State Control Of Mass media and propaganda Flashcards
Summarise state control of the media & propaganda in the Soviet Union.
Consistent features of Communist rule
Lenin: free the working people of Russia from “bourgeois ideas”— restricted press freedom
Some attempts to liberalise communism under Khruschev BUT censorship & propaganda remained essential features of Communist rule till 1985
How did Lenin view the press and the media?
Central to advancing the revolution and ensuring the communists retained power.
What measures did Lenin introduce to establish government control over the press & media?
- The Decree on the Press (1917)— government had power to close any newspapers that supported “counter revolution”
- The Revolutionary Tribunal of the Press (1918)— state had the power to censor the press. Journalists/ editors who committed “crimes against the people” could be punished by Cheka
- The All-Russia Telegraph Agency (1918)— gave the state control of all advertising & news reporting
- Glavlit (1922)— employed professional censors to examine all books (old and new) for anti-Communist ideas
What did Lenin do to newspapers?
Initially— closed down papers that supported the Tsar / Provisional Government
By mid-1918— outlawed opposition socialist papers as well
By 1921– the Communists had established control of the media throughout the Soviet Union
What was propaganda like under Lenin?
V experimental. Radical artists used new techniques to spread the communist message:
- Gustav Klutsis: PHOTOMONTAGE used to create posters advertising Lenin’s electrification campaign
- El Lissitzky: designed the poster ‘Beat the whites with the red wedge’— abstract art techniques
- ROSTA: cartoon films to support the revolution
What happened to censorship under Stalin?
Tightened
How did Stalin tighten censorship, with reference to his opponents?
Works of Trotsky, Bukharin, Stalin’s other rivals BANNED
Lenin’s own works ‘edited’ to remove complimentary statements about Stalin’s opponents
What did Stalin do to media?
From 1928– Glavlit controlled access to economic data
Restrictions placed on all kinds of ‘bad news’— soviet media forbidden from publishing stories about:
• natural disasters
• suicides
• industrial accidents
• even bad weather!
To create the impression that the Soviet Union was a place in which only good things happened
What happened to propaganda under Stalin?
Focused on idealised images of workers and peasants happily building socialism in modern factories and farms
What happened to media under Khrushchev?
Popular magazines encouraged to publish readers letters: Soviet citizens could express their own thoughts on ‘non-political’ subjects
Letters to women’s magazines (ie. Rabotnitsa) exposed profound social problems;
• male alcoholism
• inequalities in the home regarding childcare and housework
• domestic violence
How did Soviet propaganda change under Khrushchev?
Satirical cartoons were allowed, rather than just presenting idealised images of workers and peasants
Ie. Krokodil (satirical magazine) pokes fun at men who arrived at parades drunk, late, or not at all
What happened to censorship under Khrushchev?
Relaxed during his Cultural thaws
What happened to media under Brezhnev?
It became very nostalgic
Focused on the victory of WWII in posters, books, films
BUT
Cinema also made films set in contemporary Russia: focused on fashionable citizens living in luxurious apartments —> stoked public desire for consumer goods and fashion.
What happened to Khrushchev’s cultural thaws under Brezhnev?
They were not repeated
BUT nonetheless
Rich Russians were exposed to western ideas through western magazines (black market)
