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

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiii

   PDF

2. Soviet Communication and Soviet Society (1917–1953): Alignments and Tensions

   • Kirill Postoutenko

   Pages 1-18

3. Channels

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

      PDF

   2. Visual Channels (1): Posters and Fine Art

      • Judith Devlin

      Pages 21-35

   3. Visual Channels (2): Cityscapes

      • Graeme Gill

      Pages 37-48

   4. Visual Channels (3): Cartography

      • Nick Baron

      Pages 49-93

   5. Auditory Channels: Crowing Roosters and Wailing Sirens

      • Dmitri Zakharine

      Pages 95-120

   6. Tactile Channels: Brotherly Kisses, Handshakes, and Flogging in a Bathhouse

      • Dmitri Zakharine

      Pages 121-135

4. Media

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 137-137

      PDF

   2. Public Body (1): Popular Assemblies

      • Lorenz Erren

      Pages 139-148

   3. Public Body (2): Mass Festivals

      • Malte Rolf

      Pages 149-164

   4. Public Body (3): State Celebrations and Street Festivities

      • Sergei Kruk

      Pages 165-185

   5. Private Body: Kitchen Gossip and Bedroom Whispers

      • Anastasiia Zaplatina

      Pages 187-196

   6. Public Print (1): Books and Periodicals

      • Christopher Stolarski

      Pages 197-206

   7. Public Print (2): Coins and Bank Notes

      • Kirill Postoutenko

      Pages 207-242

   8. Private Handwriting (1): Diaries

      • Alexey Tikhomirov

      Pages 243-253

   9. Private Handwriting (2): Personal Letters

      • Alexey Tikhomirov

      Pages 255-268

   10. Private Handwriting (3): Denunciations

       • François-Xavier Nérard

       Pages 269-275

   11. Private/Public Handwriting: Self-reports

       • Berthold Unfried

       Pages 277-283

   12. Electrical Signalling (1): Telegraph

       • Larissa Zakharova

       Pages 285-300

This book provides a systematic account of media and communication development in Soviet society from the October Revolution to the death of Stalin. Summarizing earlier research and drawing upon previously unpublished archival materials, it covers the main aspects of public and private interaction in the Soviet Union, from public broadcast to kitchen gossip.   

The first part of the volume covers visual, auditory and tactile channels, such as posters, maps and monuments. The second deals with media, featuring public gatherings, personal letters, telegraph, telephone, film and radio. The concluding part surveys major boundaries and flows structuring the Soviet communicate environment. The broad scope of contributions to this volume will be of great interest to students and researchers working on the Soviet Union, and twentieth-century media and communication more broadly.

• Russian history
• Soviet history
• Soviet media and communication
• Lenin
• Stalin
• Soviet Union
• USSR
• Slavic culture
• acoustic communication
• olfactory communication
• tactile communication
• interwar Soviet Union
• Media and communism
• Bolshevik party
• the Soviet telegraph
• Soviet radio
• Russian Civil War

‘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.

‘This 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 reliance on various means of communication in order to maintain control while embracing the sensory and bodily challenges to power. This is an incredibly innovative 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.

• SFB 1288 ‘Practices of Comparison’, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

  Kirill Postoutenko

• Department of History, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

  Alexey Tikhomirov

• Department of History, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

  Dmitri Zakharine

Kirill Postoutenko is Senior Researcher in the Special Research Area 1288 (Practices of Comparison) at Bielefeld University, Germany.

Alexey Tikhomirov is Assistant Professor of East European History at Bielefeld University, Germany. 

Dmitri Zakharine is Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Freiburg, Germany. 

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