The values of the past in the historical and cultural media discourse: Understanding the centenary of the October revolution

Abstract

The subject of the author's interest is the media tendency to disclose a significant page of Russian history - the October Revolution. As a starting point of the research, the author has chosen a quotation of Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov, recorded by Konstantin Simonov: “There are three different memories. You can remember the evil. This is the first one. You can remember experience. This is the second one. You can remember the past, thinking about the future. This is the third one”. Three types of memory serve as three concepts of analysis. In fact, the words of the commander in a brief form contain the program of the research project, in which, first of all, the operationalization of the selected concepts is carried out, and the selection of media texts is subjected to examination. Analysis of publications of 2017 in Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Literaturnaya Gazeta and Novaya Gazeta confirmed the possibility of using the evaluative research of media texts through “three different memories” parameters. In total, 239 texts were examined in the media which are typologically represented by one regional newspaper and three federal ones; two daily and two weekly media; one official media, two media loyal to the state policy and one opposition media. Russian press in 2017 is characterized by an objective-neutral approach while covering the anniversary of the historic event. This approach finds its expression, first of all, in materials of an informational character: modern cultural news, the chronicle of 1917, historical sketches (123 texts from 239 analyzed). Analytical materials also favor the position of “not forgetting experience” (79). It strengthens the characteristic of the discourse about the revolution that leans toward the “medial” position of the public opinion. However, in Literaturnaya Gazeta and Novaya Gazeta there is a maximum concentration of the expression of the authors' political positions, and the value of the “October Revolution” concept is viewed from diametrically opposite directions. Generally, for the first time in recent years, the media attitude to the October Revolution was not marked by a distinct dominance of diametrically opposite evaluative principles. The evaluation of events that occurred a hundred years ago increasingly becomes the evaluation of the past, which was not actualized in the public sphere. This statement is based on at least two points: firstly, the author believes that the mass media reflect the most important aspects of the current public moods; secondly, the dominance of “mass culture” in the society reduces the level of its civic self-awareness averaging the content of the media and spreading the philistine philosophy of consumerism. Therefore, the production of “omnibuses” (media facts that do not divide society into feuding parties and cause universal consensus) begins to dominate in the media (in the words of Pierre Bourdieu). Thus, modern media practice indicates value-based reorientation which is taking place in the society.