The Construction of the Stalinist post-war (1944-1953) “Soviet People”: A concept in the political rhetoric of Soviet Estonia1 Andreas VENTSEL University of Tartu Abstract This article emphasizes that post-war (1944–1953) construction of “we” in political rhetoric was based on the principle of national self-determination. But Stalinist nationality (i.e. soviet patriotism) meant particularly the subordination of Estonian nationality to the Russian one. As a whole, the Estonian “we” among “the Soviet people” was positioned much lower than the Russian “we”. Within this ideological u-turn “the soviet people” lost its particular content, which earlier was determined solely in terms of class struggle. “The Soviet people” now attained its meaningful content through the utterances of Stalin. Its determination depended on the needs of power itself. Thus, the “soviet people” created by Stalin was identical to his “we” subordinated by his “I”. Stalin and “the Soviet people” became the two sides of the same coin. Analysing this topic, the author tries to build a bridge between the Essex School’s theory of hegemony (Ernesto Laclau), Emile Benveniste’s linguistic tradition, and the Tartu- Moscow School (Juri Lotman) of cultural semiotics. Keywords: “Soviet people” in Stalinist era, semiotics of culture, theory of hegemony, deixis, political discourse. Introduction The main purpose of this paper is to show how the category of “we” was constructed in political discourse. Semantically, the keywords used in the framework of this paper are the ones established in political rhetoric, such as the will of the people, the people etc., i.e. the ones referring to those on whose behalf it is being spoken in politics. The period analyzed captures the time from 1944 to 1953. Two aspects in particular make the examination of this period especially intriguing. First, within a relatively short period of time, three ideologically opposite powers – Estonian, Soviet, and Nazi – changed. Second, Estonia became an occupied “nation” – 1940-1941 by the Soviet regime, during World War II by the German Reich and after the war,