RUSSIA Control of the People, 1917-85 Flashcards
When was a decree issued banning all non-socialist newspapers?
November 1917
When were all non-Bolshevik newspapers eliminated?
By early 1920s
What were all newspaper editors and journalists?
Employees of the government; members of the Union of Soviet Journalists; expected to be Party members
What was the censorship office called?
Glavlit
What was needed for every newspaper article written for publication?
Approval from Glavlit
What are examples of daily newspapers published? (2 big bois)
Pravda (truth); Izvestiya (News)
Pravda
Newspaper of the Communist Party
Izvestiya
Newspaper of the government
What was the purpose of both Pravda and Izvestiya?
Instruments of propaganda, agitation and organisation
What was the guiding principle of the Soviet press?
Partiinost (party-mindedness)
How was a high readership ensured of the daily newspapers?
Cheap to buy; widely available; copies posted on boards along pavements and at workplaces
What was Pravda’s circulation in 1983?
10.7 million
Which paper was even more popular than Pravda?
Trud (labour)
What were favoured topics of the newspapers? (3)
Achievements of socialism; successful expeditions to the Arctic and northern Russia; triumph of technology over nature
What were the topics that were prohibited/subject to delayed reporting in the newspapers?
Plane crashes; natural disasters
Which newspapers were likely to publish views critical of the authorities?
Local newspapers
What were the limits put on the criticism published by local newspapers?
Criticising party leaders wasn’t allowed
What else were published alongside daily Soviet newspapers to cater for an ever-increasing range of interests?
Vast selection of magazines and journals
What were many of the magazines and journals aimed at? (4)
Specific groups of workers; young children; sports fans; those with a particular hobby
Which areas of interest were off-limits in magazines and journals?
Sex; pornography; crime; religion
When was ‘Red Sport’ established?
1924
Which magazine succeeded ‘Red Sport’?
‘Sovetskii Sport’
Which aspect of the media was relatively easy for the Bolsheviks to control in 1917?
Radio
Why was radio relatively easy for the Bolsheviks to control in 1917?
Fairly recent development; didn’t have a long tradition of independent activity
How had radio broadcast news of the Revolution in October 1917?
Morse code
When did radio programmes begin being broadcast in Russia?
1921
Spoken Newspaper of the Russian Telegraph Agency
Featured news and propaganda material, with little emphasis on music
How did the Bolsheviks get their message to the Soviet people over radio?
Installed loudspeakers in public places, factories and clubs
How was control of radio communications centralised?
Through the Commissariat for Posts and Telegraph
When did Moscow have a well-developed radio broadcasting station?
1922
Why was radio an especially useful medium? (could communicate with % pop who were demographics)
Enabled the government to get its message across to the 65% of the population who were illiterate
How did the government convey its message through radio by the 1920s to make it more palatable?
Alongside light or classical music
When did the speed by which the government could convey its message through the radio prove invaluable?
During the German invasion of 1941
How was radio access restricted to government stations only?
Most new apartment blocks were wired for radio reception
Until when was there only one Soviet radio station?
1964
What was the radio range extended to under Brezhnev?
3 stations
How did the government restrict access to foreign radio stations? (3)
Mass-produced cheap radios with a limited reception range; jammed foreign broadcasts; threatened to arrest those that listened to foreign stations
How successful were the government’s restrictions on foreign radio broadcasts?
Threats rarely succeeded
When was television becoming a key method by which the government got its message to the Soviet public?
By the 1950s
How many television sets did the USSR have in 1950?
10,000
How many television sets did the USSR have in 1958?
Almost 3 million
What brought television within the price range of most people?
Mass production in the 1960s
When did most of the population have access to a television?
By the early 1980s
What did the government television stations provide? (5)
News; documentaries on the achievements of socialism; cultural programmes; children’s programmes; feature films
How was life in the Soviet Union presented on television?
Joyous compared to capitalism
How many television channels were there in 1985?
2
Edward Khil (Trololo)
Soviet singer, who became popular in the 1970s
What are more positive features of Soviet television output?
Broadcast of local programming for the regions in the USSR, often in local languages; folk dancing made a change from the usual imposition of Russian culture on national minorities
What did the Soviet people learn to do as a result of the heavy censorship and restriction of material?
Got used to reading between the lines
What were indications in the press that someone had fallen from favour within the Party?
News of the heart problems of a member of the Politburo; someone’s continued non-appearance in the press
What did favoured and rising stars of the Party receive in the press?
More news space
What was threatening the government’s restriction of information to the population in the 1980s?
Advancing technology
What did the Bolsheviks see religion as?
Threat to the imposition of socialist ideology
Which religious figures did Lenin have a particular hatred for?
Priests
Why did the Bolsheviks attack the Russian Orthodox Church so fiercely?
It had been tied closely to the old order
What was religion referred to as, using Marx’s words?
‘Opium of the masses’
What separated the Orthodox Church from the state and lost it its privileged status?
1918 Decree on Freedom of Conscience
What happened to the Church as a result of the 1918 Decree on Freedom of Conscience? (3)
Deprived of its land without compensation; its publications were outlawed; all religious education outside the home was banned
Who had been the head of the Orthodox Church in 1918?
Patriarch Tikhon
When did the attacks on the Church increase?
During the famine of the civil war
By 1923, how many bishops had been killed?
28