SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION IN THE JOURNALISTIC WRITING OF ALEXANDER PROKHANOV

The article analyzes the reflection of the special military operation in the works of Aleksandr Prokhanov, which is almost the only topic of the writer’s journalism for the last three years. In his opinion, the fate of the country is being decided on the fronts of the SMO. A war correspondent with sixteen wars behind him, Prokhanov, due to his age, is focused not on a reporter’s, but on a journalistic understanding of the operation. At the same time, he does not take the position of a quasi-objective observer, but considers himself a soldier of the information and propaganda front. Prokhanov sees the main reason for the start of the operation in the collapse of the USSR, as a result of which historical Russia lost its original territories. In his opinion, Russia is not fighting with Ukraine, but with the collective West, led today by the United States. The writer admits that the SMO is not developing for Russia as planned, but is convinced of victory. He finds the key to it in the history of the country, first of all, in the history of the Great Patriotic War. Prokhanov’s journalism refracts all the significant events of the special operation. The gathering of Russian lands began with the return of Crimea and continues during the SMO, the writer believes. The special military operation, on the one hand, exposed the problems of modern Russia, and on the other, became a catalyst for the country’s revival. Artistic comprehension of the special military operation helps Prokhanov understand the nature of grandiose events that cannot be contained in arithmetic reports and military-political analysis. His articles in the newspaper «Zavtra» represent a single artistic and journalistic cycle, which is one of the most striking panoramas of the special military operation created by russian writers.