Advertising Discourse in the Volga Germans' Catholic Magazine 'Klemens' (Based on Commercial Ads) / Особенности рекламного дискурса, репрезентированного в католическом журнале немцев Поволжья «Klemens» (на материале коммерческих объявлений)

Шиндель Светлана Владимировна ORCID: 0000-0002-5253-0068 доктор культурологии доцент; кафедра экономики и гуманитарных наук; Энгельсский технологический институт (филиал) СГТУ им.Гагарина Ю.А. 410031, Россия, Саратовская область, г. Саратов, ул. Чернышевского, 223/231, оф. 77 Shindel' Svetlana Vladimirovna Doctor of Cultural Studies Associate Professor; Department of Economics and Humanities; Engels Institute of Technology (branch) of SSTU named afterGagarina Yu.A. Office 77, Chernyshevsky str., 223/231, Saratov region, 410031, Russia schindelswetlana@mail.ru Другие публикации этого автора     Семухина Елена Александровна ORCID: 0000-0001-8560-0707 кандидат филологических наук доцент; кафедра Переводоведение и межкультурная коммуникация (ПМК); Саратовский государственный технический университет им. Гагарина Ю.А. 410054 Саратовская обл., ул. Политехническая 77 Semuhina Elena Aleksandrovna PhD in Philology Associate Professor; Department of Translation Studies and Intercultural Communication (PMK); Saratov State Technical University named after Gagarin Yu.A. 77 Politechnicheskaya St., 410054 Saratov region semuh@rambler.ru Матасова Оксана Владимировна ORCID: 0000-0001-6052-7726 кандидат филологических наук доцент; кафедра Переводоведение и межкультурная коммуникация (ПМК); Саратовский государственный технический университет им. Гагарина Ю.А. 410054, Саратовская обл., г. Саратов, ул. Политехническая, 77 Matasova Oksana Vladimirovna PhD in Philology Associate Professor; Department of Translation Studies and Intercultural Communication (PMK); Saratov State Technical University named after Gagarin Yu.A. 77 Politechnicheskaya str., Saratov, 410054, Saratov region oxidim@yandex.ru

Маслова Антонина Николаевна ORCID: 0009-0000-0582-922X кандидат филологических наук доцент; кафедра романо-германской филологии; ФГБОУ ВО «Астраханский государственный университет им В.Н. Татищева» 414056, Россия, Астраханская область, г. Астрахань, ул. Татищева, 20 а Maslova Antonina Nikolaevna PhD in Philology PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Romano-Germanic Philology, Astrakhan State University named after V.N. Tatishchev 414056, Russia, Astrakhan region, Astrakhan, Tatishcheva str., 20 a tonja-ch@yandex.ru

Introduction

The history of the Volga Germans begins in 1763, when, at the invitation of Catherine II, representatives of disparate German lands moved to Russia and explored the banks of the great river Volga. In the context of our research, there is no need to provide a detailed review of the historiographical literature; we only note that the monograph by I.R. Plehve ^[1] highlights the history of the local ethnic group in the period from the middle of the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, A.A. German ^[2] studied the events of the twentieth century. Both of them are descendants of Volga Germans, and both have dedicated their lives to researching the history of their people.

In 2023, the 100th anniversary of the formation of the autonomy was celebrated. Once again, the society remembered the Germans of the Volga region, a difficult fate representing a path of more than 200 years, literally Zweihundert Jahre unterwegs in German. It is symbolic in this regard to mention the monograph of the same name by the ethnographer K. Stumpp, who described in detail the most diverse aspects of culture and everyday life, as well as the peculiarities of the people's way of life. The contents of the book Zweihundert Jahre unterwegs are prefixed by a preface written by Pastor G. Remmich, in which, in particular, he noted: "Although we, who live in freedom, make up a much smaller part of Russian Germans, we alone can testify about our traditions, folk characteristics and Christian way of life, as well as about our cultural and economic achievements" ^{[3, p.4]}. This phrase is more like a formula in which the sum of all the components provided a high level of economic culture of the local ethnic group. G. Remmich's phrase gets relevance and a new reading when you get acquainted with commercial advertisements on the pages of the Catholic magazine Klemens. The content of the ads reveals not only the specifics of the representation of the economic achievements of the Volga Germans but also traces the processes of the formation of advertising discourse.

