From Imperial-Patriotic Consolidation to Symbolic Constructionof Metacconcept FREEDOM: Russian Identity Narrative in Press of 1914 and 1917

This study identifies the visual-verbal strategies and mechanisms of semiotic entrenchment that determine the radical axiologicalsemiotic recoding of the Russian auto-identity narrative: from the imperial-patriotic consolidation at the outset of the “Great War” in 1914 to the symbolic construction of the metacconcept FREEDOM in 1917. The empirical material comprises creolized texts drawn from Russian periodicals published in August–September 1914 and February–March 1917. The methodological framework integrates quantitative content analysis with iconological and semiotic analysis of the most representative media texts constituting the identity narrative. The findings reveal that the press employed identical visual-verbal techniques for constructing polar asymmetry between the “Us” and “Them” categories across the periods under investigation. It is demonstrated that the imagery of the “Us”-community was constructed as objects of auto-identity and attractive reference. The analysis further indicates that 1917 witnessed the deliberate discrediting of the former imperial authority. The study establishes that an axiological-semiotic mechanism of discursive pole inversion in auto-identification was implemented. It is noted that the old monarchic foundations were alienated from the core of the “Us” selfreference and incorporated into the structure of the hostile heteroconcept “Them”. The study concludes that the “freedom” narrative was constructed as a new foundation for identity and patriotic consolidation.