Moskowisation of Consciousness of Western Ukrainian Population by Means of the Party-Soviet Press (Based on the Materials of the Archive of the Chernivtsi Regional Newspaper "Soviet Bukovyna". The 1940s—50s of the ХХ Century)

Abstract

For the first time, based on archival materials, the subject of the research was the practice of Moskowization of the consciousness of the Ukrainian population of Galicia, Northern Bukovyna, and Transcarpathia using the press by communist-Soviet ideologues after the accession of these regions to Soviet Ukraine. The article is based on the archival documents of the editorial office and the filing of the newspaper "Soviet Bukovyna" in the after-war time.The author's aim is to find out the order of elucidation of life of the workers of Bukovyna established by Moskow’s ideologists, the leading ideological emphasis in propagandistic articles and other publications on the pages of the main newspaper in the region. The system of control over the activities of this newspaper by the regional committee of the party is outlined and the closed press reviews' main emphasis regarding the content is highlighted. Such reviews and decisions, which were made by them, are considered in the article as one of the manifestations of the punitive means for those heads of newspapers and their creative collectives who did not adhere to this system.Regulated by the party order of the coverage on the pages of the local party-soviet press of different spheres of life of the region from the point of view of the ruling communist narratives at that time is described. Their main essence was to form a public opinion on the unanimous local workers' support of the party and the Soviet state and the justification of Stalin’s thesis “living became better, living became more fun”. The introduction of this procedure was carried out by publishing the prepared by party-ideological workers and by teachers of the Department of Marxism-Leninism of local universities propaganda articles. The topics, authorship, and frequency of publication of such publications in the columns of the regional and district press were approved quarterly at meetings of the bureau of the party's regional committees.The analyzed practice of Kremlin ideologists of the 1940s and 1950s to impose their own, completely falsified, version of facts and events on the population is consistent with the realities of the latest Russian-Ukrainian war, especially in the Russian-occupied territories of eastern and southern Ukraine.