Internal situation in USSR in Russian emigration press in the United States (1964–1982)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the formation of the image of the USSR in the Russian diaspora in the United States under the impact of the events of Soviet domestic policy 1964–1982. Based on the theory of historical imagology, the author analyzes the publications of emigre press of different political affiliations. During this period, the important components of anti-communist press that construct the image of the USSR were the concepts of «Russian people» and «Soviet State», which viewed through the lens of the «friend–other/alien» dichotomy. Publicists broadcast a number of stereotypes of the totalitarian direction of American Russian studies at the analyzing the concept of «Soviet state». Significant components of image of the USSR were ideas about the Russian people and Soviet youth, which were perceived as progressive forces capable of creating Russia of Future. The author therefore concludes that important transformations of process create of ideas about the USSR took place among the authors of the central and right-wing political blocs of emigration in the 1970’s. On the contrary, the communist’s «Russian Voice» always presented the Soviet country as a state of social and economic prosperity.