The models of the authoritarian relations in the Old-Russian publicism

Author(s):  V.Y. Merinov, candidate of Sciences, associate Professor, Belgorod National Research University, Belgorod, Russia, merinov@bsu.edu.ru

Issue:  Volume 38, № 1

Rubric:  Journalism and public relations

Annotation:  The article deals with some elements of the authoritarian tradition in Russian publicism in the era of its formation. Among its important features are highlighted such as: 1) the sacralization of power and devaluation of other participants in socio-political processes, emphasizing the distance between the Supreme power and the elite; 2) the definition of the official (United around the Supreme power, independent, entirely dependent on the center) role of the elite in socio-political life (identification of the elite with the center); 3) demonstration and author's approval of loyalist (sacrificial) patterns of behavior and rhetoric of aristocrats in relation to the Supreme center as the only acceptable. Affirmation of the values of subordination, discipline, loyalty to the center as primary. The well-known Russian writer of the XVI century Kurbsky in his History of the Grand Duke of Moscow "shows a picture of the complete disorientation of the Russian elite and its surrender to the Supreme power. Judging by the addressee, the lack of alternative models of behavior (for example, such as the cooperation of the elite in the fight against tyranny), the characterization of the heroes that refused to protect the honor and life (which remains within the framework of Christian sacrificial discourse), shifting all of the blame for repression on the king-despot and his henchmen, in the article the conclusion about the presence in the attitude of the author characteristics of the authoritarian worldview.

Keywords:  Old Russian publicism, authoritarian tradition in publicism, authoritarianism, elites, loyalist models of rhetoric and behavior, the phenomenon of non-subjectivity.

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