the values of patriotism that give special meaning to social action aimed at protecting the interests of one’s country, one’s people and one’s large and small homeland. The aim of the article is to identify the main vectors of transformation of patriotic discourse and the factors that affect the diversity of interpretations of patriotism and the dynamics of conflicting interpretations in political rhetoric in the media space of modern Russia. The article presents the results of the research on the process of destruction and formation of semantic structures that are connected with the attitudes towards one’s country, depending on changes in the subjective factors of patriotic values in society. The object of empirical research is the political discourse of patriotism. The empirical results of the study show the way in which the basic parameters of the state of internal social environment influence the process of community integration and its internal conflicts with regard to patriotic values. In the course of the research, the methods of discourse analysis and of semantic measurement of the ideological and socio-­psychological component of political communication in diversity were tested. Different methods were resorted to analyze expert-­level statements on the Web. The discourse analysis has demonstrated that specific events in and attitudes to historical memory influence transformations in understanding patriotism. In other words, the level of social integration is ensured largely by the policy of historical memory, which determines the nature and level of tolerance in a multi-­ethnic environment and depends on the design of media policy. The conclusions highlight the prospects for such processes and the scientific guidance for further research on the topic.