Printed media in the Soviet Union, i.e., newspapers, magazines and journals, were under strict control of the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
and the Soviet state. The desire to disseminate propaganda is believed to have been the driving force behind the creation of the early Soviet newspapers. Newspapers were the essential means of communicating with the public, which meant that they were the most powerful way available to spread propaganda and capture the hearts of the populace. Additionally, within the Soviet Union the press evolved into the messenger for the orders from the Central Committee to the party officials and activists. Due to this important role, the Soviet papers were both prestigious in the society and an effective means to control the masses. However, manipulation initially was not the only purpose of the Soviet Press.
daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...
for
peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasant ...
s, issued by
Central Committee of the Communist Party
Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party organizations, the ...
in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, 1918–1931.
*'' Zhizn' Natsional'nostei'', (Life of the Nationalities): a journal published by
Narkomnats
The People's Commissariat of Nationalities of the RSFSR (, ''Narodny komissariat po delam natsional'nostey RSFSR''), abbreviated NKNats () or Narkomnats (), an organisation functioning from 1917 to 1924 in the early Soviet period of Russian and So ...
in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
, 1918–1924.
Newspaper
Beginnings
The Soviet newspaper industry began in the underground movements that created ''
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
'', meaning 'truth', which on 5 May 1912 was published as a political newspaper. ''Pravda'' did not start as a political publication, but instead was a journal on social life. Yet in 1912
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
would decide that the party needed a voice in the news industry and that ''Pravda'' could convey the party wishes.
Distribution
The government subsidization allowed the newspapers to be priced low and distributed widely. Newspapers were distributed by government administrations, and had three streams of revenue. One stream were subscriptions that people would pay to read. A second was advertisements, with some papers having more than others, an example being that evening newspapers in the major cities, which were popular advertisement vehicles because they had the widest audience base. Lastly, newspapers received very substantial subsidies from their parent organization. Subsequently, the Soviet system had no capital costs, as subsidies would cover them. Thus if the Central Committee of the Communist Party decided to publish a paper it would build the plant, equip it, and then turn it over to the Newspaper company. Yet, there were attempts to achieve economies of scale, and major publications would produce smaller more class-oriented papers because the parent government administration publishing the paper would cover the capital investments. This capital investment cost coverage, which was not limited to a single production plant, allowed papers such as Pravda, to be distributed across the entire Soviet Union in one morning, a feat which Western papers such as ''The New York Times'' would not achieve for twenty-five or more years. On the down side, the Soviets had set up a system in which everyone would receive their news at relatively the same time. Most of these stories came from the Telegraphic Agency of the Soviet Union, making it both a news agency and the main distributor of government information. And so, the Telegraphic Agency of the Soviet Union was similar to the United States White House Press Secretary heading the Associated Press. A side effect of the Telegraphic agency being the most important source was that many stories could not be covered until the agency itself had covered it. Also, this distribution of news by the government meant that not everyone could read the same publications. Governmental clearances thus dictated who could read what.
Staff
The time period from the New Economic Policy of 1921 to 1928 to the "Great Break" of 1928 to 1932 comprises the period of large soviet press transformations. In the 1920s, during the New Economic Policy period, the Soviet Press was concerned with the education of the poorer classes. To achieve that, a broadly educated newspaper staff would be necessary. Yet, at the beginning of the 1920s, the Soviet Newspapers were not only under staffed, the journalists were themselves undereducated and they lacked any journalistic skill. Because of this, the Press Corps strived to raise the standards of the press, while at the same time maintaining strong party support from the journalists. During this time the Soviet Press's main objective was to disseminate party ideology to the lower classes, but it also intended to act as the watchdog to protect the people from rising corruption, and as the emissary from the people to the party regime. This resulted in an apparent conflict of purpose. Soviet journalists prided themselves in their professionalism at this time, all while accepting the Bolshevik Party as the ruling authority. However, the Press Corps distrusted anyone who was a white-collar employee, or a member of the academia, believing that an individual's class would predetermine their attitude towards the Bolshevik Party (the assumption being that white-collar professionals and academics looked unfavorably on the ruling Bolsheviks). Due to this assumption, the Press Corps had a preference for training members of the proletariat, or more specifically the poor or middle class peasants as journalists. Thus, a conflict arose between the desire to hire people the press corps trusted, and finding skilled journalists who could succeed in the goal of educating and equalizing the masses. However, the denial that this conflict existed led to the Soviet Newspapers to being staffed by persons with an uncomfortable combination of ideologies. The conflict ended when a large movement favoring party ideology and background emerged, culminating in 1924, when the State Institute of Journalism determined they would train only those with trusted ideological backgrounds to be journalists for the Soviet Newspapers. In reality, this was only a façade, as the institute continued to train members of academia and the white-collar class, with 29 percent of the admitted applicants having less than one year with the party Stazh (qualification course), which was the required minimum for former Komsomol (young communist) members. The supply of journalist students that fit the proper ideological background could not meet the demand for professional and competent journalists for the prestigious spots, which explains the large number of party switchers. Yet the façade was needed to convey party propaganda. The State Institute of Journalism broke its own ideological rules in order to meet its professional standards and goals by accepting better educated but less ideologically centered students.
