“Uncle Vova, we are with you!” The use of childhood semantics in Russian political propaganda

Abstract

The presented article focuses on the analysis of the semantic field of childhood in the propaganda of Soviet and modern Russia. Using a semantic analysis inspired by the works of A. Wierzbicka and J. Lakoff, the author analyses the historical semantic sources of propaganda and the use of the category of childhood in them. An example of an analysed propaganda product is the song “Uncle Vova, we are with you!” published online in 2017. The analysis proves that the semantics of the Russian propaganda message is based on patterns from previous eras with an invariant element – World War II, which is a kind of myth about the beginning of the Russian world. The war in Ukraine today additionally updates the meanings related to the armed conflict and patriotism. The analysis shows that childhood implies patriotism that invokes military meanings and is deeply immersed in the historical context of the war.