VChK–OGPU–NKVD Employee in the Russian Emigrant Discourse in the 1920s and 1930s
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2021.05.113Keywords:
VChK–OGPU–NKVD, Chekists, enemy image, Russian emigrationAbstract
The article is devoted to the analysis of an employee’s image of the Soviet secret police agency in the 1920–1930s in the texts written by the representatives of the Russian emigration.
The purpose of the article is to analyze VChK–OGPU–NKVD employee’s image of and the mechanisms of constructing this image in journalistic works, memoirs, and periodicals of the Russian community in exile.
Methodology. Phenomenologically oriented theories of P.Berger and T.Lukman, in particular about the role of language in the construction of abstract symbols, which are elements of everyday life, are useful for studying the phenomenon of the image of other/ strange/enemy. The linguistic-cultural method and the method of content analysis were used in the study.
Conclusions. Based on these texts, VChK–OGPU–NKVD employee’s image was shown through the prism of the “enemy”. The stereotypes, the experience of an individual as well as community, the informational influences of propaganda affected this image. It was presented in two perspectives. The image of the “chekist-executioner” dominated in the early 1920s. From the second half of this decade, an “OGPU agent” appeared at the forefront of the emigrant discourse, operating outside the USSR and posing a potential danger to other countries. The heads of the secret police agency of the USSR were represented within the framework of permanent stereotypes and typifications. All these images were addressed to foreign recipients (many works had been published in English, French, and German), as well as to ordinary Russian emigrants. Also, the images sheared by the Russian-language media were intended to have a mobilizing effect on the emigrants community.
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