The interesting and conflicted mix that occurred from the government's need for party propaganda to be conveyed by individuals with journalistic skill was the true beginning of the professional Soviet News Media. Throughout the 1920s the State Institute of Journalism would continue to produce a standardized curriculum to meet their goals of producing competent and professional journalists, however, this led to a curriculum in a constant state of flux. Additionally, a clear class distinction developed between editors and journalists that would continue throughout the 1920s and even through the 1928 Shakhty trial, the beginning of "charges against class enemies." The distinctions that began to form underlined the Communist parties fear of professionals and class systems. All of this culminated in the 1930s when the State Institute of Journalism ended its drive for professional journalism and standards purged the old faculty at the Institute of Journalism, and government officials revised the entire curriculum to meet propaganda goals.
Late Soviet Union
Newspapers
Circulation
In 1988 the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
published more than 8,000 daily newspapers in approximately sixty languages, with a combined circulation of about 170 million. Every all-union newspaper was circulated in its Russian language version. Nearly 3,000 newspapers, however, reached the population in non-Russian languages, constituting roughly 25 percent of the total circulation, although non-Russians made up almost 50 percent of the population.
Press technology in the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s was based upon hot-type lead, which was behind that of their western counterparts, which had transitioned to cold type, photo type settings. This was largely due to the subsidy program, which took away from the news industries incentive to produce new technology by reducing competition. Although the technology in the Soviet Union print media was less advanced, the shortcomings were made up for by brute economic force. Working at a subsidized scale not present in the US allowed the Soviet press to widely distribute publications across the USSR.
Staff
Most of newspaper reporters and editors belonged to the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
-controlled Union of Journalists, composed of nearly 74,000 members. In 1988 some 80 percent of the union's reporters and editors were party members. Inevitably, assignments of editors had to be approved by the party. In the late 1980s, all the central editors in chief of major all-union newspapers belonged to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
The party also sought to control journalists by combining
higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...
and Higher Party Schools with schools of journalism. Reporters and editors thus were trained under the aegis of the professional party elite. For newspaper journalists and television and radio reporters, newspaper photographers, and literary editors, Moscow University's School of Journalism provided a main conduit to party positions concerned with the media. In the 1980s, some 2,500 graduate, undergraduate, evening school, and correspondence students annually graduated from the School of Journalism. Students were taught party strictures within the following eight departments: Theory and Practice of the Party-Soviet Press, History of the Party-Soviet Press, Television and Radio Broadcasting, Movie-making and Editorial-publishing Work, Foreign Press and Literature, Russian Journalism and Literature, Stylistics of the Russian language, and Techniques of Newspaper Work and Information Media. By the late 1980s, Moscow University's School of Journalism had graduated approximately 100,000 journalists.
Late developments
In the late 1980s, newspapers gradually developed new formats and new issues. Under
Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the p ...
, ''
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
'' began to print short reports of weekly Politburo meetings. Eventually, other major newspapers published accounts of these meetings as well.
Under Mikhail Gorbachev, Politburo reports expanded to provide more details on the leadership's thinking about domestic and foreign affairs. Before Gorbachev's assumption of power, Western sources had identified a partial list of proscribed topics, which included crime, drugs, accidents, natural disasters, occupational injuries, official organs of censorship, security, intelligence, schedules of travel for the political leadership, arms sales abroad, crime or morale problems in the armed forces, hostile actions against Soviet citizens abroad, and special payments and education for athletes. After 1985 Gorbachev's policy of openness gave editors a freer hand to publish information on many of these subjects.
In the 1980s, regional newspapers differed in several ways from all-union newspapers. The distribution of regional newspapers varied from circulation at the republic level to circulation in a province, city, or district. The party allowed many regional newspapers to print most of their issues in the region's native language, which reflected the Stalinist policy of "national in form, socialist in content." Local newspaper circulation remained restricted to a region. These publications often focused on such issues as local heroes who contributed to the good of the community or significant problems (as expressed in letters to the editor) relating to crime or natural disasters. By contrast, after Gorbachev came to power, most all-union newspapers began to report on societal shortcomings. However, in the late 1980s regional papers continued to contain more personal advertisements and local merchant notices than the all-union newspapers, if the latter carried any at all.
