BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    News from Moscow: Soviet journalism and the limits of postwar reform

    Huxtable, Simon (2022) News from Moscow: Soviet journalism and the limits of postwar reform. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192857699.

    Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

    Abstract

    Book synopsis: News from Moscow is a social and cultural history of Soviet journalism after World War II. Focusing on the youth newspaper Komsomol'skaia Pravda, the study draws on transcripts of behind-the-scenes editorial meetings to chart the changing professional ethos of the Soviet journalist. Simon Huxtable shows how journalists viewed themselves both as propagandists bringing the Party's ideas to the wider public, but also as reformers who tried to implement new ideas that would help usher the country towards Communism. The volume focuses on both aspects of the journalists' role, from propaganda editorials in praise of Comrade Stalin and articles lauding young heroes' exploits in the Virgin Lands, to revolutionary new initiatives, such as the country's first ever polling institute and clubs promoting the virtues of unfettered public debate. Soviet journalism, argues Huxtable, was riven with an unresolvable tension between innovation and conservativism: the more journalists tried to promote new innovations to perfect Soviet society, the more officials grew anxious about the disruptive consequences of reform. By demonstrating the day-to-day conflicts that characterised the press's activity, and by showing that the production of Soviet propaganda involved much more than redrafting orders from above, News from Moscow offers a new perspective on Soviet propaganda that expands our understanding of the possibilities and limits of reform in a period of rapid change.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Book
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies
    Depositing User: Simon Huxtable
    Date Deposited: 30 May 2022 13:11
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 18:16
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/47997

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    0Downloads
    6 month trend
    150Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item
    Edit/View Item