The Representations of the Revolution of 1917 in the Official Discourse of Contemporary Russia: The Role of doxa in Discursive Strategies

Abstract

This article aims to compare the representations of the October Revolution within the official discourse from the break with Soviet mythology to the most recent period of the 2000s, seeking for a certain continuity with the Soviet period. Indeed, the concept of revolution, with references to the events and figures of the revolutionary period, seems to have been revived by the contemporary Russian political discourse well before the “color revolutions” in the post-Soviet space. These upheavals, which have reduced the distance between the concepts of soft power and hard power, raise the concerns of the Russian leadership and incite it to look for instruments of self-legitimation in the historical memory, in particular in that of the revolutions of 1917. The representations of the revolutionary momentum in the discourse of the contemporary Russian leadership are based on the doxa inherited from perestroika. However, some elements of this doxa are used to defend the evolutionary paradigm that forms the basis of the legitimacy of power. Starting from the myth of the revolution deconstructed by the reformers of perestroika, this study shows how contemporary Russian leaders succeed in inscribing various constitutive elements of new depictions of revolution in their strategies of self- representation and argumentation. The questions raised in this article focus on the place of the representations of revolution in the rhetorical and discursive tactics of self- legitimization and the delegitimization of the Other.