Lesson 1-How effective do you think were the Soviet government in controlling mass media and propaganda? Flashcards
Glavlit
Censorship office of the Soviet government
Pravda
‘Truth’
Newspaper of Communist party
Izvestiya
‘News’
Newspaper of the government
Partiinost
Party mindedness
Trud
‘Labour’
Newspaper of government-controlled trade union
When was the ban on all non-socialist newspapers?
Nov 1917
When was the development of the voice radio in the USSR?
1921
What decade did the cult of Stalin develop?
1930s
When did the mass production of televisions begin in the USSR?
1958
When were all non-Bolshevik newspapers banned?
1920
Through what ways was Soviet media controlled by the state?
Nationalisation
Restriction of information
Censorship
What did Lenin view newspapers as?
The mouthpiece of the bourgeoisie
In what ways did the Soviet government control newspapers?
- Journalists were employees of government, members of the Union of Soviet Journalists and Party members.
- Approval from Glavlit needed for every article written
- Party and government newspapers introduced
What were Pravda and Izvestiya used as?
A vehicle of propaganda used for highlighting the achievements of the government and Socialism.
Purpose of Pravda and Izvestiya.
To act as an instrument of propaganda, agitation and organisation.
What did the government do to ensure that their newspapers had high readership?
Made them cheap
Copies pasted on boards by pavement so people could read them for free
Pravda and Izvestiya were mass newspapers. How many copies of Pravda were in circulation in 1983?
10.7 million
How many copies of Trud were in circulation by 1983?
13.5 million
Give an example of the details of the achievements of Socialism that the newspapers include.
Production figures of the latest economic plan (usually telling people that the plans had been overfulfilled)
Give examples of prohibited topics from newspapers.
Plane crashes
Natural disasters
Examples of prohibited titles being excluded from newspapers.
Nuclear waste explosion 1957 was never reported.
People only became suspicious when 30 small communities disappeared off maps.
Took gov 2 years to evacuate unsafe areas because the disaster was not acknowledged
Examples of groups magazines and journals were aimed at.
Groups of workers e.g., farmers, soldiers or teachers
Examples of areas banned in the magazines and journals
Religion and crime
Why was it easier for the government to control radios in 1917?
Radios were a more recent development
By what year were programmes being broadcast on the radio?
1921
Give an example of a radio agency.
The Spoken Newspaper of the Russian Telegraph Agency
What did The Spoken Newspaper of the Russian Telegraph Agency feature?
News and propaganda material
What did The Spoken Newspaper of the Russian Telegraph Agency have little emphasis on?
Music
Since radio receivers were expensive, what was done?
Loud speakers were installed in public areas
What did group listening of radio ensure?
There was a collective response and that everyone got the intended message
Through what was the control of radio centralised?
The Commissariat for Posts and Telegraph
By what year did Moscow have a well-developed broadcasting station?
1922
To what percentage of the illiterate population did radios enable the government to get their message across to?
65% of the population who were illiterate
Who were radio stations controlled by?
The government
When was the speed by which the government was able to convey its message through radio invaluable?
During the German invasion of 1941
How did the government ensure radio access was restricted to government stations only?
Most new apartment blocks were wired for radio reception
Until 1964, how many Soviet radio stations were there?
1
Under Brezhnev how many Soviet radio stations where there?
3
Give an example of what the Soviet radio stations included.
Radio Maiak (Lighthouse) which played some foreign music and was popular with Soviet youth
How did the government try and restrict access to foreign stations?
Produced cheap radios with limited reception.
Jammed signals from stations such as BBC
Why was limiting the amount of information the population received through the radio important?
Limited the level of debate
Compare how many TVs there were in 1950 in comparison to 1958.
1950 = 10,000
1958 = 3 million
How was the price of the TVs more within the reach of most of the population?
Became mass produced in the 1950s
Give examples of government stations TVs included.
Mix of news
Documentaries
Achievements of socialism
Ballet
Classical arts
Feature films
Children’s programmes
How was life under the SU presented in comparison to life under Capitalism?
Under SU presented as joyous compared to under Capitalism which was presented as rife with crime, homelessness and violence
Why did the TVs fail to spark the enthusiasm of the people?
It was pretty uninspiring stuff
By 1985, how many television channels were there and what did they have more emphasis on?
2
Light entertainment
Problems that arose during the Soviet control on mass media and propaganda.
- Soviet public got used to reading between lines
- Rise of computers was a demanding challenge to a gov wishing to restrict its population’s access to information
