Journal Title, Journal Number, Year - [ID]:

“Internacional’naja literatura”, 1, 1937 - [S038]

The texts of ‘Literatura mirovoj revoljucii’ and ‘Internacional’naja literatura’ employ stylistic devices aimed at educating the public on how certain references, characters and cultural figures should be perceived. The linguistic devices established at the beginning of the 1930s not only aimed at creating the ‘image of an enemy’ in the cultural and literary sphere, but also at promoting the positive image of those who are akin to US on an ideological and social level. The choice of linguistic means used in the ideological education of the Soviet reader induces the public to produce evaluations and behaviour useful to the regime. The conspicuous number of evaluative expressions with a positive connotation gives the texts a greater emotional charge and reinforces the ideological position of the magazine’s authors. This is particularly evident in the enthusiastic comments regarding French writers’ impressions of their trips to the USSR, as in the case of the writer Louis Guilloux. In the commentary to one of his articles on his trip to the Soviet Union, for example, he emphasizes the atmosphere of trust, human dignity, the joyful mood, and the general cheerfulness and serenity of the ‘new man’, builder of the new society. As is well known, in the 1930s western guests and intellectuals were generally only guaranteed the opportunity to see those aspects of the country’s life that the Soviet government wished to show (‘obespechivalas’ vozmozhnost’ uvidet’ lish’ tu stranu, kotoruju hotelo im pokazat’ sovetskoe rukovodstvo’ (Kraeva 2022: 99)). Consequently and with rare exceptions, in recounting their travels, they ‘helped to spread and idealise Bolshevik ideas in the West’ [sposobstvovali rasprostraneniju i idealizacii idej bol’shevizma na Zapade] (Mironova 2017: 51).

Communicative Intention: Creating the image of 'ONE OF US'

Utterance Aim: Promoting acceptance and a positive outlook

Concrete Linguistic Means/Tool: Positively connoted expressions

Journal Title: "Internacional'naja literatura"

Journal Number: 1

Contexts & Examples: В своей статье Гийу даёт ряд зарисовок впечатлений, вынесенных им из своего путешествия по СССР. Он подробно описывает атмосферу доверия, человеческого достоинства, которую он сразу у нас почувствовал. В Ленинграде писатель всюду видел радостное настроение, всеобщую весёлость, спокойствие. Из Ленинграда Гийу совершил поездку в Москву, потом в Орджоникидзе и, наконец, в Тбилиси. Для описания этого путешествия и всего виденного, указывает Гийу, надо было бы «написать целую книгу. Тема её была бы грандиозна: не только построение государства или экономики, но также, как в государстве посредством новой, невероятно развивающейся экономики создается новый человек».

Edited by Svetlana Slavkova