Editors: Kirill Postoutenko, Alexey Tikhomirov, Dmitri Zakharine

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-88367-6

Introduction

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 Summarizing earlier research and drawing upon previously unpublished archival materials, it covers the main aspects of public and private interaction in the Soviet Union, from public broadcast to kitchen gossip.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.

Reviews

‘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.

Table of Contents

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

Kirill Postoutenko

Part I Channels

2 Visual Channels (1): Posters and Fine Art

Judith Devlin

3 Visual Channels (2): Cityscapes

Graeme Gill

4 Visual Channels (3): Cartography

Nick Baron

5 Auditory Channels: Crowing Roosters and Wailing Sirens

Dmitri Zakharine

6 Tactile Channels: Brotherly Kisses, Handshakes, and

Flogging in a Bathhouse

Dmitri Zakharine

Part II Media

7 Public Body (1): Popular Assemblies

Lorenz Erren

8 Public Body (2): Mass Festivals

Malte Rolf

9 Public Body (3): State Celebrations and Street Festivities

Sergei Kruk

10 Private Body: Kitchen Gossip and Bedroom Whispers

Anastasiia Zaplatina

11 Public Print (1): Books and Periodicals

Christopher Stolarski

12 Public Print (2): Coins and Bank Notes

Kirill Postoutenko

13 Private Handwriting (1): Diaries

Alexey Tikhomirov

14 Private Handwriting (2): Personal Letters

Alexey Tikhomirov

15 Private Handwriting (3): Denunciations 269

François-Xavier Nérard

16 Private/Public Handwriting: Self-reports

Berthold Unfried

17 Electrical Signalling (1): Telegraph

Larissa Zakharova

18 Electrical Signalling (2): Telephone

Larissa Zakharova

19 Electrical Signalling (3): Film

Kristina Tanis

20 Electrical Signalling (4): Radio

Dmitri Zakharine

Part III Boundaries and Flows

21 Boundaries (1): “Nomenklatura” Versus the Rest

Graeme Gill

22 Boundaries (2): “Comrades” vs. Deviants

Lorenz Er