Earlier in the publications ^[4,5,], we touched upon some aspects of the analysis of printing objects of the Volga Germans from the point of view of cultural studies: collecting scattered leaflets, posters, photographs, objects (exhibits of the Saratov Museum of Local Lore), we have given this foundation an author's name – "Artifacts of the Volga Germans" ^[6]. Although it was clear from all indications that, if not all, then much could be classified as objects of advertising, at the time of the study, such a statement seemed to us not only bold but also premature. However, as we became familiar with the content and artwork in various periodicals (for example, the magazine Unsere Wirtschaft), it became apparent that we were looking at advertising in a form that served not only to inform but also to encourage action.

So, the research subject in this article is the discursive features of ads published on the pages of the Catholic weekly Klemens (1897—1907). The study aims to identify specific linguistic and extralinguistic markers, the totality of which gives grounds to attribute these ads to the genre of a particular style of advertising discourse. The work is relevant because advertising discourse is one of the most common types of institutional communication, and a multi-faceted study of written evidence allows us to identify its outlines and reveal its specifics and originality. The scientific novelty lies in the complex nature of the research based on digitized German-language advertisements in the Catholic weekly Klemens, the issues presented on the resource www.Wolgadeutsche.net. The article offers an author's translation of authentic German-language texts of ads, about which semiotic and comparative research methods are applied.

The main part.

As you know, modern scientific literature does not have a shortage of publications covering various aspects of discourse in general and advertising discourse in particular. Both domestic and foreign researchers write about different types of discourse and approaches to their research ^{[7, 8, 9]}. In modern linguistics, the term "discourse" correlates with the concept of "text": linguistic communication's dynamic, time-evolving nature is noted. In contrast, text is understood as the final result of linguistic activity. It seems to us to be a reasonable opinion that "discourse" includes two components simultaneously: the dynamic process of linguistic activity, inscribed in its social context, and its result (E.A. Terpugova. Advertising text as a special type of imperative discourse: abstract of the dissertation of the Candidate of Philology. Kemerovo, 2000). T.A. Van Dijk defines discourse as a social phenomenon: "Discourse is a stream of speech, a language in constant motion, absorbing all the diversity of the historical epoch, the individual and social characteristics of both the communicant and the communicative situation in which communication occurs. The discourse reflects mentality and culture, national, universal, and individual, private" ^{[10, p. 47]}. In the presented study, we rely on the definition of discourse given by V.V. Krasnykh: "Discourse is a verbalized speech-thinking activity taken in the totality of linguistic and extralinguistic factors (author's note. we use the term markers), fixed in the form of texts (oral and written)" ^{[11, p. 113]}. Let's also define the very concept of "advertising," which we found in the dictionary of foreign words: "Advertising is information about goods, various types of services, etc. to notify consumers and create demand for these goods, services, etc." ^{[12, p.426]}.

Despite the lack of a single classification describing the discourse in the complex of all its characteristics, it is customary to distinguish between oral and written types of discourse; by the purpose, there are (personality-oriented) and institutional (status-oriented) discourses. The institutional type traditionally includes (to list just a few) political, legal, military, religious, medical, business, scientific, and advertising discourse. According to the classification proposed by V.I. Karasik ^{[13, 14]}, advertising discourse is represented by genres: an advertisement, an advertising video, advertising rumors, an advertising letter, an advertising poster, a billboard, or a stand.

Traditionally, advertising discourse is a special kind of discourse to encourage activity, even when it comes to simple information or reminders. At the same time, the presence of all elements that express motivation is optional; in addition, "advertising is not subject to careful analytical reading and is perceived in a single information stream, as a rule, without a clear attitude to perception" (M.A. Banshchikova On the question of the term "advertising discourse" http://www.nop-dipo.ru/ru/node/329). At the same time, advertising discourse should be considered, taking into account the totality of accompanying extralinguistic and psychological factors. It is also essential to "reconstruct" the historical context in the most concise form and describe the socio-cultural prerequisites and the economic situation to investigate the features of advertising discourse, in our case, created by the Germans of the Volga region, as objectively as possible.

