The Rhetorical Rise and Demise of "Democracy" in Russian Political Discourse, Volume 2: The Promise of "Democracy" during the Yeltsin Years

by David Cratis Williams, Marilyn J. Young, Michael K. Launer

Overview

Post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s saw a surge in civic participation. The traditional power structure officially relinquished control of political rhetoric and a nascent civil society had begun to emerge. Free elections and political partisanship between reformist and conservative elements of Russian society, spurred on by Russia’s economic troubles, gave a “Wild West” tenor to public rhetoric that was reflected in the election campaigns of 1993, 1995, and 1996. In this volume, the authors examine, through a series of contemporaneously written essays, the arc of government rhetoric during the height of media freedom, the quest for a new national identity, and the struggle for self-government.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644696507
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	05/17/2022
Pages:	470
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

David Cratis Williams is Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Florida Atlantic University. His scholarship focuses on argumentation, rhetorical theory, and criticism; he is a recognized authority on Kenneth Burke. His work on Russian political discourse began during a meeting in Russia in January 1992.

Marilyn J. Young is the Wayne C. Minnick Professor of Communication Emerita at Florida State University. Her research has focused on political argument with an emphasis on the development of political rhetoric and argument in the former Soviet Union, particularly Russia. She remains an active scholar in retirement.

Michael K. Launer is Professor Emeritus of Russian at Florida State University. In 1987 he interpreted for the first group of Soviet scientists visiting the US following Chernobyl. A State Department certified technical interpreter, he supported Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy assistance programs through 2012.

Table of Contents

List of Photos
Acknowledgements
Contributors
Note to Readers

Alexander Yuriev
Alexander Yuriev

Dedication: Alexander Ivanovich Yuriev (1942–2020)
Alexander Yuriev

Preface

Marilyn Young at a Political Communication Conference

Introduction to Volume Two

Yeltsin and Gorbachev

Part One: Framework for Understanding the Immediate Post-Soviet Political Environment: Ecological Depredation, Economic Challenges, the Press, and National Identity

Yeltsin Standing on a Tank 1991

1. A New Day for the Soviet Environment

2. The Former Soviet Union Leaves Environmental Legacy of Shame

3. Review of Environmental Management in the Soviet Union by Philip R. Pryde

4. Russian Scientists Struggle to Survive

5. Review of The Russian Press from Brezhnev to Yeltsin: Behind the Paper Curtain by John Murray

6. Argumentation, Globalization, and the New Nationalism: Implications and New Directions

Part Two: Politics and Political Argumentation during the Yeltsin Years

1. Democratization and Cultures of Communication: The Mission of the International Center for the Advancement of Political Communication and Argumentation

2. The Role of Public Argument in Emerging Democracies: A Case Study of the December 12, 1993, Elections in the Russian Federation

3. Analysis of Political Argumentation and Party Campaigning Prior to the 1993 and 1995 State Duma Elections: Lessons Learned and Not Learned

4. Argument and Political Party Formulations: A Continuing Case Study of Democratization in the Russian Federation

5. Russian Electoral Politics and the Search for National Identity

Yeltsin Campaign Photograph

Runoff Election Sample Ballot

Choose or Lose: Campaign Button

Choose or Lose: T-shirt Front

Choose or Lose: T-shirt Back

Choose or Lose: Globe and Barbed Wire

Choose or Lose: Jeans Jacket and Prison Garb

1. Frameworks for Russian Identity: Arguing the Past, Defining the Future

2. Historical Metaphor and the Search for National Identity in Russia

3. Russia’s First Elected President Buries Its Last Czar: Reclaiming Cultural Memory in the Search for National Identity

Part Three: Yeltsin’s Multiple Political Profiles (The Three Faces of Boris)

1. Yeltsin as an Autocrat: The “Constitutional Crisis of 1993” as the Beginning of the End of Russian Democracy

Shelling of the White House

Shelling of the White House

Shelling of the White House

1. Yeltsin as a Democrat: A Lexical Content Analysis of his Presidential Addresses to the Federal Assembly 1994–1999

2. Yeltsin as a Man of the People: A Case Study of His Campaign Rhetoric during the 1996 Russian Presidential Election

Yeltsin on the Campaign Trail

Part Four: Looking Backward, Looking Forward

1. Ten Years of Frustration: Transitional Rhetoric and Democratization in the Russian Federation

2. The Fear of Politics and the Politics of Fear in Russia—Images in the US Media

3. Echoes of Berlin 1989: Post-Soviet Discourse and the Rhetoric of National Unity

4. Foreign Policy Challenges and The Historical “Anchors” of Russian Federation Foreign Policy after September 11, 2001

Alexei Salmin

1. Instant Democracy: Rhetorical Crises and the Russian Federation, 1991–2007

Yeltsin and Putin in the President’s Office

Afterword

Index
Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“After recounting the shocking story of how the authors became personally involved in Russia’s pro-democracy movement, The Promise of 'Democracy' during the Yeltsin Years introduces the concept of ‘cultures of democratic communication,’ explores its interactions with multi-layered contexts, and reveals how attention to a wide range of multimodal products is necessary to understanding its full functionality. Simply a must-read for scholars of international communication, rhetorical studies, and democracy formation and sustainability.”

– Carol Kay Winkler, Professor of Communication Studies, Georgia State University

“This volume is an invaluable resource for those who study Russian political rhetoric because it articulates the consequences of Russia’s failure to develop a culture of democratic communication and the habits of political argumentation. It collects under one cover essays translated from Russian, already published essays, and unpublished works, making accessible an impressive range of scholarship that otherwise would be extremely difficult (if not impossible for those who do not speak Russian) to access. As I read the manuscript, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, intensified, and dragged into its 50th day. As I struggled to figure out how the world got to this moment, the essays in the volume gave me resources to explain the political conditions that made such a horror possible. They highlight the complicated political conditions that confronted Russia as it emerged from the dissolution of the USSR.”

– Catherine H. Palczewski, Professor, Department of Communication and Media, Universityof Northern Iowa