Media and Communication in the Soviet Union (1917–1953): General Perspectives

442 Pages·2022·6.665 MB·English

by  Kirill Postoutenko, Alexey Tikhomirov, Dmitri Zakharine

Media and
Communication in the
Soviet Union (1917–1953)
General Perspectives
Edited by Kirill Postoutenko
Alexey Tikhomirov · Dmitri Zakharine
Media and Communication in the Soviet Union
(1917–1953)
“Rich in empirical material and diverse in methodological approaches, this volume
shows how the formative decades of the Soviet society were shaped by various
forms and modes of expression, including its suppression. The coverage is very
broad—from interpersonal interactions (such as kitchen gossip) to public events
(such as religious rituals) to mass communication (such as radio broadcasts).
Whether the contributors analyze conversational turn-taking or messaging devices,
whatever media becomes an object of their analysis—auditory, visual, tactile, or
electronic, the volume is always focused on the Soviet society as a system, viewed
in terms of integration and control, power and resistance, authority and freedom.
The reader of this volume will have a deeper understanding of how social bonds
and boundaries were created during those early decades, and also how their
intended and unintended consequences impact today’s social dynamics in Russia.
The volume will appeal to anyone interested in Soviet and Russian society, as well
as theory, history, and ecology of communication.”
—Igor Kluykanov, Professor of Communication, Eastern Washington University.
“Media and Communication from Lenin to Stalin is an all-inclusive tome; an
invaluable resource for anyone interested in visual and material sources as well as
corporeal forms of communication in a totalitarian society. It highlights the reli-
ance on various means of communication in order to maintain control while
embracing the sensory and bodily challenges to power. This is an incredibly inno-
vative analysis of communication and media in an extraordinary time and the book
will become an instant classic for both scholars and students of Soviet history.”
—Rósa Magnúsdóttir, Professor of History, University of Iceland.
Kirill Postoutenko
Alexey Tikhomirov • Dmitri Zakharine
Editors
Media and
Communication in the
Soviet Union
(1917–1953)
General Perspectives
Editors
Kirill Postoutenko Alexey Tikhomirov
SFB 1288 ‘Practices of Comparison’ Department of History
Bielefeld University Bielefeld University
Bielefeld, Germany Bielefeld, Germany
Dmitri Zakharine
Department of History
University of Freiburg
Freiburg, Germany
ISBN 978-3-030-88366-9 ISBN 978-3-030-88367-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88367-6
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2022
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
Cover image: Telephone operators at work (Moscow, 1929). Courtesy of the Russian State
Documentary Photo and Film Archive, Krasnogorsk, Russia, Image no. P 2584 ch/b
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This book is dedicated to Larissa Zakharova (1977–2019)—
our visionary colleague and friend—
unforgettable and irreplaceable
P
reface
Conceived on the soothing shores of Lake Constance ten years ago, the
book was brought to fruition with the help of several benefactors, includ-
ing the Alexander von Humboldt and the German Research Foundations
(Bonn, Germany), the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (Cologne, Germany),
the European Commission (Brussels, Belgium), Ikerbasque—Basque
Foundation for Science (Bilbao, Spain), the Academy of Finland (Helsinki,
Finland), the Aarhus Institute for Advanced Studies (Aarhus, Denmark),
the International Research Center for Cultural Studies (Vienna, Austria),
and the Gerda Henkel Foundation (Dusseldorf, Germany).
Our special thanks go to the editors and publishers of the journal
Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales for their permission to partially repro-
duce the following text in the Chap. 17:
Larissa Zakharova. 2017. Access to Communication Tools in Stalin’s
Soviet Union. Annales HSS 68 (2): 357–391. © Éd. de l’Ehess, Paris;
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Kirill Postoutenko
Alexey Tikhomirov
Dmitri Zakharine
vii
c
ontents
1 Soviet Communication and Soviet Society (1917–1953):
Alignments and Tensions 1
Kirill Postoutenko
Part I Channels 19
2 Visual Channels (1): Posters and Fine Art 21
Judith Devlin
3 Visual Channels (2): Cityscapes 37
Graeme Gill
4 Visual Channels (3): Cartography 49
Nick Baron
5 Auditory Channels: Crowing Roosters and Wailing Sirens 95
Dmitri Zakharine
6 Tactile Channels: Brotherly Kisses, Handshakes, and
Flogging in a Bathhouse 121
Dmitri Zakharine
ix
x CONTENTS
Part II M edia 137
7 Public Body (1): Popular Assemblies 139
Lorenz Erren
8 Public Body (2): Mass Festivals 149
Malte Rolf
9 Public Body (3): State Celebrations and Street Festivities 165
Sergei Kruk
10 Private Body: Kitchen Gossip and Bedroom Whispers 187
Anastasiia Zaplatina
11 Public Print (1): Books and Periodicals 197
Christopher Stolarski
12 Public Print (2): Coins and Bank Notes 207
Kirill Postoutenko
13 Private Handwriting (1): Diaries 243
Alexey Tikhomirov
14 Private Handwriting (2): Personal Letters 255
Alexey Tikhomirov
15 Private Handwriting (3): Denunciations 269
François-Xavier Nérard
16 Private/Public Handwriting: Self-reports 277
Berthold Unfried
17 Electrical Signalling (1): Telegraph 285
Larissa Zakharova
18 Electrical Signalling (2): Telephone 301
Larissa Zakharova
CONTENTS xi
19 Electrical Signalling (3): Film 313
Kristina Tanis
20 Electrical Signalling (4): Radio 327
Dmitri Zakharine
Part III Boundaries and Flows 343
21 Boundaries (1): “Nomenklatura” Versus the Rest 345
Graeme Gill
22 Boundaries (2): “Comrades” vs. Deviants 357
Lorenz Erren
23 Top-down Verbal Messaging: Textbooks 375
Dorena Caroli
24 Bottom-up Non-verbal Messaging: Applause 389
Kirill Postoutenko
25 Top-down Extraction of Bottom-up Messages:
Surveillance 417
Olga Velikanova
Index 429
n c
otes on ontributors
Nick Baron is an Associate Professor in History at the University of
Nottingham. He has published two monographs: Soviet Karelia. Politics,
Planning and Terror in Stalin’s Russia,1920–1939 (2007; pbk, 2009;
Russian trans., 2011) and The King of Karelia: Col P.J. Woods and the
British Intervention in North Russia 1918–1919 (2007; Russian trans.,
2013; Finnish trans., 2020); as well as three edited volumes on population
displacement and resettlement in the aftermath of the two world wars; two
further co-edited document collections; and numerous journal articles
and book chapters on aspects of forced migration, conflict and war, state-
building, spatial planning, social identity, and film and memory. He has
also co-curated a mobile, multi-site exhibition on post-1945 East European
Displaced Persons (2012–2015), and acted as consultant to three major
British Library exhibitions, “Magnificent Maps” (2011), “Maps and the
Twentieth Century: Drawing the Line” (2016–2017), and “Russian
Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths” (2017). His current project is a cul-
tural history of Soviet cartography, which examines the conduct of map-
ping and the meaning of maps in the USSR from 1919 to 1953.
Dorena Caroli is a Professor at the University of Bologna, where she is
teaching history of education. Her works about Stalinism include L’enfance
abandonnée et délinquante dans la Russie soviétique, 1917–1937, Paris
(2004), Ideali, ideologie e modelli formativi. Il movimento dei Pionieri in
Urss (1922–1939), Milan (2006, second edition 2015); Un Welfare State
senza benessere. Insegnanti, impiegati, operai e contadini nel sistema di pre-
xiii