POLITICAL SATIRE AND HUMOR IN THE ARSENAL OF THE "COLD WARˮ, 1946-1953
Based on an analysis of the materials of the Crocodile magazine (1946-1953) devoted to the problems of the Cold War and texts of post-war anecdotes on this topic, the authors tried to reconstruct the image of an external enemy by identifying the specifics of visual, stylistic and lexical tools. These tools were used in official (satirical) and unofficial (anecdotal) discourses. In the mobilization Soviet post-war society, the official discourse was based on clear and precise dichotomies: war - peace, us - them, foe - friend. The official rhetoric had various forms of realization: caricature, feuilleton, poetry, etc. It was distinguished by the wide use of various stylistic means: metaphors, hyperboles, analogies, sarcasm, etc. The official discourse was aimed at solving propaganda and mobilization tasks, such as increasing the vigilance of the population, stimulation of its labor activity. In the space of an anecdote the demarcation line within the “good - badˮ system did not necessarily correspond to the official line of Soviet political rhetoric: sometimes derision practice was reduced to nullifying the status of a political phenomenon or political worker through its primitivization. In general, the official mobilization rhetoric of Soviet satirical discourse was countervailed by anecdotal discourse, which was a defense reaction of Soviet society that emerged from the war and sought to avoid mobilization challenges emanating from the political sphere of the USSR.