To begin with, the industrial revolution that started in the territory of Saratov province in the second half of the 1880s changed its economic appearance and affected, among other things, the printing industry: The capacities and technical equipment of the printing equipment have increased. The text of E.V. Pozdnyakova's dissertation, Book Publishing in the Saratov Province: the End of the Eighteenth to the Beginning of the Twentieth, notes the following: "Ethnic Germans owned most of the printing establishments that produced books in German. In some cases, there was a certain continuity between Russian and German printing houses. So, in 1883, Fyodor Maximovich Kimmel, a native of Reval, became the owner of the printing company of I. S. Kuvardin. This printing company published, as stated in the advertisement, "business cards, wedding and engagement cards." It should be noted that we have not previously found any publications in the scientific literature covering the topic of advertising in the business environment of Volga Germans.

In general, it is challenging to analyze the features of the formation of advertising discourse in the periodicals of the Volga Germans based on the theoretical works of our contemporaries: they are mainly of a theoretical descriptive nature, and there is no empirical material in publications. In this regard, it is necessary to refer to scientific works published at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which advertising is viewed retrospectively in the context of the relevant historical period. So, in 1925, the second edition of the monograph was written by German researcher T. Kennig, who wrote The Psychology of Advertising. Its current state and practical application ^[15]. In our opinion, a consistent analysis of the advertising creation methodology and examples of specific illustrations presented in Kennig's book is quite applicable to the study of ads by Volga Germans. The theoretical provisions of the monograph allow us to consider and compare the advertising discourse of two cultures—Germany and the Volga Germans—from the point of view of a synchronous approach since the immigrants maintained ties with ethnic Germans in their historical homeland and introduced progressive business practices in their territory of residence. In addition, the monograph summarizes the experience of colleagues of Kennig's predecessors and contemporaries. For example, the scientist in his work refers to the works of K. Lissinsky ^{[15, p.90]}, who analyzes advertising from the point of view of its perception in line with psychology and considers the design features of the poster as one of the forms of advertising. Further, the artistic design and the specifics of the semantic content of the advertising poster were described in the work of K. Knutz. The scientist Schulte ^[15] paid special attention to the means of advertising decoration. The peculiarities of the psychology of advertising as the most important guarantee for the promotion of goods to the market in particular and the success of trading, in general, were described in a study by S. Gerting ^[15]. To understand the peculiarities of advertising discourse in Germany in general ^[16] and the formation of its foundations in the economic space of the Volga Germans in particular, let us turn to the history of advertising.

"German" advertising appeared in 1722: information sheets (Intelligenz Blotter [literally translated from German as sheets for the intelligentsia]) were published in the city of Frankfurt, which served as the prototype of the first advertising booklet. Several recent studies have been devoted to the history of the formation of the advertising genre based on the German language ^{[17, 18]}. In 1802, the textbook How to Write Advertisements was published in Weimar. It presented samples of successful essays with brief comments on advertising principles and an alphabetical list of news agencies ready to assist in their publication. In Germany, advertising was treated with restraint for a long time, noting only its functional purpose: "The whole advertising business is just an auxiliary tool to quickly and widely inform about new and good ..." ^{[15, p. 178]}. There should be a thing in the center of the advertisement (R. Kronau); this item must be of high quality since the manufacturer bears full responsibility for it: "A housewife should, if possible, insist that the manufacturer's name and address be on the packaging of the gloves she buys; this will give her a guarantee of the quality of what she buys because the reputation and existence of the manufacturer are at stake in this case." ^{[15, p. 178]}. Of great interest for his time was the work of Professor Hartung, who pointed out the need to take into account the "mental" characteristics of the nation. For example, he wrote the following about the national characteristics of Italians: "The Italian mostly lives by the mood, he is often ingeniously inventive and resourceful, and he lacks self–control, and stubbornness, which is inherent, for example, in the German" ^{[15, p. 178]}. And further: "An Italian is like a student to whom the same material should be explained several times" ^{[15, p. 178]}.

