Images of Britain and France in the Political Discourses of the Anti-Bolshevik Movement in Eastern Russia during the Civil War (1918-1920)

The article reveals the peculiarities of the influence of stereotypes in the images of Britain and France on the process of forming the key ideologemes of the anti-Bolshevik movement in the East of Russia. The choice of images of these countries for research is due to their main role in the Entente, long-term relations with Russia, as well as the close attention of anti-Bolshevik forces and the Siberian and Far Eastern press to these states. The sources for the study were periodicals published in the East of Russia from mid-1918 to the end of 1919 - official newspapers of anti-Bolshevik regimes, Cadet (Constitutional Democratic), Socialist Revolutionary and Menshevik (Social Democratic) publications. The ideas about the peculiarities of the social and political structure of France and Britain, stereotypes in combination with propaganda and journalistic cliches were actualized in the course of communication, the participants of which were the authorities, political parties and the periodical press. On the one hand, this was prompted by the need to construct a number of ideologemes used by governmental structures in propaganda. On the other hand, there was a political struggle between various groups within the anti-Bolshevik camp, part of which was the discussion on the pages of the periodical press. The author comes to the conclusion that the actualization of the images of the British and French as the “significant Other”, a role model, was a reflection of the active attempts to form the identity of the anti-Bolshevik movement. Its main components were the ideas of national and civil unity and the revival of Russian statehood. Broadcasting the idea of unity of the nation to the population, the official and party press constructed the image of an ideal citizen - a patriot, conscious and ready to make sacrifices for the preservation and prosperity of the state. Positive images of the British and French were models in its formation. The idea of the revival of statehood was a common thread in the slogans and texts of the anti-Bolshevik newspapers and magazines; it was understood and interpreted differently by various groups. In the images of the allies, “state-minded” ideologues sought the confirmation of the thesis about the need to strengthen the dictatorship in the name of legality and rallying of society and the state for the sake of victory. Meanwhile “revolutionary democracy” addressed the topic of the importance of preserving the people's power and solidarity of the socialist movement of Russia and the West. According to the author of the study, the appeal of the anti-Bolshevik ideologists to the idealized images of the allies against the background of the ambivalent and inconsistent policy of the Entente countries and the abuses of interventionists in Russia itself only negatively affected the stability of the anti-Soviet political regimes.

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