The Sociopolitical Discourse of the Russian Diaspora Publications of the 1970s and 1980s

The aim of the research is to study the sociopolitical discourse of Russian emigrant periodicals of the 1970s and 1980s (Zarubezh'e, Kontinent, Obzor, Forum). Discourse is understood as a type of verbal communication characteristic of periodicals of the Russian diaspora of the given period, as well as a set of problematic and thematic issues discussed on their pages. The study outlines the opinions and political positions of the authors of the third wave of Russian emigration, which were largely ideological in nature. The author notes that the sociopolitical discourse in the periodicals of the third wave of Russian emigration transformed significantly in the second half of the 1980s when a course towards perestroika reforms was taken in the USSR. The main topics for discussion were transformations in the social, economic, legal spheres; democratic transformations in the country were analyzed. Writers, journalists, and publicists of the Russian diaspora differently assessed the main threats to Russia's social stability during the perestroika period. On the rising waves of people's discontent, anti-Soviet emigre forces intensified. The ideological crisis affected not only the society in the USSR, perestroika gave rise to a split and disunity among Russian emigrants. Many authors of emigration, analyzing perestroika, wrote about environmental disasters, lagging behind in the development of productive forces, the breakdown of science, social and physical poverty, ethnic strife and conflicts that affected millions of people. It is concluded that the periodicals of the Russian diaspora in the period of the 1970s and 1980s were able to organize a comprehensive sociopolitical discourse on important topics related to the main spheres of life in the Soviet Union and abroad. On the pages of the periodicals, the authors of the third wave of Russian emigration discussed urgent topics that were banned in the USSR they had abandoned.

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