The USSR State Leader in the U.S. Superhero Comic Strips in the 1980s: Constructing and Broadcasting Stereotypes About “Russians” in the Historical Context of the Cold War

Abstract

Introduction. There has been a rich tradition of using stereotypes and cliches of Russians in U.S. comic strips since the 1940s. Russian characters represent statehood, cultural dominants, and ethnic stereotypes. They convey the political agenda and civic values and demonstrate reactions to historical cataclysms. The leaders of the USSR represent the state as a political system in comic strips. In the 1980s, the interpretation of the “Russian threat” changed significantly, as did the methods of representing the General Secretary of the Soviet Union. Methods and materials. The article is based on the principles of historicism. The analysis was carried out using a set of methods: descriptive, elements of discourse analysis, and semiotic tools. The work used a range of sources, among which the most important were the issues of graphic comic strips regulating censorship documents and visual representations of Russians. Analysis. The author analyzed the dramaturgy of the 1986–1989 comic strips about the “Russian threat,” in which Mikhail Gorbachev appears. The key motifs that made up the image were identified, an iconological analysis was performed, and the speech characteristics of the protagonists and antagonists of superheroics were analyzed. The dynamics of the image of the leader of the USSR in superhero comic strips were determined by the transition from a caricature image to a Machiavellian ruler of the “Evil Empire,” ready, among other things, to collaborate with the United States. Results. From the point of view of iconography, a number of techniques for depicting Mikhail Gorbachev in comic strips correlate with the techniques of representation of Ronald Reagan. In some comic strips, the strategic superiority of the leader of the USSR over American superheroes is indirectly emphasized. The appearance of realistic features in the image of Gorbachev makes it possible to talk about the expansion of cultural ties between the USSR and the United States, a well-known social demand of the target audience, completely dissatisfied with the stereotypical images of the leaders of the USSR and the country itself.