Letters to Editor
Originally,
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
argued that criticism should be channeled through letters to the editor and would assist in cleansing society of its problems. He believed that public discussion would facilitate the elimination of shortcomings and that open expression of problems would create a significant feedback mechanism for the leadership and for the country as a whole. Lenin's ideas in this regard were not carried out by
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
and
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
, who apparently believed the party needed no assistance from the people in identifying problems. But in 1981,
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and ...
created the Central Committee Letters Department, and later Andropov called for more letters to editors to expose corruption and mismanagement.
Konstantin Chernenko
Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko uk, Костянтин Устинович Черненко, translit=Kostiantyn Ustynovych Chernenko (24 September 1911 – 10 March 1985) was a Soviet politician and the seventh General Secretary of the Commu ...
advocated that greater "media efficacy" be instituted so that newspapers, for example, would carry more in-depth and current analyses on pressing issues. Gorbachev expanded the flexibility allowed by giving newspapers leeway in publishing letters critical of society and even critical of the government.
Newspaper letters departments usually employed large staffs and handled extremely high volumes of letters daily. Not all letters were published because they often dealt with censored subjects or their numbers simply posed too great a burden for any one newspaper to handle. The letters departments, however, reportedly took their work very seriously and in the late 1980s were used by the press to encourage the population to improve society.
Letters to editors on a great number of previously forbidden topics also elicited responses from the population that could be manipulated by the Soviet newspapers to influence public opinion in the desired direction. Because party members made up the majority of active newspaper readers, according to polls conducted in the Soviet Union, they wrote most of the letters to the editor. Thus, their perspectives probably colored the newspapers' letters sections.
Publications
Major newspapers
Translations of names given in parentheses.
Of all the newspapers, ''
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
'' (Truth), an organ of the CPSU Central Committee, was the most authoritative and, therefore, the most important. Frequently, it was the bellwether for important events, and readers often followed its news leads to detect changes in policies. With about 12 million copies circulated every day to over 20 million citizens, Pravda focused on party events and domestic and foreign news.
Other newspapers, however, also commanded wide circulation. ''
Izvestiya
''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes i ...
'' (News), the second most authoritative paper, emanated from the
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (russian: Президиум Верховного Совета, Prezidium Verkhovnogo Soveta) was a body of state power in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).Trud'' (Labor), issued by the Soviet Labor Unions, circulated six days a week, reaching 8 to 9 million people. It emphasized labor and economic analyses and included other official decrees.
'' Komsomolskaya Pravda'' (Komsomol Truth), published by the Komsomol, was distributed to between 9 and 10 million people. Being youth oriented the paper tackled Komsomol policies and youth issues in general. Its more junior counterpart, the ''
Pionerskaya Pravda
''Pionerskaya Pravda'' (Пионе́рская Пра́вда) is an all-Russian newspaper. Initially it was an all-Union newspaper of the Soviet Union. Its name may be translated as "Truth for Young Pioneers".
History
The newspaper was founde ...
'' (Pioneers' Truth), the official daily of the
Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization
The Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization ( rus, Всесоюзная пионерская организация имени В. И. Ленина, r=Vsesoyuznaya pionerskaya organizatsiya imeni V. I. Lenina, t=The All-Union Pioneer Organi ...
, aimed at children up to 14, focused on children's issues, education and sports among others.
''
Krasnaya Zvezda
''Krasnaya Zvezda'' (russian: Кра́сная звезда́, literally "Red Star") is the official newspaper of the Soviet and later Russian Ministry of Defence. Today its official designation is "Central Organ of the Russian Ministry of Defe ...
'' (Red Star), published by the Ministry of Defence of the Soviet Union, covered most daily military news and events and published military human interest stories and exposes.
The literary bimonthly '' Literaturnaya Gazeta'' (Literary Gazette) disseminated the views of the
USSR Union of Writers
The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers (russian: Союз писателей СССР, translit=Soyuz Sovetstikh Pisatelei) was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded ...
and contained authoritative statements and perspectives concerning literature, plays, cinema, and literary issues of popular interest.
A publication of the Central Committee, '' Sovetskaya Rossiya'' (Soviet Russia), was the
Russian Republic
The Russian Republic,. referred to as the Russian Democratic Federal Republic. in the 1918 Constitution, was a short-lived state which controlled, ''de jure'', the territory of the former Russian Empire after its proclamation by the Rus ...
's most widely distributed newspaper, with a circulation of nearly 12 million.
