The Image of the Patriot and the Enemy of the People in Selected Documents from the State Security Archive

Abstract

The paper explores the linguistic devices and strategies used by State Security collab-orators to characterize the personalities and actions of targets of operational interest. On the one hand, the text examines documents from the State Security archives (re-cruitment offers and recruitment reports) that describe the ways in which new collabo-rators were recruited. On the other, the descriptions of the subjects of the reports in the reports are of interest. The research focuses on the communicative language pat-terns used and described in the relevant documents. As a source of excerpted material for scientific analysis, we used the book "Pastors Agents of the State Security Service" by Angel Pilev. Through an applied combination of research methods - lexical-semantic and discourse analysis, we search for lexical means with connotative load, as well as characterizing lexemes, building the opposite images - of the patriot informer and the enemy of the people reasons. By applying the close reading method, we aim at explicating the reader's point of view with minimal historical context. The linguistic material shows that the documents of the State Security build a very negative image of the enemy of the people. The strategy of the recruiters is also analyzed, emphasizing patriotic feelings, patriotic duty, expression of love for the motherland, and the noble deed to be done by the agents. The text emphasizes that it is to linguistics, along with other humanities that expectations are addressed for an objective, publicly accessible, and convincing interpretation of the era of socialism.