Russian Public Discourse Research Articles

Magical Discursive Practices in Russian Public Discourse

The article examines the discursive practices of modern Russian public discourse, which includes political communication as a necessary part. The author considers first of all those discursive practices and the corresponding speech acts that are magical in nature. Such types of speech acts are proposed to be called “the acts of magical embodiment”. The pronunciation of the act of magical embodiment leads to a change in the world, resulting from the release of mystic forces associated with both the speaker’s supernatural abilities and the participation of mysterious forces. Among the acts of magical embodiment, there are vows, curses, tabooing and overcoming the taboos (use of euphemisms and concealment), prohibitions, benevolence, spells, and others. The use of magical practices in public discourse has a long tradition in political communication, especially in the creation of slogans. In modern public communication, many speech practices of magical nature have a legal basis. Current practice suggests that every mention of a prohibited political actor is accompanied by an indication of the prohibition. The curse as an act of magical embodiment sometimes adjoins the practice of imposing restrictions on “foreign agents”. Concealment (tabooing and overcoming the taboos) is enforced by the law on the “right to be forgotten”.

Rusų nacionalistai prieš Kauno gubernatorių: kitataučIų švietimo draugijos kaip pavojus imperijai 1907–1910 m.

The article explains why, in 1909, there appeared instigations in Russian public discourse calling for closure of the Lithuanian Catholic educational society ‘Saulė’ (The Sun), and at the same time criticism was directed at the governor of Kaunas, who supposedly was the patron of this association. This action of Russian nationalist is interpreted as a reflection of the empirewide struggle against non-Russian public organisations. It was Russian public figures and civil servants promoting a nationalistic nationality policy who wanted to close the ‘Saulė’.

Word Play in Modern Russian Network Discourse

The phenomenon of the word play is studied in this work on the basis of the network discourse reflected in the materials of the Russian competition “Word of the Year” for 2007-2021. The participants of this contest were subject to sociolinguistic analysis – words, expressions, and phrases that are products of a word play. All of them, as it turned out, were included in the nomination “Neologism of the Year”. The empirical analysis was subordinated to the goal of determining their functionality and identifying the underlying word-formation models and techniques of lexical implementation of the latter. The results of the study indicate the active appeal of users of social networks to the word play in two situations. Firstly, when a communicator wants to express one’s disagreement, a critical attitude towards real events. Then s/he usually resorts to ridicule as a form of word play, functionally aimed at lowering evaluative meanings (a case of “corrective humor”). Secondly, in a situation of counteracting psychological tension and stress caused by a traumatic event, when using a joke, the communicator seeks to reduce emotional tension—his/her own and / or the audience (a case of “benevolent humor”). In both situations, as the analysis showed, the same set of word-formation models of the Russian language and word play techniques are used. To create new lexical units, paronymic attraction and contamination are most widely used. These models are adjoined by prefixation, suffixation, their combination, as well as other traditional Russian language models for generating lexical units. Among the techniques of the word play that provide a laughing reaction, deceived expectation, logical inconsistency and playing with set expressions stand out. In general, the results of the study indicate that the word play remains a popular means of achieving the comic effect desired by the communicator, not only by journalists, as noted by analysts of modern Russian public discourse, but also by ordinary users of social networks in their everyday speech communication.

The Imperial Frontier in the Worldview of the Decembrists: F. N. Glinka—Romantic Christianity and Karelian Ethnography

The article delves into reconstructing the religious-philosophical worldview of the Decembrist Fyodor Nikolaevich Glinka, set against the backdrop of his frontier experiences during his exile in the Olonets province. His poems, “The Maiden of the Karelian Forests” and “Karelia, or the Captivity of Marfa Ivanovna Romanova,” created during his residency in Petrozavodsk, are compelling blends of the era’s literary trends, Glinka’s personal religious beliefs, and ethnographic portrayals of Karelia. Consequently, the Karelian frontier is viewed through the diverse prism of F. N. Glinka, a Russian officer, Decembrist, poet, and religious thinker, who bequeathed an extensive literary oeuvre. This research is aimed to undertake an exhaustive analysis of F. N. Glinka’s literary contributions as a Decembrist and to historically and philosophically interpret his worldview, particularly focusing on frontier themes. The study meticulously perused Glinka’s artistic pieces, ethnographic entries, religious-philosophical writings, and his epistolary body of work. Insights were gleaned on the various dimensions of his perspectives and artistic endeavors. This article may captivate those researching the history of the Karelian frontier, the artistic and philosophical imprints of the Decembrists, and scholars intrigued by the nuances of Russian public discourse in the 19th century.

