ABSTRACT

This article offers a qualitative analysis of how, by adopting identity-related discourses whose meanings resonate within a given culture, Russian state propaganda strives to bolster “the truth status” of its Ukraine war claims. These discourses, we argue, have long historical lineages and thus are expected to be familiar to audiences. We identify three such discourses common in many contexts but with specific resonances in Russia, those of colonialism/decolonization, imperialism, and the imaginary West. The article demonstrates that these same discourses also inform war-related coverage in Russophone oppositional media. Russian state-affiliated and oppositional actors further share “floating signifiers,” particularly “the Russian people,” “historical Russia,” “the Russian world,” “Ukraine,” “fascism/Nazism,” and “genocide,” while according them radically different meanings. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of studying how state propaganda works at the level of discourses, and the acutely dialogical processes by which disinformation and counter-disinformation efforts are produced and consumed.

摘要

本文对俄罗斯国家宣传如何通过采用其含义在特定文化中产生共鸣的身份相关话语，努力支持其乌克兰战争主张的“真相地位”进行定性分析。我们认为，这些话语有着悠久的历史渊源，因此预计会为观众所熟悉。我们确定了在许多背景下常见但在俄罗斯引起特定共鸣的三种此类话语，即殖民主义/非殖民化、帝国主义和想象中的西方。文章表明，这些相同的话语也为俄语反对派媒体的战争相关报道提供了信息。俄罗斯国家附属和反对派行为体进一步共享“浮动的符号”，特别是“俄罗斯人民”、“历史上的俄罗斯”、“俄罗斯世界”、“乌克兰”、“法西斯主义/纳粹主义”和“种族灭绝、”，同时赋予它们截然不同的含义。总体而言，我们的研究结果强调了研究国家宣传如何在话语层面发挥作用的重要性，以及产生和消耗虚假信息和反虚假信息努力的尖锐对话过程。