Tatiana Mikhailovna Petrova,
Postgraduate Student, Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Critical Discourse Analysis of Soviet Diaries and Letters to the Authorities as an Instrument for Studying Public Opinion about N.S. Khrushchev (1953–1964)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-6-10
The article analyzes discourses of diaries and letters, which contain information about attitude of the population to N.S. Khrushchev. With the help of critical discourse analysis of N. Fairclough, sources are considered as communicative events. The author concludes that the presence of traditional and new discourses in diaries and letters indicates changes in the perception of the head of state in the minds of population. More traditional letters contain discourses of past times (peaceful, paternalistic), while the distinctive feature of diaries are discourses of personal characteristics and public approval, which are signs of the “thaw” indicating the expansion of boundaries of what is permissible in relation to the leader’s assessments. The latter became possible due to the transformations, which were initiated by Khrushchev. However, their inconsistency led to the emergence of a critical discourse, present both communicative events and caused by the disappointment of people with Khrushchev as head of state and his policy.
Publishing: 28/12/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 13/09/2022
How to cite: Petrova T.M. Critical Discourse Analysis of Soviet Diaries and Letters to the Authorities as an Instrument for Studying Public Opinion about N.S. Khrushchev (1953–1964) // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 6 (26), pp. 135–145. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-6-10.pdf]
RFBR Grant 20-59-44008 Mong_a “World and Russian Mongolian Studies: National Schools, Concepts, Personalities”.
Links: Issue 6 2022
Keywords: N.S. Khrushchev; critical discourse analysis; N. Fairclough; public opinion; letters to the authorities; diaries