Research On Political Jokes In The Soviet Union During The Brezhnev Period

Political jokes are involved in politics. Specifically, political jokes are jokes of the political dimension involved in the political system. They use a combination of humor and irony, in essence, they belong to the edge of the layer in the symbolic space of political speech. Political jokes are a verbal form of performing arts, the creation and dissemination of political jokes are ordinary people, and the object of political jokes is the political system.They show some distinctive characteristics and unique artistic approach in their own development. The impact of political jokes of the regime is a "double-edged sword",from the target object and the focus and the acceptability and performance styles to study them.From the birth of the Soviet Union to its collapse, political jokes have been circulating in soviet socity in order to ridicule the regime. The development process of Soviet political jokes has gone through two phases, especially it got to the heyday during the Brezhnev period. During the Brezhnev period, not only the number of Soveit political jokes occupied a large proportion,but also their spreading speed was becoming faster more faster.They ridiculed all aspects of the Soviet regime from different levels.From the target object’s point of view, Soviet political jokes involve three levels, that is, the level of political figures, the level of the system and the level of the social life. Every major level also contains the specific target objects. On the basis of the classification and analysis of the target objects of Soviet political jokes during the Brezhnev period, author gets ready to analysis the drawbacks of the Soviet system which political jokes reflect through the analysis method of the focus.The vigorous development of Soviet political jokes has a profound social environment during the Brezhnev period. First, the stagnant society objectively provides a lot of themes for the development of Soviet political jokes during the Brezhnev period. Second, the guidance of political participation provides the possibility for the emerge of Soviet political jokes in the Soviet Union. Third, the negative recognition of the mainstream political culture of the people provides the reasonableness for the development of Soviet political jokes during the Brezhnev period.Through the analysis of political jokes of the Brezhnev period,we can clearly understand, how the Soviet people have been thought of the Soviet system, how they held the mentality, and what they knew about the Soviet regime in the stagnant society. This can make us a better view of the Soviet system from the perspective of the Soviet people, and objective analysis of the Soviet system.