It is also valuable that in his monograph, Koenig uses the term "energy imperative" in relation to advertising. This concept was introduced into scientific use by the Russian-German chemist V. Ostwald (1853–1932). The scientist developed the theory of "energetism," believing that everything that happens in the world should be perceived as an exchange of energy and a transition from one energy to another. Koenig means by the "energy imperative" the principle of creating advertising, according to which a balance of all semantic elements should be organized in an ad, poster, or leaflet. The "energy imperative" presupposes an optimal combination of content and decoration—only then, according to the researcher, can one count on the success of advertising. The balance of elements, such as font, color and light contrasts, drawings, ornamental motifs, multidirectional text, and letter discharge, plays a very important role. Thus, the drawing creates an installation (trigger) necessary for informing and, possibly, subsequent purchase, enhances visibility; the discharge between the signs facilitates the process of reading and perception. The font is essential: the Gothic fracture is immanent in German written culture and recalls the "black art" tradition founded by the printer I. Gutenberg.

The material for this study was ads published in the weekly Catholic magazine Klemens, which was published in Saratov from 1897 to 1907. A detailed periodical history is available on the Volga Germans website at the link (https://lexikon.wolgadeutsche.net/article/154 (accessed 03/20/2025)).

Let's examine the graphic and text elements that organize a newspaper page (strip). Then, we'll turn to the newspaper's name, the so-called "cap" of the publication.

Fig.1. The header of one of the issues of the weekly Klemens

The frames on the left and right contain information about the frequency of the issue (every Wednesday). The cost per year is three rubles. The publisher's address is Saratov, Catholic Seminary, Krushinsky—Typolithography "G.H. Shelgorn and Co.," opposite the theater. The third issue, dated October 15, 1897, the first advertisement (Fig. 2) about Alexander Ivanovich Kerner's felt and spinning establishment was published. Below is the screenshot of the ad, which is a translation of the text.

Fig. 2. The announcement of A.I. Kerner, the owner of the felt-spinning workshop (https://wolgadeutsche.net/uploads/newspaper-items/2/22.pdf ), p.16 (accessed 03/20/2025)

Felt and spinning establishment

Alexander Ivanovich Kerner

In Ekaterinenstadt (Baronsk)

I hereby inform you that in my workshop, all kinds of felt products are made by the best German craftsmen under careful supervision.

Wholesalers get a discount.

Postal address: c. Baronsk, Samara province, A.I. Kerner

Here is an advertisement for a spinning workshop that makes felt. Of the extralinguistic markers, a decorative frame around the text and arrows (which horizontally separate the name of the workshop and the owner's data) should be highlighted; using fonts of different sizes in the Gothic fractural style serves as a trigger for switching and focusing on the most critical information in advertising: in the part where the company name, address, and full names are given (the last name and patronymic of the owner). It is emphasized that the production is carried out by the best German craftsmen, which implies the high quality of the product. The peculiarities of the advertising discourse are reflected at the lexical level, in particular, in the use of phrases such as HȁNdler (wholesalers) and the expression Rabatt bekommen (get a discount)". In the 6th issue of November 5, 1897, the announcement was published again, and then it was found with a certain frequency in subsequent weekly issues. In the same issue, along with the advertisement of Kerner's workshop, Mr. Borel's announcement was published about the transfer to him of the monopoly right to sell millstones to the company (Fig. 3.).

Fig.3. Announcement by A.E. Borel, the official representative of the French company

"Grande Société Meulière Dupéty et Cie", (https://wolgadeutsche.net/uploads/newspaper-items/2/62.pdf ), p.16 (accessed 03/20/2025)

Borel Andrey Egorovich

Official Representative

Real French millstones

Dupety brands

Gentlemen mill owners, I hereby inform you that

that at the address on the corner of Bolshaya Sergievskaya and Solyanaya streets, in my house, there is a warehouse of millstones.

You can purchase them with a full warranty.

If the purchased product turns out to be defective, we will fully compensate for its cost.;

The buyer has the right to do this for 3 full months from the date of purchase.

Axes weighing from 2 to 3 pounds of 1p. 80k are also available.

Lighter axes 60 kopecks. piece

Grinding chambers and so on.

