AIRBORNE TROOPS ARE COURAGE, HONOUR, VALOUR! (slogans of social movement “Union of paratroopers of Russia”)

Abstract

Nowadays slogans, both as a genre of journalistic discourse and as a means of mass propaganda, have been brought back to life. Slogans that represent some particular corps stand out among contemporary official social movements. The content of the slogans of the “Union of paratroopers ofRussia” particularly arouse the interest of a linguist. The authors carry out a comparative analysis of these slogans and Soviet war time slogans, which allows one to set out some peculiarities of political propaganda texts of the Soviet past and today. The slogans found in the text of the social movement make up a source to form a journalistic store and attributes of social movements inRussiaat the end of the 20th – the beginning of the 21st centuries. In the long term the authors are planning to compile a special dictionary. In general, all lexical units can be divided into several subject groups: slogans that reflect alertness of a paratrooper and slogans that represent certain principles of behavior in peaceful life. Propaganda texts let us distinguish the main characteristics of a paratrooper: exceptionality, patriotism, the highest level of alertness, swiftness of reaction in extreme situations, moral power, focus on success and victory. In peaceful life paratroopers are characterized by resolution, lack of doubt, power decisions, desire to be liked by women. Many Russian military commanders appreciated figurative expressions which still exist in the language and are included in the treasure trove of aphoristics. The legendary commander of airborne troops V. F. Margelov also contributed to these lexical units. A part of modern slogans of airborne troops are utterances that belong to this commander. The number of army slogans is increasing. Along with lexical units that appeared in war time, there still appear new propaganda texts that can briefly express the main idea, for example, Nobody but us! Courage, honour, valour!