CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Alieva, Alisa |
|---|---|
| Title | Myth-making in Vladimir Putin's discourse on 2022 invasion of Ukraine |
| Summary | This thesis aims to analyze discursive construction of myths in Vladimir Putin’s speeches justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022. I draw on interdisciplinary scholarship of nationalism studies, memory studies, and sociology of conspiracies to explore which myths were employed by Putin and why. Using the Discourse-Historical Approach, I deconstruct two president’s addresses that were made on the verge of invasion with regard to memory work and discursive strategies. I identify five dominant myths. While some of them are well-established in Russian political discourse, others are new or have changed in terms of content to serve current political goals. Adopting Bouchard's conceptualization of myths, I demonstrate how the analysis of relations between these myths can reveal a complex hierarchical web of national mythology as well as Putin’s attempts to resolve controversies between the already existing myths and the Russian invasion. Additionally, I find evidence that Putin’s initial attempts to justify the war with Ukraine are best understood in terms of Brubaker’s two-dimensional model of populism and nationalism. My research contributes to the scholarship on Russian nation-building and memory politics. |
| Supervisor | Pogonyi, Szabolcs |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/alieva_alisa.pdf |
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