The major sports newspaper, ''
Sovetskiy Sport
, logo = SovSport.png
, image = Sovetskiy Sport nameplate May 19 1988.png
, caption = ''Soviet Sports'' nameplate on the May 19, 1988 issue
, type =
, format =
, own ...
'', published by the government and VTsSPS, in cooperation with the National Council for Physical Culture and Sport, had a circulation of 5 million. The topics covered were all about sports news and features, and in the lead-up to various national and international sports competitions, gave a preview of the USSR's national team, the various national athletic teams and organizations, and various republican teams and athletes.
A weekly regional newspaper, '' Moskovskiye Novosti'' (''
Moscow News
''The Moscow News'', which began publication in 1930, was Russia's oldest English-language newspaper. Many of its feature articles used to be translated from the Russian language '' Moskovskiye Novosti.''
History Soviet Union
In 1930 ''The ...
''), appeared in both Russian and English editions and reported on domestic and international events. It became very popular during the late 1980s, both in the Soviet Union and abroad.
The weekly newspaper '' Za Rubezhom'' (Abroad) devoted its pages exclusively to international affairs and foreign events.
Finally, '' Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya'' (Socialist Industry), a daily newspaper, concentrated on industrial and economic events, statistics, and human interest stories, mostly aimed at those in the labor force.
Republican and regional newspapers
Republican, regional, and local newspapers were published in dozens of languages, even very minor ones. For example, the Khakas language newspaper ''Lenin choly'' (''Ленин чолы'') printed around 6.000 copies, three times a week, for the around 60.000 speakers of the language.
Below is a non-exhaustive table of those newspapers; it generally includes the most important newspaper published in each language, with their designation in the late 1980s.
Magazines and journals
In the late 1980s, weekly, monthly, and quarterly magazines and journals numbered almost 5,500 and had a circulation nearly equal to that of the daily newspapers. The same CPSU regulations and guidelines that applied to newspapers extended to magazines and journals. In the mid-1980s, under the regime's less-restrictive censorship policy, both magazines and journals published articles and stories to fill in historical "blank spots." These articles included works of past and contemporary authors once banned and new works that challenged the limits imposed on literary society by previous leaders. Assessments and criticisms of past leaderships exposed many historical atrocities, particularly those committed under Stalin. As a result, in the late 1980s the number of subscribers to periodicals climbed considerably, and magazines and journals frequently sold out at kiosks within minutes.
In the late 1980s, these magazines and journals created reverberations throughout society with their publication of controversial articles.
''
Krokodil
''Krokodil'' ( rus, Крокодил, p=krəkɐˈdʲil, a= Ru-крокодил.ogg, ) was a satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1922 as the satirical supplement to the '' Workers' Gazette'' (called simply «При ...
'' (Crocodile), one of the most popular magazines with a circulation of approximately 6 million, contained humor and satire and featured excellent artistic political cartoons and ideological messages.
''
Nedelya
''Nedelya'' was a Russian liberal-Narodnik political and literary newspaper, published in Saint Petersburg from 1866 to 1901.
Nedelya was the weekend supplement of the soviet newspaper ''Izvestia''.
External links "Nedelya" digital archives in " ...
'' (Week), another magazine, was published as a weekly supplement to ''
Izvestiya
''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes i ...
'' newspaper and appeared every Sunday, having a circulation of some 9 to 10 million.
Such journals as ''
Ogonyok
''Ogoniok'' ( rus, Огонёк, t=Spark, p=ɐɡɐˈnʲɵk, a=Ru-огонёк.ogg; pre-reform orthography: ''Огонекъ'') was one of the oldest weekly illustrated magazines in Russia.
History and profile
''Ogoniok'' has issued since . I ...
'' (Little Fire), a weekly that became more popular in the late 1980s because of its insightful political exposes, human interest stories, serialized features, and pictorial sections, had an audience of over 2 million people. In 1986 it published excerpted works by the previously banned writer Nikolai Gumilev, who was shot in 1921 after being accused of writing a counterrevolutionary proclamation. In 1988 it also published excerpts of poetry from Yuliy Daniel, imprisoned after a famous 1966 trial for publication of his work abroad.
'' Novy Mir'' (New World), one of the most controversial and often original literary reviews, attracted widespread readership among the intelligentsia. The monthly publication reached nearly 2 million readers and concentrated on new prose, poetry, criticism, and commentary. Many previously banned works were published in its pages, most notably ''
Doctor Zhivago
''Doctor Zhivago'' is the title of a novel by Boris Pasternak and its various adaptations.
Description
The story, in all of its forms, describes the life of the fictional Russian physician and poet Yuri Zhivago
Yuri Andreievich Zhivago is the ...
