PEOPLES’ SPEECH REPRESENTATION IN THE “VEDOMOSTI” NEWSPAPER (1703–1727)

Abstract. It is generally known that the newspaper “Vedomosti” – the first Russian newspaper – was primarily served as the official newspaper of the Russian government, and its editor was Peter the Great himself. Indeed, during the Northern War, “Vedomosti” was an important part of the political propaganda of the young Russian state. But since the time when the military advantage tilted in the direction of Russia and the tension began to decrease, the newspaper began to publish news and more free content: for example, entertainment information about various events of European life – both secular and ordinary people. At the same time, some publications, small in volume, as well as a significant part of the materials of “Vedomosti” (Vedomosti, 1703-1727), contained references to various peoples, and the style of these references at least partially formed the general perception of these peoples. Thus, a complete sample of examples showed that the “Vedomosti” – both the people as a whole and its individual representatives – mentions the English, Germans, Dutch, Italians, Kalmyks, Murins (Moors), Mazurs, Jews, Wallachians, Armenians, Hungarians, Greeks, Turks, Tatars, Chukhonians (Finns), French, Swiss, Arabs, Persians, Georgians, Moguls, Indians, as well as abstract “wild people”, about the possible the nationalities of which can be judged by the country in which they are found. In some cases, we are talking about a mention as such, or about a sporadic mention (Finns, Greeks, Wallachians, Masurians, exotic Indians and Georgians for Europe), or about a mention that is stereotypical from the point of view of our time (in “Vedomosti” Jews traditionally suffered from harassment), but the stories of private representatives are more interesting (for example, the British have a lot of long–livers, the Jews-clever businessmen or converted to Christianity). At the same time, it is possible to omit the consideration of noble representatives (kings, the upper class), since these people symbolized not so much the people as the country, while the people is still a more general concept. With this approach, news reports are valuable materials that demonstrate both general cultural and people-specific cases of speech representation of information about the diversity of ethnic groups. Keywords: historical stylistics, intercultural communication, Vedomosti, speech representation