Russia’s Spiritual Security Doctrine as a Challenge to European Comprehensive Security Approaches

In the context of a special symposium in The Review of Faith & International Affairs dedicated to the OSCE Policy Guidance “Freedom of Religion or Belief and Security,” this article offers a comparison of the comprehensive security approach in that document and rival Russian understandings of national and human security. The article draws on Russian legal documents and the analysis of Russian public, church, and academic discourse from 2000 to the present.

Civic participation digitalisation: limitations in the digital divides field

In Russian public discourse, digitalisation is recognised as a new global trend, which creates an environment with extensive communication possibilities and leads to the civic participation traditional practices reformatting to online. In this regard, it is relevant to study the opportunities, risks and necessary conditions for these transformations. The aim of the article is to identify the civic participation digitalisation limitations of the population, lying in the digital differences field. Settlement, age, gender, educational and income factors of Internet accessibility, its use purposes and digital skills availability for Russian regions, including the Vologda Region as a typical region are considered. To solve the research problems, sociological methods, secondary data analysis, the system-structural and cross-tabulation analysis method were used. The results of the study conducted have made it possible to identify characteristics according to which certain population groups have a high, medium or low potential for civil society digital inclusion in terms of technical accessibility, knowledge and the Internet experience and digital services. The online citizenship format is most likely to be attractive to young and middle-aged people, working and living in cities, with secondary vocational or higher education. At the research time, no significant gender impact and self-reported income on the digital divides was identified. However, current trends consideration in digitalisation and prolonging the older people active lives makes it possible to argue that potential participants groups in civic participation in an online format will expand in the future. The study results can be considered when planning the civil society development, taking into account current trends, developing tools to motivate different socio-demographic population groups to civic engagement online.

The Collective West Concept and Selected Western Actors (Germany, Norway, Estonia, NATO) in the Russian Media: Post-Crimea Dynamics

The Post-Crimean period gave us a series of new concepts in international relations, and one of them is the Collective West Concept. Being invented in the academic sphere several years before the Crimean case, the concept intervened the Russian public and political discourse. In this article I argue that the Collective West concept has become an instrument of additional securitization of the West in the discourse of Russian media. To prove the hypothesis, I have used the discourse analysis and concept mining methodology. I have created a sample of Media messages and by means of concept mining soft have coded the sample. In this research project I was interested in finding correlations between the Collective West and separate Western countries and actors (NATO, Germany, Norway, Estonia). After creating a correlation model for these concepts, I have looked at the overall semantic and argumentation context of the concepts usage. The results of the research give me an opportunity to conclude, that the Collective West Concept is mostly used by Russian Media in negative context. Such big international actors as Germany is included in the Collective West Concept, when the context of speaking about it is also negative.

Sociocultural peculiarities of manipulation of public consciousness in the USA and Russia

The article offers a comparative analysis of myths disseminated in American and Russian public discourse. The authors argue that the way myths are used as a tool of manipulating public consciousness depends on a number of social and cultural peculiarities of Russia and the USA. We demonstrate that manipulation through myths is based on universal cognitive mechanisms; therefore, both countries may use similar myths to achieve particular goals in governmental interests. On the other hand, effective manipulation becomes possible when ideas rendered by myths are understandable and appealing to a particular nation or group of people at a particular moment. Given that, political leaders of both countries manage to shape the way people understand themselves and their country in relation to the world. It helps them to maintain their interests in domestic and foreign policy.

Идеологические основы этноконфессиональной политики на Северном Кавказе и синкретизация ислама

The problem of creating optimal harmonious state-religious relations in the North Caucasus region was one of the main in the historical period of Russia. It also has a high significance in modern Russian public discourse. The authors based on the analysis of the provisions of the Holy Books in religious and political scientific works, and used the methods of functionalism and system analysis. The authors of the article argue the thesis that the uniqueness of Russia lies not only in a special historical and geographical location, in the combination of the qualities of the West and the East, but also in the development of religious traditions. National tradition and culture’s consideration of all large territory of Russia, its ethnic and religious components, is the guarantee of greatness of the country. In this regard, the model of state-religious relations in the concept of partnership between the state and religious organizations must be based on the constitutional foundations, on the principles of severalty, non-intervention and equidistance of religious organizations from the state. In conditions of religious and political syncretism, this model must be based on optimal partnerships and strengthening social and political stability in the region.

