Towards the Soviet Citizen’s Perception of Propaganda in the Late USSR: the Experience of a Private Study

Download paper
Maksim I. Babyuk

PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor at the Chair of Mass Media Theory and Economics, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: mbabyuk@yandex.ru

Section: Sociology of Journalism

Based on the processing and analysis of more than one hundred interviews, the paper attempts to conduct a pilot study into individual politically significant aspects of information consumption in the USSR in the era of stagnation and accordingly of the Soviet citizen’s perception of some key political ideas conveyed by mass communication and propaganda media (MCPM). The analysis of the interviews shows that most of the questioned were active consumers of information offered by Soviet MCPM; however, they critically perceived many ideological clichés used there. This was accounted for by the fact that most of the interviewed were disillusioned with some basic ideas and had access to alternative information sources as well as witnessed the disparity between ideological postulates and reality. And yet, those interviewed in the era of stagnation were, for the most part, loyal enough to the basic ideas and values conveyed by Soviet MCPM. However, taking into account the forthcoming collapse of the USSR, it might be assumed that these ideas gradually lost their significance and were unable to mobilize society in the long-term.

Keywords: USSR, mass media, journalism, propaganda, stagnation
DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.3.2021.2253

References:

Antologiya samizdata. Nepodtsenzurnaya literatura v SSSR. T. 1. Rasskazy uchastnikov i teoreticheskie aspekty [Samizdat Anthology. Uncensored Literature in the USSR. Vol. 1. Participants’ Stories and Theoretical Aspects] (2005) Moscow: International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies Publ. (In Russian). Available at: http://antology.igrunov.ru/stories/ (accessed: 25.01.2021).

Arendt H. (1996) Istoki totalitarizma [Origins of Totalitarianism]. Moscow: TsentrKom Publ. (In Russian)

Boffa G. (1996) Ot SSSR k Rossii: istoriya neokonchennogo krizisa. 1964-1994 [From the USSR to Russia: a History of the Unfinished Crisis. 1964-1994]. Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya Publ. (In Russian)

Firsov B. M. (1971) Televidenie glazami sotsiologa [Television Through the Eyes of a Sociologist]. Moscow: Iskusstvo Publ. (In Russian)

Firsov B. M. (1977) Puti razvitiya sredstv massovoy kommunikatsii (Sotsiol. nablyudeniya) [Development of Mass Communication Media (Sociol. Observations)]. Moscow: Nauka Publ. (In Russian)

Goryaeva T. (2009) Politicheskaya tsenzura v SSSR. 1917–1991 gg. [Political Censorship in the USSR. 1917–1991]. Moscow: Rossiyskaya Polit. Entsiklopediya Publ. (In Russian)

Grushin B., Onikov L. (eds.) Massovaya informatsiya v sovetskom promyshlennom gorode [Mass Information in a Soviet Industrial City]. Moscow: Politizdat Publ. (In Russian)

Denningkhaus V., Savin A. I., Savina T. V. (2017) General’nyy politruk: yazykovye osobennosti rabochikh dnevnikov L. I. Brezhneva [General Political Instructor: Linguistic Features of L. I. Brezhnev’s Working Diaries]. Idei i idealy 2 (32). (In Russian)

Hellbeck J. (2017) Revolyutsiya ot pervogo litsa: dnevniki stalinskoy epokhi [Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary under Stalin]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ. (In Russian)

Levada Yu. (2006) Ishchem cheloveka: sotsiologicheskie ocherki [In Search for a Man: Sociological Essays]. Moscow: Novoe izdatel’stvo Publ. (In Russian)

Levada Yu. (ed.) (1993) Sovetskiy prostoy chelovek: opyt sotsial’nogo portreta na rubezhe 90-kh [A Soviet Common Man: the Experience of Social Profile at the Turn of the 90s]. Moscow: Intertsentr Publ. (In Russian)

Lichnost’ i massovaya kommunikatsiya [Personality and Mass Communication] (1969) Tartu: TGU Publ. (In Russian)

Ovsepyan R. P. (1999) Istoriya noveyshey otechestvennoy zhurnalistiki [A History of Contemporary Russian Journalism]. Moscow: Moscow St. Univ. Publ. Pp. 189–190. (In Russian)

Pechat’ SSSR v 1980 godu. Statisticheskiy sbornik [The Press in the USSR in 1980. A Statistical Collection] (1981) Moscow: Finansy i statistika Publ. (In Russian)

Pikhoya R. G. (2000) Sovetskiy Soyuz: istoriya vlasti. 1945-1991 [The Soviet Union: a History of Power. 1945–1991]. Novosibirsk: Sibirskiy khronograf Publ. (In Russian)

Popper K. (1992) Otkrytoe obshchestvo i ego vragi. V 2 t. [ Open Society and Its Enemies. In 2 vol.] Moscow: Otkrytoe obshchestvo «Feniks» Publ. (In Russian)

Ris N. (2005) «Russkie razgovory: kul’tura i rechevaya povsednevnost’ epokhi perestroyki» [Russian Talk: Culture and Conversation During Perestroika]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ. (In Russian)

Shubin A. V. (2005) Paradoksy perestroyki: upushchennyy shans SSSR [Paradoxes of Perestroika: the Missed Opportunity of the USSR]. Moscow: Veche Publ. (In Russian)

Sotsiologiya i propaganda [Sociology and Propaganda]. Moscow: Nauka Publ. (In Russian)

Uledov A. K. (1963) Obshchestvennoe mnenie sovetskogo obshchestva [Public Opinion of Soviet Society]. Moscow: Sotsekgiz Publ. (In Russian)

Yurchak A. (2014) Eto bylo navsegda, poka ne zakonchilos’. Poslednee sovetskoe pokolenie. [It Was for Ever Until It Was Over. The Last Soviet Generation]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ. (In Russian)