Party and Mass Media: Development of Party-Soviet Print Media in Kalmykia, 1920s–1930s

Abstract

Introduction. The paper provides insight into archival sources and shows the development of Kalmykia’s party-Soviet print media during the 1920s and 1930s. Kalmyk Party Organization tended to keep a strong focus on the growth of mass media in the region. So, before 1926 there was only one newspaper in Kalmyk Oblast ― Ulan Khal’mg (Kalm. ‘Red Kalmyk’), while that very year proper witnessed the emergence of multiple periodicals, such as Krasnaya step’ (Russ. ‘Red Steppe’), Kalmytskie izvestiya (Russ. ‘Kalmyk News’), journals Vestnik Kalmytskogo obkoma VKP(b) (Russ. ‘Newsletter of Kalmyk Oblast VKP(b) Committee’), Za rabotu (Russ. ‘Down to Work’), etc. Goals. The study seeks to clarify the impacts of Kalmyk Oblast Party Organization on the development of regional print media. Materials and Methods. The article analyzes multiple ― and authentic ― documents stored at the National Archive of Kalmykia (Party Collection), key research principles being those of objectivity and historicism. Results. The work concludes that issues of print media’s development were regularly discussed at Party conferences, plenums, and meetings of Kalmyk Oblast Party Committee. The latter’s Bureau would employ experienced journalists to strengthen republican and district-level newspapers. The published books and brochures were summarizing political, organizational, and ideological experiences of party organizations. Kalmyk- and Russian-language newspapers and journals were tightening ties between the Party and people, which facilitated an easier implementation of state policies. Thus, print media were used by the Party and its agencies as a means of political mobilization and education.