Ideological discourse in Soviet propaganda animated films

In this thesis, it was examined that the Soviet animation cinema, which had been active in about 70 years as an output of a systematic mechanism and showed the effects and reflections of the political ideology in which it was, generated ideological discourses and created a kind of cultural memory reflecting the political history and social culture of the Soviets. In the methodology of the thesis, content analysis, and discourse analysis methods were used together. In the content analysis, the method proposed by Juliet Corbin and Anselm Strauss for the analysis of qualitative data was used. This method aims to gather and interpret similar data within the framework of specific concepts and themes. In the subsequent discourse analysis, the discourses formed by each movie within the framework of the themes determined in the content analysis were examined. In this part, Teun A. van Dijk's article titled Ideological Discourse Analysis has been considered. If a framework is formed in line with the findings in the content analysis, it was observed that in the films examined, two separate groups, namely "we" and "they", were formed, and the expression "they" was based on two elements. These are anti-Westernism created in capitalism and imperialism, and anti-Nazism created in the context of fascism. The expression of "we" is based on promoting, spreading, and rooting socialism and communism. From this point of view, it has been seen that the films used as data can be combined in three main titles: "Anti-Capitalism and Anti-Imperialist Films", "Anti-Fascist Films" and "Films with the Praise of Socialism and Communism." In discourse analysis, the films analyzed one by one are also grouped under these titles, and the discourses formed by each film within the framework of particular themes are investigated. Used themes are location, person-character, costume-accessory, business life-economy, social features-historical events, religion, icon-brand, color-lighting, and visual language-technique. Considering all the findings and inferences, it is seen that animated films are documents reflecting the period in which they were produced and referenced. From this point of view, it can be said that with the Soviet Union's propaganda activities, it had provided the development and permanence of existing political ideas and ideologies and created a memory and cultural memory in society.