Straps made of leather and camel hair.

I deliver the goods directly from abroad, so they come out cheaper and better.

Silk for top hats at the following prices:

Deliveries of goods not listed here are possible.

Address: Saratov, Andrey Egorovich Borel. Sarpin Store.

Telegram: Saratov, Andrey Borel.

In this publication, at the lexical level, the semantics of advertising is organized by words and expressions: Alleiniger Vertreter (official representative), Herren Mühlbesitzer (gentlemen mill owners), Kufer (m) (buyer), Von Dupety (from Dupety)—the brand name of the manufacturer, Verkaufe mit voller Garantie (the opportunity to purchase the product with a full warranty), einen Mangel haben (to have a defect), bereit sein (to be ready, in this case, to assume obligations), mit voller Vergütung zurücknehmen (to compensate the cost in full), der Kufer hat das Recht (buyer has the right), Riemen aus dem Auslande erhalten (to receive goods [belts] from abroad), Lager halten (to keep [have] a warehouse), Bestellungen per Post (postal shipments), auf meine Rechnung (at my expense), bei kleineren Bestellungen die Postausgaben vom KȁUfer empfangen werden (for small shipments, the invoice is billed to the buyer), zu folgenden Preisen (at the following prices).

Next, we will highlight the words and expressions describing the subject area and forming the lexico-semantic field "milling": franzosische Mühlsteine (French millstones), lederne Riemen (leather belts), Kamelhaarriemen (camel hair belts), Zylinderseide (silk for top hats), Mühlkammern (the grinding chambers). It should be noted that the adjective die echten (real) semantically emphasizes the quality of the goods offered; in the proposal on the conditions for the export of goods by an official representative (A.E. Borel), the comparative degree of the adjectives billiger und besser (cheaper and faster) is used, which, due to the decrease in cost, contributes to the growth of consumer attractiveness of millstones. Syntactically, the announcement uses constructions with the personal pronoun ich (I) (first-person narration), for example, ich erhalte (I hold, have), ich bin bereit (I am ready)—in cases where an official representative assumes responsibility for the quality of the goods and services offered for the sale of the French company's millstones. There are constructions using passive voice when it comes to the possibilities and conditions for the purchase of goods by customers (vom Kufer empfangen werden). We also note the presence in the price list table of the obsolete word Werschok, translated into German by transliteration and marking the ethnocultural realities of Russia, as well as the expression of value in the currency in circulation in the territory of sale (ruble, kopeck).

The artistic design of the ad deserves attention. An image of two hands with pointing fingers is added to the decorative frame with floral ornaments. At the same time, cuffs are depicted on the wrists, which in their design are very similar to the decoration of the sleeves of the clergy's vestments (in our case, representatives of Catholicism). I must say that some other advertisements contain such an element, which is explained, in our opinion, by the symbolism of the weekly, which has a religious orientation and is aimed at the Germans of the Volga region, in one way or another connected with the confessional culture of Catholicism. This element is emphasized by horizontal lines, emphasizing the buyer's attention on an important message: the buyer's right to return goods of inadequate quality within 3 months. The primary information is highlighted in bold; the text in the table with the product range in the last column is not horizontal but vertical (multidirectional text). The trigger that attracts attention in the ad is the logo of the French company Grande Société Meulière Dupéty et Cie, and an image of millstones. Figure 4 also shows the company's own advertisement for Grande Société Meulière Dupéty et Cie.

4. Advertisement of the French millstone manufacturing company "Grande Société Meulière Dupéty et Cie"

As for the history of the manufacturing company, in its most concise form, it is as follows. The Société Generale Meulière, a French millstone manufacturing company, was founded in the small town of La Ferte-sous-Jouard in the Seine-et-Marne department near Paris. In this area, not far from the surface, two to 25 meters away, there are layers of silicon rock where the production of millstones in these places began in the Middle Ages. In 1664, the town already had its own large millstone seller. In 1884, the company " Société Generale Meulière" brought together six French manufacturers of millstones (including Dupéty and Roger fils), also known as G.S.M., who were making some of the highest quality mills in the world and were widely known and exported their goods to the UK, USA, Germany, Russia, etc. The industry’s millstones flourished in 1900 (http://moulinsdefrance.free.fr/pages/3tr02n51t6.htm (accessed 03/20/2025)).

