Tikhomirov N.V.

Soviet regional newspapers: reflection or distortion of reality?
Prolegomena to source analysis. Pp. 49–58.

UDC 930.2

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2025.86.1.005

 

Abstract. The aim of the article is to elaborate theoretical provisions that can help to understand that the USSR newspaper periodicals were an informatively significant historical source. The considerations are intended to develop the position that the Soviet press, with its inherent bias, not only constructed, but also reflected the historical reality in
a special way. The object of the study is the regional periodicals of Soviet Russia in the 1920s–1930s. The author proves the fallacy and methodological inconsistency of the attempt to evaluate the information potential of the Soviet socio-political press as a single and monolithic phenomenon. The author provides theoretical justification for the need to identify heuristic possibilities of specific periodicals in temporal and geographical contexts, as well as in connection with private problems of historical research. It is shown that the establishment of the information potential of periodicals in solving specific knowledge-related tasks was conditioned by the way of presenting historical reality in the formulation of the object-subject area of research. The greatest informational efficiency is provided by source criticism of these materials when considering the social system of the USSR at the micro-level (local communities). We differentiate between the logic of selecting and developing materials, characteristic of this approach and differing from the logic of studying macro-processes within the framework of classical socio-political historiography. The conclusions drawn define the prospects of using regional Soviet press for information support of scientific research in such fields as regional history, history of everyday life, and microhistory. The research findings presented in the paper are intended to expand theoretical and methodological ideas about newspaper periodicals of the USSR as a historical source, to outline possible ways of further research practice.

 

Keywords: newspaper, historical source, history of everyday life, microhistory, periodical press, USSR.

 

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