Constructing Solidarity in Belarusian Press during the Soviet Period

Abstract

The results of a study of the discourse of solidarity in the Soviet Russian-language press of Belarus of the post-war period on the basis of the publications of the newspaper “Sovetskaya Belorussia” is presented in the article. The directions of solidarity in media discourse are determined depending on the inclusion of an object in the group of “friends” or “aliens”. Attention is paid to the construction of solidarity both in publications about the internal life of the country and in articles about the “Western” states and countries of the socialist camp. The relevance of the study is due to the need to study the means of solidarity of the media audience in different historical periods, including during crises. The novelty of the research is seen in the fact that the objects for analysis are newspaper texts with a pragmatic goal-setting of constructing solidarity. The key words of the media discourse of solidarity of the Soviet period are revealed: lexemes with the meaning of compatibility; words labeling “friends” according to the class principle; units emphasizing the responsibility of a person for a joint business; vocabulary of the semantic groups “Struggle” and “Labour”. It has been proved that the solidarity constructed by the mass media was aimed at the awareness of the citizens of the country of their involvement in the common cause and common values, at the legitimization of political power and the formation of mutual understanding between members of society.

Keywords

• media discourse
• press
• solidarism
• solidarity
• ideologeme
• internationalism