Media and Communication in the Soviet Union (1917–1953) General Perspectives Edited by Kirill Postoutenko Alexey Tikhomirov · Dmitri Zakharine Media and Communication in the Soviet Union (1917–1953) “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. “Media and Communication from Lenin to Stalin 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 reli- ance on various means of communication in order to maintain control while embracing the sensory and bodily challenges to power. This is an incredibly inno- vative 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. Kirill Postoutenko Alexey Tikhomirov • Dmitri Zakharine Editors Media and Communication in the Soviet Union (1917–1953) General Perspectives Editors Kirill Postoutenko Alexey Tikhomirov SFB 1288 ‘Practices of Comparison’ Department of History Bielefeld University Bielefeld University Bielefeld, Germany Bielefeld, Germany Dmitri Zakharine Department of History University of Freiburg Freiburg, Germany ISBN 978-3-030-88366-9 ISBN 978-3-030-88367-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88367-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover image: Telephone operators at work (Moscow, 1929). Courtesy of the Russian State Documentary Photo and Film Archive, Krasnogorsk, Russia, Image no. P 2584 ch/b This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland This book is dedicated to Larissa Zakharova (1977–2019)— our visionary colleague and friend— unforgettable and irreplaceable P reface Conceived on the soothing shores of Lake Constance ten years ago, the book was brought to fruition with the help of several benefactors, includ- ing the Alexander von Humboldt and the German Research Foundations (Bonn, Germany), the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (Cologne, Germany), the European Commission (Brussels, Belgium), Ikerbasque—Basque Foundation for Science (Bilbao, Spain), the Academy of Finland (Helsinki, Finland), the Aarhus Institute for Advanced Studies (Aarhus, Denmark), the International Research Center for Cultural Studies (Vienna, Austria), and the Gerda Henkel Foundation (Dusseldorf, Germany). Our special thanks go to the editors and publishers of the journal Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales for their permission to partially repro- duce the following text in the Chap. 17: Larissa Zakharova. 2017. Access to Communication Tools in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Annales HSS 68 (2): 357–391. © Éd. de l’Ehess, Paris; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Kirill Postoutenko Alexey Tikhomirov Dmitri Zakharine vii c ontents 1 Soviet Communication and Soviet Society (1917–1953): Alignments and Tensions 1 Kirill Postoutenko Part I Channels 19 2 Visual Channels (1): Posters and Fine Art 21 Judith Devlin 3 Visual Channels (2): Cityscapes 37 Graeme Gill 4 Visual Channels (3): Cartography 49 Nick Baron 5 Auditory Channels: Crowing Roosters and Wailing Sirens 95 Dmitri Zakharine 6 Tactile Channels: Brotherly Kisses, Handshakes, and Flogging in a Bathhouse 121 Dmitri Zakharine ix x CONTENTS Part II M edia 137 7 Public Body (1): Popular Assemblies 139 Lorenz Erren 8 Public Body (2): Mass Festivals 149 Malte Rolf 9 Public Body (3): State Celebrations and Street Festivities 165 Sergei Kruk 10 Private Body: Kitchen Gossip and Bedroom Whispers 187 Anastasiia Zaplatina 11 Public Print (1): Books and Periodicals 197 Christopher Stolarski 12 Public Print (2): Coins and Bank Notes 207 Kirill Postoutenko 13 Private Handwriting (1): Diaries 243 Alexey Tikhomirov 14 Private Handwriting (2): Personal Letters 255 Alexey Tikhomirov 15 Private Handwriting (3): Denunciations 269 François-Xavier Nérard 16 Private/Public Handwriting: Self-reports 277 Berthold Unfried 17 Electrical Signalling (1): Telegraph 285 Larissa Zakharova 18 Electrical Signalling (2): Telephone 301 Larissa Zakharova CONTENTS xi 19 Electrical Signalling (3): Film 313 Kristina Tanis 20 Electrical Signalling (4): Radio 327 Dmitri Zakharine Part III Boundaries and Flows 343 21 Boundaries (1): “Nomenklatura” Versus the Rest 345 Graeme Gill 22 Boundaries (2): “Comrades” vs. Deviants 357 Lorenz Erren 23 Top-down Verbal Messaging: Textbooks 375 Dorena Caroli 24 Bottom-up Non-verbal Messaging: Applause 389 Kirill Postoutenko 25 Top-down Extraction of Bottom-up Messages: Surveillance 417 Olga Velikanova Index 429 n c otes on ontributors Nick Baron is an Associate Professor in History at the University of Nottingham. He has published two monographs: Soviet Karelia. Politics, Planning and Terror in Stalin’s Russia,1920–1939 (2007; pbk, 2009; Russian trans., 2011) and The King of Karelia: Col P.J. Woods and the British Intervention in North Russia 1918–1919 (2007; Russian trans., 2013; Finnish trans., 2020); as well as three edited volumes on population displacement and resettlement in the aftermath of the two world wars; two further co-edited document collections; and numerous journal articles and book chapters on aspects of forced migration, conflict and war, state- building, spatial planning, social identity, and film and memory. He has also co-curated a mobile, multi-site exhibition on post-1945 East European Displaced Persons (2012–2015), and acted as consultant to three major British Library exhibitions, “Magnificent Maps” (2011), “Maps and the Twentieth Century: Drawing the Line” (2016–2017), and “Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths” (2017). His current project is a cul- tural history of Soviet cartography, which examines the conduct of map- ping and the meaning of maps in the USSR from 1919 to 1953. Dorena Caroli is a Professor at the University of Bologna, where she is teaching history of education. Her works about Stalinism include L’enfance abandonnée et délinquante dans la Russie soviétique, 1917–1937, Paris (2004), Ideali, ideologie e modelli formativi. Il movimento dei Pionieri in Urss (1922–1939), Milan (2006, second edition 2015); Un Welfare State senza benessere. Insegnanti, impiegati, operai e contadini nel sistema di pre- xiii