North Caucasian Radio Journalism during the Strengthening of Bolshevik Totalitarianism: Finding its own Voice

Abstract

Lema A. Turpalov (Grozny, Chechen Republic, Russian Federation)

The importance of ideological support for the processes of establishing Soviet power in the North Caucasus increased due to the fact that socialist ideas were little known and incomprehensible to local peoples. The main tool of the Leninist party to propagate socialist transformations – the press – was not effective due to the fact that the mountain population was nearly illiterate. Under these conditions, the only nascent radio became the main tool for manipulating the mass consciousness. The article is a continuation of the publication in the third issue of Proceedings of SFedU for 2020 “Radio Journalism as a Component of the Bolshevist System of Authoritary Journalism of Autonomies of the North Caucasus: the Stage of Formation” and is devoted to the little-studied issues of transformation of a new type of media, relatively independent at the initial stage of Soviet power. It was during this period that the actual radio forms and methods of work of regional radio editions, genres of programs, took shape. Meanwhile, in the historical and journalistic literature, even published in the post-Soviet period, the activities of regional radio broadcasting at the stage of socialist construction are still assessed from the standpoint of communist ideology. It is the time to revise some of the assessments and theses of research carried out in the age of communist authoritarianism. The article attempts to reveal the role of the regional radio journalism in the formation of the dictatorship of the Bolshevik party secretariat, to outline the main trends in the development of the North Caucasian radio, to show the evolution of forms and genres of broadcasting.

Key words: history of broadcasting in the North Caucasus, radio journalism in the system of Bolshevik totalitarianism.

DOI 10.18522/1995-0640-2021-2-230-240