Journalism of the North Caucasus in the Conditions of Civil War

Section: History of Journalism

Ideological support for establishing Soviet power was vitally important in the national outskirts because socialist ideas were not well known and understood by local peoples. The main tool of this support was the local press, which was set up under the direct supervision of the Bolshevik party. If, on the whole, the history of the development of the Soviet press during the years of building socialism has been studied quite fully, the specific problems of the formation of the press system in the republics of the North Caucasus, the features of its operation during the establishment of the Bolshevik authoritarian regime have been considered in scientific literature fragmentarily and not yet generalized. Most of the work performed during the Soviet period under the pressure of communist ideology contains biased assessments. In this regard, the task of systematizing the results of scientific research on the history of journalism in certain regions of the North Caucasus remains urgent. The objectives of this work are to identify the main trends in the transformation of the journalistic system of the peoples of the North Caucasus in the context of the October Socialist Revolution and dispel the ideological misconceptions characteristic of Soviet historiography. Particular attention is paid to the policy of total control of the Bolshevik party over the media as the most important tool for manipulating the mass consciousness. An attempt was also made to investigate the poorly studied segment of the local press – journalism of the White movement. The research methodology is based on the principle of historicism, which makes it possible to identify the interconnectedness and interdependence of social processes and the operation of the press in specific historical conditions. An analysis of the processes of the formation of the Bolshevik journalism system in the region helps to conclude that, contrary to the claims of Soviet historical and journalistic science, the local press was neither mass nor effective.

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