Forms of Representation of National Identity in the Official and Pro-Government Periodical Press of Eastern Russia (June 1918 – December 1919)

Dmitry N. Shevelev, Kirill A. Konev
2015 Bylye Gody  
Оn the basis of the official and pro-government periodical press published in the east of Russia from the summer of 1918 to the end of 1919 the author considers the key ideas, images and meanings for the anti-Bolshevik movement which played an important role in the collective self-identification of its supporters. Important components of legitimizing the power of the new political regimes were competitive struggle for hegemony in the field of symbolic production and formation of information,
more » ... itical, social, economic and cultural space corresponding to the new state doctrine. In the situation of destruction of the former (imperial) mechanism of social integration the new forms of organizing the political community «We» and its hostile opposition «They» were needed. The main object of the propagandistic departments of the Omsk government was formation and consolidation of the «imagined community», understood as the «Russian national community», and obedience to its goals of struggle against Bolshevism. The purpose of the study is to identify methods of institutionalization and representation of national identity which are typical for the newspaper formal discourse. Through the representation of goal the official and pro-government periodical press of anti-Bolshevik regimes of eastern Russia outlined the boundaries of the construction of the imagined community and built a unique identification corridors: «We» (the honest citizens of Russia) – «They» (our enemies – the Bolsheviks); politically active «Citizen» – indifferent to the fate of the homeland «Small-minded person» etc. The authors comes to the conclusion that the main methods of representation of national identity were the actualization of ideologically marked value components and political narratives.
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