During the Second World War, the market for the production of millstones was greatly reduced. As a result, the company's production declined, and in 1958, G.S.M. was finally closed. On the advertising leaflet in black and white, you can read the company's motto: "Do not forget that the millstone is the soul of the mill, that is, the most important part of the mechanism!" (Ne jamais oublier que la meule est l’âme du moulin, c’est-à-dire la partie la plus essentielle du mécanisme!).

Another entrepreneur, A.A. Boke, is associated with the French company Grande Société Meulière Dupéty et Cie. His services are advertised repeatedly in the pages of the magazine Klemens (Fig.5).

Fig. 5. Advertisement of the Joint-stock company of the plant for the production of foundry and milling equipment "M.A. Yakulsky" Elizavetgrad (https://wolgadeutsche.net/uploads/newspaper-items/2/54.pdf), p.16 (accessed 03/20/2025)

Officially registered

Joint-stock Company of the foundry and Milling equipment Manufacturing plant

"M.A. Yakulsky" Elizavetgrad.

Representative in the East of Russia

A. A. Boke, Saratov.

Moskovskaya street, Borisov-Morozov house No. 70.

The company for the production, assembly and sale of equipment for the milling industry offers Mr. melnikov a wide range of:

French-made millstones from the most famous French factories.

Société Générale Meulière (Roger Fils et Cie) and Grande Société Meulière Dupéty et Cie

France, La Ferte sous Jouars.

Mobile mills.

Gaz-chiffon for cylinders at the following prices:

Deliveries of goods not listed here are also possible.

A novelty! Custom roller machines that are perfect for your company. As well as grain cleaning machines, aspiration equipment, sorting machines, air blowing machines, crushers, cylinders, shaft caps, and sellers transmissions.

Turbine parameters are calculated separately depending on the amount of water used and the maximum possible exposure to soot.

Full equipment of oil mills. Hydraulic presses for working with raw materials.

A full warranty is provided for each machine. The price tag and estimated cost are provided free of charge.

Fig. 6. The announcement of the manufacturing company in France; fragment of the advertisement in the weekly magazine Klemens (from left to right) (https://wolgadeutsche.net/uploads/newspaper-items/2/54.pdf), p.16 (accessed 03/20/2025)

Considering the ad by A.A. Boke, we note that the logo in the entrepreneur's advertisement has an exact copy of the logo of the French manufacturing company (Fig.6). And, the frame repeats the grooves of the millstones themselves. From the point of view of artistic design, it has elements similar to the advertising of A.A. Borel: the logo of the Grande Société Meulière Dupéty et Cie company, a decorative frame with floral compositions located inside the frame, an image of hands on the left and right with pointing fingers (wrists in cuffs decorated with clerical vestments), here is an example with an enlarged image (Fig.7).

Fig. 7. Image of hands on the left and right with fingers pointing to a fragment of text

At the lexical level, the text of the advertisement is organized by the following expressions marking the business style: Die Allerhöchst besttigte Aktien-gesellschaft (officially registered Joint Stock Company), in grosser Auswahl empfehlen (to offer a wide range), zu folgenden Preisen (at the following prices), Neuheit (new), Mühlenbau Compteur und Lager aller Muhlenbedarfsartikel (company for the production, assembly, and sale of equipment for the milling industry). Next, we will highlight the words and expressions that form the lexico-semantic field (subject area) "equipment for the flour milling industry": Transportable Mahlgönge (mobile mills), Seidenzylindergase (gas chiffon for cylinders), Getreidereinigungsmaschinen, Getreidebürstmaschinen (grain cleaning machines), Aspirationstarare (aspiration equipment), Briezputzmaschinen (air blowing machines)," Walzenstuhlungen (shaft caps), Transmissionen nach dem System Sellers (Sellers system transmissions, etc.).

