The concept of civil war in the journalistic language of V.I. Lenin in 1917-1918: “emotional syllogism” and other suggestive-manipulative discursive techniques

The article analyzes the features and evolution of V.I. Lenin's journalistic language in the context of using the concept of “Civil War” in the period from April 1917 to April 1918. During this period of history, the Bolshevik leader was forced to abandon the calls for turning the “imperialist war into a civil war” that had become entrenched in his rhetoric since the beginning of World War I. Supporting the discourse on the further development of the revolution and the need to transfer all power to the Soviets, Lenin began to widely use the complexly structured technique of “emotional syllogism”. The essence of this technique was that the logically developing reasoning was repaced by emotionally developing contradictory feelings. This technique allowed for the effective combination of formally and logically contradictory theses: on the one hand, the denial of the Bolsheviks' desire for civil war, on the other hand, confirmation of the Bolsheviks' commitment to the idea of a civil war for socialism and world revolution. This technique remained relevant for Lenin until the beginning of spring 1918, when, in a situation of short-term political stabilization of Soviet power, the Bolshevik leader again adjusted the style of his suggestive journalistic statements and assessments, including on the topic of the civil war. During this period of time, Lenin began to use simpler and “unilinear” manipulative-journalistic techniques in his reasoning on this topic, addressing intra-party or pro-Bolshevik-minded Soviet audiences. One of these discursive tools was the technique of “violating logic”,”monological dictatorship” etc.

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