Девяностые: учреждение политии

In the 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR, was established the Russian polity, which continues to exist to this day. In this paper polity is understood as a macro-social community, united by a certain political order i.e., by a stable set of institutions and actors, as well as normative standards for organizing their interactions, both formal and informal. Establishment is understood as a series of events that establish these most fundamental frameworks for political action, as well as a repertoire of its scenarios, behavioral stereotypes, strategies, and tactics. The negative myth about the nineties, which has dominated the Russian public discourse in the recent years, describes the 1990s as a time of catastrophe and degradation. It certainly has its reasons, but this myth almost completely ignores the fact that the same decade was also a time of creation. Thus, the current state of Russia cannot be understood without paying attention to the circumstances of its establishment. The article describes some of the key features of the modern Russian polity that emerged in the 1990s — the “main takeaway” of the constituent era. They are the following: the electoral legitimacy of the supreme political power; non-partisan presidency; capitalism as the economic foundation of the political order; federalism as a principle of territorial organization of political space; freedom of association; freedom of religion; open borders. This list is not exhaustive: there are other elements of the design of the Russian polity that can claim the status of constitutive ones. However, a radical change in all these institutions together or in any one of them individually would mean another re-establishment of the political community as a whole.

Linguistic ridicule as a reflection of the confrontation between the political power and society

This paper presents the words, collocations, and expressions which have been announced as winners of the Word of the Year contest, held on an annual basis in Russia for the last 12 years. Taken together, all these lexical units allow us to draw conclusions about some current trends in the modern-day Russian public discourse, namely its explicit politicization, increased emotionality, and the use of word play in an indirect dialogue with the political authorities. The inner meaning of word play, which is particularly widespread in social networks, represents the users’ critical attitude, aiming to undermine conventional values through ridicule. Illustrative examples reflecting the views of the Facebook community (winners of the “Word of the Year”) are cited in the paper.

Is there a “compensation culture” in contemporary Russia? The role of liability insurance, non-pecuniary damages, and legal profession in personal injury litigation

This article explores current trends in personal injury litigation in Russia compared with the common law countries (the UK and US). In contrast to the British and American situation, there is no concern about the problem of “compensation culture” or “litigious behaviour” in Russian public discourse. The number of personal injury cases considered by Russian courts is not particularly high despite the growing number of accidents. This state of affairs can be explained by the influence of the Soviet culture of tort law. The most visible areas of the Soviet impact addressed in the article are liability insurance, non-pecuniary damages, and the legal profession. The article demonstrates the specificity of the Russian approach to these issues. The research is based on the analysis of judicial decisions on personal injury cases, court statistics, and expert interviews with personal injury lawyers. The findings are discussed from a historical and comparative perspective.

The Visual Images of the 1990s in Instagram: A Commercialization of Nostalgia

The image of the 1990s in the Russian public discourse is controversial: this historical period of transition from socialism to a new social system is considered as a time of chaos and crime, but also as a period of openness, opportunities and new consumer culture. The paper presents preliminary results of a study of visual materials from Instagram that in this or that way refer to the 1990s. The analysis of Instagram accounts dedicated to the 1990s, of hashtags related to the topic and of their co-occurrence, as well as the classification of the posts based on their content are presented. The 1990s turn out to be used in Instagram as one among other topics of post-socialist nostalgia, employed by the bloggers to increase the number of followers and likes. Nostalgic feelings refer to teenagers’ experiences mainly related to everyday practices, consumption and popular culture.

Пандемия коронавируса в публичном дискурсе современной России: угрозы, вызовы и возможности

Пандемия коронавируса в публичном дискурсе современной России: угрозы, вызовы и возможности

Rock Beats the Wall? On Commemorative Practices in Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract This paper focuses on the case analysis of the memorial to the victims of state terror – the Wall of Grief (Stena skorbi) – which was unveiled on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the November 7, 1917, coup d’état. Using this example, we have attempted to elaborate a structure for a more complex analysis of the memory of past regimes’ manifestation and to create a methodological base for their comparison. We have based our research on the discourse theory by the so-called Essex School, the social semiotics by Kress, and the procedures of the critical discourse analysis. The procedure that we have considered relevant consists of the following: (a) description of the social context in which the memorial was manifested as a piece of evidence; (b) semiotic analysis of the memorial artifact; (c) analysis of verbal practices, as well as written and spoken texts that “explained” the memorial; and (d) analysis of nonverbal practices, namely, rituals. On the basis of our case study, we have come to the conclusion that when carrying out a semiotic analysis and the analysis of verbal and nonverbal practices in the case of the Russian public discourse, it is especially relevant to pay attention not only to widening vs. narrowing of the chronological framework, generalization vs. concretization, and specification of the traumatic experience but also to the question of framing of the memorial. In regard to the semiotic analysis, the extent of indexicality is considered to be very important in the sense of the bodily connection with an element of the commemorated event that bestows “truthfulness” and authenticity on the memorial. We assume that particularly present-day Russia, where explicit attempts to reinterpret the history of the authoritarian communist state and attempts to instrumentalize the totalitarian period according to the vector of the current political direction may be seen, is a relevant object of this kind of research.

