Notes for Edexcel International A Level history option 2c- russia 1917-95, provides notes, information and details about everything in the history IAL specification, the student who wrote these notes received 95/100 UMS points in the paper, provides essay plans and is organised by part
HISTORY
RUSSIA: OPTION 1C- LENIN TO YELSTIN PART 3
1) STATE CONTROL OF MASS MEDIA AND
PROPAGANDA
1921- satirical writer Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote novel We → portrayed a modern
industrial society where gov control over state and propaganda → portrayed the
soviet society in a humorous view
TIMELINE OF DEVELOPMENTS IN MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA
Nov 1917 – Ban on all non-socialist newspapers
1921 – Development of voice radio in the USSR
1930s – Cult of Stalin develops
1958 – Mass production of televisions in the USSR begins
NEWSPAPERS
- Legislation 1917- nov decrees- Lenin quickly ended freedom of the press
and saw newspapers as apart of the bourgeoisie → banned all non-socialist
newspapers → early 1920s- non-Bolshevik papers eliminated, printing press
nationalised, access restricted to those working in ‘the interests of the workers
and the Socialist order’, All editors and journalists were employees of the gov,
members of the Union of Soviet Journalists had to be Party members,
Approval from Glavlit, the censorship office, for every article written for
publication.
- Daily newspapers: Pravda (Truth) & Izvestiya (News). Pravda: newspaper of the
Communist Party, Izvestiya: paper of the gov, partiinost (party-mindedness)-
principle of the Soviet press → ensure high readership since papers were
cheap & widely available → Copies on boards & pavements allowing
people to read them for free → Pravda print run of 10.7 million in 1983. Trud
(Labour)- Gov controlled trade unions paper had a print run of 13.5 million.
- Newspapers consisted of: achievements of socialism, production figures
related to targets of the economic plan → esp during 1930s and Stalin’s
aim to industrialise. Other topics- expeditions to the Arctic and northern Russia in
search of gold and oil, the triumph of technology over nature, aviators who flew over
the North Pole were seen as heroes.
- banned topics- plane crashes & natural disasters → July 1971- fire outside
Moscow, but city’s population had to wait one month before the blue haze
over the city was explained and fire was put out → Sept 1957- disaster in
Kyshtym ignored by gov press agencies, nuclear waste storage tank exploded
causing 200 fatalities & 270,000 people being exposed to
dangerous radiation levels→ Soviet public only became suspicious when map
readers noticed over 30 small communities had disappeared from Soviet maps
between 1958 and 1991 → due to the gov lacking notice gov took 2 years to
evacuate unsafe areas.
- Local newspapers : publish views critical of the authorities despite limits on
press → . It was acceptable to print letters criticising minor bureaucrats,
complaints about poor housing esp during 1970s but criticising Party
leaders wasnt allowed.
,MAGAZINES
- There was lots of magazines & journals showcasing a range of interests: aimed at
specific groups: farmers, soldiers teachers, children, sports fans & hobbies . Some
prohibited: crime, religion → gov didnt wish to encourage.
- Newspapers gave sports coverage little attention & gap for sports fans filled by Red
Sport- 1924- after 1946- replaced by Sovetskii Sport → popular magazine
gained respect for its accuracy & honesty in sports despite its political
views praising the government on its front page.
RADIO
- 1917- radio was a recent development & Bolsheviks used it to influence →
Radio broadcasted news of 1917 oct rev in Morse code, Soviet scientists
developed voice radio by 1921 programmes broadcasted → Spoken newspaper
of the Russian Telegraph Agency: showed news and propaganda & little
emphasis on music → Radio receivers were expensive, so Bolsheviks
placed speakers in public places → Group listening ensured everyone got
the intended message →radio control centralised→ Commissariat for Posts
and Telegraph & as gov recognised importance of radio so resources were given
to ensure rapid development. 1922- Moscow had a well-developed broadcasting
station.