The price list table uses, as in the previous announcement, the obsolete word Werschok; prices for items are indicated in the national currency of the Russian Empire in rubles and kopecks. From the text of the announcement, we learn that the production itself was located in Elizavetgrad, a district formed in 1776 on the territory of the Kherson region; the enterprise's name is the M.A. Yakulsky plant. Mill owners and manufacturers with creameries could order and purchase the equipment indicated in the advertisement by a Saratov representative at AA Boke, Saratov. Moskovskaya street, Borisov-Morozov house No. 70.

The information highlighted in bold is noteworthy, framed by the palms of the hands with pointing fingers on the right and left. As in the previous announcement, this image focuses on the warranty period of the equipment being sold. Russian ads by A.E. Borel and A.A. Boke indicate only the address of the representative offices; in later ads, all information was initially stated in two languages, German and Russian, for example, in the magazine Unsere Wirtschaft, and over time, flyers and posters were mainly in Russian, that is, the same can be said about the publication of ads. This trend testified to the entrepreneurial spirit of industrialists and manufacturers among the Volga Germans: business people understood that information presented in a language understandable to the indigenous population of Russia would contribute to flourishing trade and, ultimately, lead to the prosperity of the Gesheft. At the same time, the processes of linguistic assimilation were rapidly developing, as evidenced by later samples of polygraphy exhibited in one of the halls of the Saratov Museum of Local Lore, for example, the price lists shown in Fig.8.

8. The price list of the Russian society Shukkert and Co. (1), the price list for tools and hardware K.G. Treibal (2), the price list of the technical and mill-building office A.A. Borel (3)

Let's make a small comment. Figure 8 shows the price list of the Russian Society of Shukkert and Co., which contains a list of available items in Saratov stock. The cover of the price list shows a ceiling horn chandelier: the lighting device is made with ornate decorative elements, and the design of the document repeats the style of the chandelier on the cover thanks to floral arrangements. The company was engaged in the production of various electrical appliances. As a result of the merger of two plants, Shukkert and Co. and Siemens and Galske, a new electrical engineering company, Siemens-Shukkert, was formed in 1913. Russian engineers collaborated with German companies, as stated by the chairman of the Society of Electrical Engineers, A.L. Linev, at the General Meeting (November 30, 1914): "Russian electrical engineers, with few exceptions, either served or were closely associated with German companies" (https://famhist.ru/famhist/klasson/0010f3df.htm [accessed 03/20/2025]).

Let's look at another ad published repeatedly in different issues of Klemens magazine.

9. Advertisement of the catalog of the factory of products made of nickel, bronze, and silver https://wolgadeutsche.net/uploads/newspaper-items/2/23.pdf, p.12 (accessed 03/20/2025)

Catalog

Products made of nickel, silver, and bronze of the 84th grade presented:

The NORBLIN Joint-Stock Company, Buch and Werner in Warsaw, and the A. Krupp Berndorf Factory in Southern Austria.

Saratov, German street, Kuznetsov house, Nikolskaya corner.

Made of 84-grade silver and nickel silver, which are suitable for decorating dining tables, receptions, restaurant interiors, and steamships.

CHURCH UTENSILS:

Bowls, wine jugs, candlesticks

All products are paid at factory prices. The corresponding discount

for churches and schools

From the point of view of decoration, the ad looks more like an invitation wedding card: the information is framed in a decorative frame with floral arrangements, different fonts of the Gothic fraction make a favorable impression, the letters are discharged and tilted, the list of goods is presented in two symmetrically arranged tables, with the keywords Geschenken (souvenirs) and Heiratsausstattung"(wedding sets) are shown in bold.

Linguistic tools include lexical tools representing the business sphere: Fabrik-magazin (catalog), Aktien-gesellschaft (joint stock company), eine Masse von Neugkeite (large influx of new products), alle Waren werden zu Fabrikpreisen berechnet (payment is made at factory prices), entschprechender Rabatt (corresponding discount). The discount offer uses a passive voice construction (werden berechnet). The announcement mentions the manufacturers' names of 84-grade silver, nickel silver, and bronze products. In addition to expensive tableware, manufacturers sold accessories for church rituals: bowls, wine jugs, and candlesticks. However, advertisements on the Klemens magazine pages did not only offer church utensils. Other advertisements were periodically published, which contained information about the possibility of purchasing religious literature, for example, as shown in Fig.10.

