НАЧАЛО ХОЛОДНОЙ ВОЙНЫ ГЛАЗАМИ СОВЕТСКОГО ПЛАКАТА (НА ОСНОВЕ АНАЛИЗА МАТЕРИАЛОВ 1944-1953 ГГ.)
Несмотря на высокую степень изученности, тема холодной войны не утратила ни политической, ни научной актуальности. В частности, вне внимания исследователей остаются советские плакаты как система взаимосвязанных текстовых и визуальных образов, формировавшая, наряду с другими средствами пропаганды, специфику восприятия конфронтации СССР и Запада. В данной статье на основе выборки материалов за 1944-1953 гг. предпринимается попытка рассмотреть проблему начала холодной войны прежде всего через эволюцию образа врага и общее изменение представлений о внешнем мире, отразившихся в плакате. ; The topic of the Cold War has lost neither political, nor scientific relevance in the works of researchers. In particular, yet little attention has been paid to Soviet posters as a system of textual and visual images which among other means of propaganda formed a specific perception of the conflict between the USSR and the West. The main aim of this article is to reconstruct and to analyze the images of the Soviet posters of 1944-1953 reflecting the character of changes of the foreign policy agenda at the beginning of the Cold War. It is necessary to disclose two relevant aspects of the research. Firstly, the transformation of the international situation as depicted by visual sources introduces alterations in the general discussion about the essence and the periodization of the Cold War. Secondly, the content of posters touches on such significant questions as the logic of polarization of the natives and the aliens in terms of the conflict; the level of relevance in propaganda of national and social stereotypes; the proportion of "the real" and "the imaginary" in it. These are all the factors which affected the Soviet identity as a whole. To this end, the main verbal and non-verbal images have been elicited and systematized by the means of contentand intent-analysis out of 168 posters. The reconstruction has shown that the experience of the forming positive image of the West during the Second World War was followed by the struggle waged against "warmongers" as new war ideologists in the person of some European or American politicians first in caricatures in 1946, then in posters since 1947. It was only in 1948 that a full scale Cold War in Soviet posters started as a geopolitical rivalry between the USSR and the USA, accompanied by the appearance of the symbolic Uncle Sam's image. Another aspect of the nations' conflict expressed in posters in the form of a very rigid polarization of "We-They" with a particular emphasis not on people themselves, but on their life conditions. All these gave an opportunity of using the image of "the Other" that could be perceived as an adherent. The question about the proportion of "the real" and "the imaginary" in Soviet posters is the most difficult to define. Soviet citizens seem to have had real causes for a critical attitude to "the West", and it was not explained only by the effects of propaganda that contributed to some specific features of appreciation, which could be characterized as part of "the imaginary". Images on the posters should be considered as examples of quite realistic facts solving the tasks of propaganda. This circumstance allows believing the Cold War was not only a historical period, but a method of political and ideological struggle, without any chronological frames.