'' by Boris Pasternak. The publication of Doctor Zhivago in the West not only resulted in Pasternak's expulsion from the Union of Writers in 1956 but won him the 1958
Nobel Prize for Literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
.
'' Oktyabr'' (October), a journal resembling ''Novy Mir'' in content, circulation, and appeal, espoused more conservative viewpoints. Nevertheless,
Anna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; uk, А́нна Андрі́ївна Горе́нко, Ánna Andríyivn ...
's ''"Requiem"'' a poetic tribute to those who perished during Stalin's purges, appeared in its November 1987 issue.
''
Sovetskaya Kultura
''Kultura'' (russian: «Культура»; lit. ''Culture''), known as ''Sovetskaya Kultura'' () during the Soviet times, is a Russian newspaper, based in Moscow. The newspaper was previously published twice weekly but is currently a weekly newsp ...
'' (Soviet Culture), a journal with broad appeal, published particularly biting indictments of collectivization, industrialization, and the purges of the 1930s. In 1988 the journal published articles indirectly criticizing Lenin for sanctioning the establishment of the system of
forced labor camp
A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (espe ...
s.
Books
Notable book publishers of the Soviet Union include
Progress Publishers
Progress Publishers was a Moscow-based Soviet publisher founded in 1931.
Publishing program
Progress Publishers published books in a variety of languages: Russian, English, and many other European and Asian languages. They issued many scientific b ...
, which produced much of the English-language translations of the works of
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
arty
Arty may refer to:
People
* Arty (Queen), 8th century BC wife of Pharaoh Shebitku
* Arty (musician) (born 1989), Russian record producer and DJ born Artem Stolyarov
* Arty Ash, stage name of British actor Arthur Richard Dodge (1895–1954)
* A n ...
secretary." Add to that the problem that the editorial staff and party secretary often had no education on the subject they were tasked to vet, and important content was often completely lost.
The most frequent criticism by the journalists was on the lack of the institutions to react to the complaints published about them. As a case in point, Romanov noted that Stroitelnaya Gazeta received no replies to the 112 critical articles or the 575 forwarded letters to the institutions regarding the "pleas for relief." He added that that specific example was in no way exceptional.
To the Soviets, the press represented the public, and took pride in creating change such as how drunk drivers who had caused a death were prosecuted. The journalists expressed frustration, though; in how other court cases were reported. For example, because the press wanted to convey faith that offenders would be caught and punished, the papers would not publish articles on crimes where no perpetrator had been identified. Particularly offensive was the lack of press on murders where no suspect was prosecuted.
External (Soviet)
An old Soviet joke was that "there is no information in Izvestia, there is no truth in Pravda," Izvestia meaning information and Pravda meaning truth. Thus, the Russian populace regarded the major publications with a great deal of cynicism. The papers were, however, information transmission belts, so people would try to decipher what was going on by reading them. Soviet papers were written in such a way that the beginnings of articles would have a list of what was going well, and then would transition with a "however" to the real news. So, many people would read from the "however" in the hopes to get at the real story.
Mass media in Communist Czechoslovakia
The mass media in Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia, Communist Czechoslovakia was controlled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). Private ownership of any publication or agency of the mass media was generally forbidden, although chu ...
*
Television in the Soviet Union
Television in the Soviet Union was owned, controlled and censored by the state. The body governing television in the era of the Soviet Union was the Gosteleradio committee, which was responsible for both the Soviet Central Television and the Al ...
*
Radio in the Soviet Union
All-Union Radio () was the radio broadcasting organisation for the USSR under Gosteleradio, operated from 1924 until the dissolution of the USSR. The organization was based in Moscow.
History Beginning
Following the October Revolution control o ...
Censorship & propaganda:
*
Eastern Bloc information dissemination
Eastern Bloc media and propaganda was controlled directly by each country's communist party, which controlled the state media, censorship and propaganda organs. State and party ownership of print, television and radio media served as an important ...
*
Censorship of images in the Soviet Union
Censorship of images was widespread in the Soviet Union. Visual censorship was exploited in a political context, particularly during the political purges of Joseph Stalin, where the Soviet government attempted to erase some of the purged figures ...
*
Censorship in the Soviet Union
Censorship in the Soviet Union was pervasive and strictly enforced.
Censorship was performed in two main directions:
* State secrets were handled by the General Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press (also known as Glavl ...
*
Propaganda in the Soviet Union
Propaganda in the Soviet Union was the practice of state-directed communication to promote class conflict, internationalism, the goals of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the party itself.
The main Soviet censorship body, Glavli ...