Control of the mass media in Soviet Russia

CONTROL OF THE PEOPLE

Control of mass media

• Newspapers
  • 1917-decree which banned all non-socialist papers
  • Printing press nationalised
  • 1920s-all non-bolshevik papers banned
  • Gavalit (censorship office) had to approve every article written
  • Papers were cheap to ensure a high readership
  • Pravada (Truth) was the party's newspaper-circulation of 10.7 million in 1983
    
  • Only contained possitve attitudes of the bolsheviks 
  • Reported socialist achievements, meeting/exceeding targets of economic plans, sucessful expeditions and triumph of technology
  • Prohibited accidents or natural disasters from being reported
    • (In Tsarist Russia natural disaster indicated a failing or poor leader0
    • Eg. the chernobyl incident failed to be reported even after other countries picking up on…