The image of war and the enemy in the First World War blogs: religious and philosophical foundations and modern parallels

Abstract

   The article analyzes the semantic justification of war in Russian religious-philosophical thought and propaganda materials of the First World War period. The source base of the study consists of philosophical and journalistic texts by S. N. Bulgakov and S. L. Frank, letters by D. A. Khilkov, and leaflets from the collections of the State Archive of the Russian Federation. The article shows that, in mass wartime propaganda, philosophical and religious interpretations of war were translated into a system of simpler mobilizing images: the defense of faith and the Fatherland, the fulfillment of military duty, opposition to injustice, and the exposure of the enemy’s cruelty. Drawing on leaflets from 1911–1917, the article reveals the main ways in which the meaning of war and the image of the enemy were constructed, including appeals to Orthodox tradition, historical memory, the idea of Slavic solidarity, and the representation of war as a moral trial.

   Special attention is paid to the problem of enemy dehumanization as a stable element of wartime propaganda.

   The author concludes that the experience of the First World War remains relevant for the analysis of modern armed conflicts, since it makes it possible to identify the continuity of mechanisms used to legitimize war and to raise the question of the limits of political ethics, international legal regulation, and a humanistic attitude toward the enemy.