Searching for the Desirable Future: Internal Political Agenda for Russia

A most urgent issue in Russian public discourse is search for the best future and the way to achieve it. The authors present the results of a Russian expert survey carried out by the project «Domestic Political Agenda as a Unity Factor in Modern Russia». Experts’ views on the desired future for Russia, the foundations of value consensus and the problems of building national unity are examined in the paper. The domestic political agenda was analyzed via triple scholarly optics: official (government), civil and public (‘people’s’) agendas, i.e. public request for power. The government and public agendas are the most inharmonious and they need more civil alternatives suggested. The authors note weakness of converting the three forms into each other and the primacy of a foreign policy course, viewing this as a threat to Russia’s unity. All experts showed extraordinary unity in the assertion that there is no consolidated agenda in modern Russia.

ВТОРАЯ МИРОВАЯ ВОЙНА, «ИСПАНКА» ИЛИ ЧЕРНОБЫЛЬ? ПАНДЕМИЯ COVID-19 В ЗЕРКАЛЕ ИСТОРИЧЕСКИХ АНАЛОГИЙ (ПО МАТЕРИАЛАМ АМЕРИКАНСКОГО И РОССИЙСКОГО МЕДИА-ДИСКУРСА)

Purpose. The article attempts to reconstruct a range of historical analogies used to describe the COVID-19 pandemic in American and Russian public discourse in March 2020. Methodology and Approach. The methodological framework is set by the tradition of collective memory research (“memory studies”). The source base is materials posted on official websites of “The New York Times”, “The Washington Post” and “The Wall-Street Journal”, as well as materials from the Russian-language media discourse selected by search queries in the “Yandex News”. Results: the analysis of the media discourse allowed the author to identify three types of appeals to the collective past: “military”, “economic and “epidemiological” analogies. It is noted that the repertoires of “military” and “epidemiological” analogies in Russian and American media discourse are almost identical. Theoretical and/or practical implications. The study allowed testing the author’s methodology for the analysis of historical analogies in the media discourse, and its results open perspectives to further study of the problem.

Freedom or Security in Russia: The False Choice

The paper aims to study the problem of enhanced tendency of the state to limit citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms, globally and in Russia, justifying it with the need to provide security. Two major approaches to the ratio of freedom and security can be identified in the Russian public discourse – neo-conservative and liberal-democratic. The author uses the concept of social constructivism as a methodology basis for the research to analyze these approaches’ content and ways of constructing them. A contradiction has always exists between the individual’s right for freedom and pursuit of security. However, the specific way of solving it depends on the type of political system and the role of the political elite. The following results were obtained. People’s basic need for security is used by the Russian political elite as a justification for any state policy measures, including limitation of citizens’ constitutional rights and freedoms and curtailing democratic institutions and practices. This is implemented by establishing the state control of mass media, manipulating the public opinion through propaganda, as well as funding the security apparatus in ways not controlled by the society. Security instead of freedom is a false choice imposed on the population by the authorities. Achieving security and freedom is not mutually contradictory; it is mutually determining under conditions of an effective rule-of-law state.

The Gothic Tradition in Russian and Early Soviet Culture

The Gothic aesthetic first appeared in Russian public discourse and literature in the immediate pre-revolutionary decades. It was deployed in satirical journals of the 1905 Revolutionary period to portray the tsarist regime as an inhuman and demonic force. The prerevolutionary tropes subsequently carried over into posters, satirical magazines, painting, music, and children’s literature in the early Soviet era. Satirical “Gothic laughter” figured in official Soviet propaganda and public discourse. Moreover, critics of the Soviet regime began to apply the Gothic as a tool to critique the despotic excesses of the new era. As Stalinism rose the Gothic, which had become perhaps too suggestive of political opposition, retreated from the mainstream of Soviet cultural life, with the exception of several works of children’s literature. Here it continued to exert influence and expressed the violence and terror of life under Stalin.

Messianic Narrations in Contemporary Russian Statecraft and Foreign Policy

The article aims to uncover the nature and distinctive features of the contemporary messianic narrations in the Russian public discourse, as well as estimate their impact on the actual policy-making. For this reason, the article scrutinizes the political philosophy of Aleksandr Dugin, Nataliia Narochnitskaia, Egor Kholmogorov, and Vadim Tsymburskii. Their major messages are contrasted and compared to a variety of recent developments in Russia’s domestic and foreign policies. The hypothesis is put forward that the messianic narrations are furtive, though unalienable factors which propel and justify Russian domestic and foreign policies. Therefore, it is always worth considering Russian policy-making through the prism of the nation-wide religious self-identification, as well as acknowledging a number of “eschatological duties” which derive from this self-identification. Finally, the article provides an overview to the western scholarly perspectives on Russian messianism with a specific emphasis on British and US contributors.