"During his administration of the Soviet Union (1986-1991) Gorbachov introduced three new concepts namely IIepecTpoNKa /perestrojka/ 'restructurisation' I'IIacTHocTb /glasnost'/ 'openess', and IIMoKpTIIa Idemokratiyal 'democracy'. These concepts have brought enormous changes in so many aspects of societal life that the Soviet Union fell to pieces and the communist hegemony over the Soviet Union came an end. In line with the concept of perestroika, changes occurred in many fields and in particular, economics. The known command economy which was the communist system, made place for the market economy. This new economic system brought a wide variety of commodities to the market, not only those produced in Russia but also imported ones. As in other countries where the market economy is practiced, advertisements to promote commodities or products have become a must. The Russian daily newspapers have become an important media for disseminating information on the marketed goods or commodities. This phenomenon had been a taboo for about 70 years during the communist era.
Advertisements are known to introduce and to promote new goods or commodities, be it material good or services, since they are a means of information used to support and develop the market for products and services on a large scale (Germocenova 1994: 5). For this purpose a special language and signs are used to attract the consumers.
This dissertation deals with two specific problems namely, (1) the form and characteristics of the Russian advertising language during the period 1991-1996, and (2) the Russian advertising language reflects changes of socioeconomic characteristics compared with pre-communist times.
This research contains discourse analysis using a semiotics approach, i.e. from the aspects of syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics. The advertisements analyzed for this thesis are taken from the printed Russian media in Moscow with the highest circulation and the most widely distributed in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States i.e the former Soviet Union). Interviews were also carried out with Russians living in Moscow, in order to know their opinions about the presence of advertisements as a new social phenomenon. This thesis assumes that advertising reflects the undergoing changes in the Russian society.
From the sixty advertisements analyzed for this dissertation, it can be concluded that advertisements are closely related to the cultural conditions of the society. Each year during the period 1991-1996, the form and character of the Russian advertising language developed unique characteristics. Advertising in Russia presents not only changes in the socioeconomic process, but also in the political, ideological, and cultural processes."
