Periodicals as a Factor of Strengthening Soviet Power During the Transition Period (by the Materials of the North Caucasian Press)

Abstract

The article examines the processes of the formation of mass periodicals in the North Caucasus in the first years of the existence of Soviet power. Its relevance is due to the poor study of the Soviet press of the 1920s, especially its development in the national regions of the state. It is shown that the functions of the Soviet press at the first stages of its existence were reduced to the ideological struggle against counter-revolution and party opposition. At the same time, the newspapers covered topics relevant to early Soviet everyday life: peasant and school issues, the life of auls, food appropriation, food tax, etc. The purpose of the article is to examine the process of development of the Bolshevik policy in the field of mass media in the post-revolutionary period. It is emphasized that for a number of regions of the North Caucasus, the appearance of their own periodicals is associated with the arrival of the Soviet regime, which is pursuing a protectionist policy in relation to the press. It was within the framework of this policy that a number of local publications were published in the languages of the peoples of the North Caucasus, for example, the Ossetian «Rastdzinad». The list of newspapers published in the region during the period under study is presented, among which, in terms of the duration of the issue, the thematic content, one can single out such newspapers as «Krasnaya Kabarda», «Kommunist», «Sovetskaya Autonomnaya Chechnya», and «Gorskaya Pravda». Special attention is paid to the substantive analysis of the «Kommunist» newspaper for 1920, which made it possible to identify the most relevant plots and topics related to the coverage of the events of the Civil War, as well as the processes taking place within the framework of the emerging new economic policy and nation-building. In the conclusion, it is concluded that the important role played by both the Soviet periodicals and the press of the national regions in the ideological support of the activities of the organs of Soviet power.