TWO ETERNAL RUSSIAN QUESTIONS AS MARKERS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY AND THEIR FUNCTIONING IN THE RUSSIAN INTERNET FOLKLORE

The purpose of the article is to study two proverbial phrase: kto vinovat? (Who is to blame?) and chto delat? (What is to be done?) as markers of the Russian national identity and analysis of their functioning in online folklore. These set expressions are usually accompanied by the phrase ‘Russian issues’, which support the status of their use in the indicated meaning. The authors point out the traditionalism (stability and continuity in time) in the comprehension and use of the designated winged expressions in Russian speech for a century and a half. They reflect such mental features of the Russian national character as contemplative thinking, inclination to discuss philosophical issues At the same time, Russian people are characterized by inertia, passivity and unwillingness to take concrete practical actions, fatalism, stable ideas that it is up to the supreme authority (tsar, president, state) to change life for the better, and not to a particular person. Therefore, among the definitions for the noun ‘issue’ used in various contexts are the following: ‘eternal’, ‘traditional’, ‘classical’, ‘rhetorical’, ‘accursed’. The studied winged expressions have the above-mentioned meanings in Russian internet folklore as well. The analyzed units function primarily in the genre of online jokes. The authors distinguish the following models of online jokes construction containing the questions kto vinovat? (Who is to blame?) and chto delat? (What is to be done?): 1) adding one or two more questions; 2) adding answers; 3) combining two questions into one new. Moreover, when used in jokes, these winged units are often subject to various transformations. The authors give examples of the use of eternal Russian questions not only in jokes, but also in other genres of online folklore: internet poems and memes.