- Radio allowed gov to spread its message to 65% of the population who were
illiterate, by 1920- conveyed official message with light or classical music to
make it more pleasant → speed of gov conveying its message through
radio was invaluable during German invasion of 1941→ German forces less
than 50 miles from Moscow, Stalin gave a speech live on radio from Red Square to
commemorate the Oct Rev and was highly effective in maintaining domestic morale
- Most new apartment were wired for radio → thereby access was restricted
to government stations only. Until 1964- only one Soviet radio station. Under
Brezhnev, the range was extended to 3, eg Radio Maiak (Lighthouse) that played
some foreign music and was popular with the Soviet youth.
- gov tried to restrict access to foreign stations by mass-producing cheap radios &
a limited reception range, but relied on jamming foreign broadcasts and threatening
to arrest those that listened to stations such as Voice of America or the BBC →
these threats rarely succeeded, censorship was important in limiting
public opposition
TELEVISION
- 1950s- television became a key method of propaganda- 1950- 10,000 set of TVs
→1958- almost 3 million →1960s- Mass production of TV’s made them
cheaper→, even if availability failed to keep pace with demand- early
1980s- most ofrural population had access to TV
- Gov stations provided: news, documentaries on socialism, cultural
programmes on ballet and the classical arts, Children’s programmes→ Life
in USSR seen as joyous & that life under capitalism dreadful →1985- two TV
channels and a greater emphasis on light entertainment. This was undemanding but
more popular. In the 1970s
- Soviet singer Eduard Khil (Trololo)- became a noted and popular celebrity, despite
his easy-listening style was not to everyone’s taste. More positive features of Soviet
television output included the broadcast of local programming for the regions of the
, USSR, often in local languages. Folk dancing was hardly cutting edge, but it made a
change from the usual imposition of Russian culture on national minorities.
EFFECTS:
Censorship was used but not entirely successfully- Soviet public got used to
reading between the lines → News of the heart problems of a member of the
Politburo was interpreted as a fall from favour, as was someone’s continued non-
appearance in the press. Favoured rising stars of the Party received more news
space.
- 1953- Soviet citizens who subscribed to the Soviet encyclopaedia received a
package that instructed them to remove pages from their collection that had details of
Beria, the head of the secret police, and replace them with the insert provided (which
contained extra pictures of the Bering Sea). It was the first sign the public had that
Beria had been arrested.
tech of mass media may have changed → but gov ensured that a steady diet of
propaganda was conveyed —> gov came to rely on output that provided a
distraction from the realities of socialism.1980- technology advancing - Video
recorders mass-produced but the rise of sophisticated technologies eg computers making
more of a challenge to gov wishing to restrict its population’s access to information.
2) PERSONALITY CULTS
^ a theme amongst soviet leaders→ the creation of a cult personality where
nation whorshiped leaders and achievements were highlighted
WHY DO LEADERS DEVELOP A CULT PERSONALITY
- To reinforce power in state
- Detatch collective leadership
^ cult persona began after the death of lenin → seen as ‘hero of rev’ by soviet,
examples of the cult behavior:
- Lenin appearing in press→ newspapers, film, posters
- Embambing of lenins body in the red square→ center of moscow → long
lines to visit the body
- 1924- Renaming of ‘petrograd’ to ‘leningrad’
STALIN CULT PERSONA:
The cult of stalin was used to: link him and his loyalty to lenin & to reinforce power and
establish a personal dictatorship
KEY FEATURES OF HIS DICTATORSHIP
● 1st phase-, attempts made to highlight links between Stalin and Lenin,
even where none existed → Stalin viewed as Lenin’s closet colleague,hero
of civil war & savior of the Revolution against enemies eg Leftists and
Rightists → Trotsky removal
● 1925- Tsaritsyn renamed Stalingrad.
● 1924- post lenins death- slogan ‘Stalin is the Lenin of today’ - became widely
used by sections of the rank and file Party membership.
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