Fig.10. The announcement of the sale of the Roman Missal https://wolgadeutsche.net/uploads/newspaper-items/2/31.pdf, p.16 (accessed 03/20/2025)

As you know, the Roman Missal (Latin: Missale Romanum) is the central liturgical book in the Roman Catholic Church, which sets out the basic rules of the Mass, as well as related texts: modifiable prayers, quotations from Holy Scripture, prescribed readings, the church calendar, notes for the performance of liturgical hymns and practical instructions for the clergy (https://bigenc.ru/c/rimskii-missal-9c7163 [date of request 20.03.2025]), ^{[19, 20]}. We will not dwell in detail on the extralinguistic markers in this example; they are easily recognizable and essentially repeat the elements in the previously discussed ads. The text informs about the release of the liturgical book of the 1896 edition, measuring seven by five vershkov, with an indication of new holidays. The edition has a beautiful binding and offset printing. The price without shipping is 21 rubles and 54 kopecks. For example, an advertisement for the sale of the weekly Die katholische Familie ("Catholic Family"), published in Augsburg (Bavaria), with a recommended price of 50 pfennigs (Fig. 11).

11. Announcement of the sale of the weekly newspaper "Die Katholische Familie" https://wolgadeutsche.net/uploads/newspaper-items/2/57.pdf, p.15 (accessed 03/20/2025)

Conclusion

The growth of industrial production in the Saratov province revived the dynamics of the region's economic development, affecting almost all spheres of society. A unique role in this process was played by the activities of Volga German enterprises, which were distinguished by hard work and a high level of economic culture. Along with the development of industry, the possibilities of the printing industry increased: books and periodicals were produced in large numbers, one of which was the weekly Klemens, a religious magazine addressed to representatives of the Catholic faith. Most often, various advertisements were placed on the last page of the publication, which were clearly informative in nature and, in fact, were written evidence representing Volga Germans' contribution to the region's economic development. As you know, advertising is an integral part of the economic activity of any business entity: the Germans who settled in the Volga region adopted and broadcast the best practices of business from Germany, a country in which advertising had by that time taken shape as a separate phenomenon of business communication. The formation of advertising discourse also took place in the business environment of the Volga Germans, one of the written genres of which is an advertisement offering certain goods and services.

So, in the course of the research, we analyzed six of the most common ads, among which: the advertisement of A.E. Borel for the sale of millstones of the French company Grande Société Meulière Dupéty et Cie; A.A. Boke, who was engaged in the sale of equipment for oil and flour mills (plant A.M. Yakulsky); A.I. Kerner, the owner of the spinning mill, the felt factory. The advertisements of the catalog of metal products from leading German manufacturers and advertisements offering editions of the Roman Missal and the Catholic Family for sale were also investigated. Almost all the samples studied have a similar structure, formed by specific lexical means peculiar to the advertising discourse. The article presents a detailed analysis of German words and phrases, identifies transliteration cases, the use of obsolete words marking the historical era, and lexical units of the Russian language reflecting the socio-cultural realities of the Russian Empire. The semiotic space of ads is organized according to the principle of the "energy imperative," which ensures the balance of all elements, allowing the advertising creators to achieve the desired result and make their "product" successful. Among the extralinguistic markers of the advertising discourse in Klemens magazine, a graphic element should be highlighted: two palms pointing from the left and right with pointing fingers, the hands of which are depicted in the cuffs of the priesthood vestments. In our opinion, this technique is very symbolic. It indicates not only the most important information in the text of the advertisement but also emphasizes the affiliation of the posted ads to a religious magazine. An important role is played by the use of Gothic fracture as a style of typography, the roots of which go back to the tradition of printing by I. Gutenberg. Other artistic design techniques focus attention (logos) and make it easier to read (bold, letter spacing and tilt, multidirectional text).

Following the peculiarities of advertising discourse, the advertisements in the Catholic magazine Klemens represent an integral set of specific features and are characterized by a discursive speech system. The research conducted gives us every reason to recognize these ads as a separate genre of advertising discourse actualized in the business environment of Volga Germans.