The Image of the Enemy in Soviet and Post-Soviet Propaganda: General and Special

Hypothesis of this study is premised on the idea that, although modern Russian society offers way over freedom of choice, including ideological choice for most citizens, the existing picture of the world remains the most attractive for a number of reasons. Therefore, the Russian government will be forced to borrow an increasing number of attributes of the Soviet political system for the sake of growing popularity. And since the most effective method of maintaining political unity is rallying against a common enemy, the use of Soviet ideological clichés in relation to foreign policy opponents seems to be one of the most rational strategies. The aim of the study is to compare and analyse the effectiveness of enemy images constructed in the USSR and modern Russia in relation to the goals facing the state. The methodology of the study is formed within the framework of the theory of political perceptions, which considers the process of propaganda as the dissemination by the state of certain semantic attitudes in the form of images through specific channels of information transmission. Does this methodology mean constructivism? Besides general scientific methods of comparative analysis and research of secondary sources, specialized methods of political science are also used. The case study is the most important place among them. This method makes it possible to identify the political markers that belong to each time period within the constructed image of the enemy. According to the results of the study, the hypothesis of a relatively lower effectiveness of the enemy images used in modern Russia was confirmed, since society does not perceive the threats reflected in them as real or relevant.