Dynamics of the semantic content of the value “patriotism” in political discourse: a study of Victory Day congratulatory speeches by the President of the Russian Federation

The study aims to identify the linguistic dynamics of the semantic content of the value “patriotism” in the Victory Day congratulatory speeches of the President of the Russian Federation during the period from 2012 to 2026. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that, using a corpus of presidential Victory Day congratulatory speeches (May 9, 2012-2026), it traces the dynamics of the semantic content of the value “patriotism” using the BERTopic probabilistic topic modeling algorithm. The paper refines the conceptualization of the head of state’s congratulatory speech, viewing it not merely as a ceremonial genre, but as a strategic communicative tool for conveying political course. As a result, five stable semantic clusters of the concept PATRIOTISM were identified: historical memory and security; heroism and intergenerational unity; institutional duty; geopolitical actualization; and a sovereign future. A cyclical pattern in topic dominance was established: peak periods (2012-2013, 2015-2017, 2020-2021) alternate with stages of thematic overlap (2014, 2018-2019, 2022-2023), reflecting the adaptation of the discourse to domestic and foreign policy contexts. The decrease in lexical density during crisis years is interpreted as a strategy to enhance the persuasive potential of the speech through the ritualization of vocabulary. The research confirms that the May 9 congratulatory discourse is evolving from memorial rhetoric to an activity-oriented model that integrates the past with current political objectives. Patriotism in presidential speeches is represented as a multicomponent political relation that serves as an instrument for constructing civic identity and legitimizing the strategic development vectors of the Russian Federation.