The Great War on the Pages of County Newspapers: the Formation of Public Opinion in Russian province (on materials of Samara, Simbirsk and Penza region)

• Main Authors: Ulyana Kulyanina, Lidiya Kurakina, Andrey Ilushin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sochi State University 2017-03-01
• Series: Bylye Gody
• Subjects: the perception of the war; civil society; public opinion; World War I; Middle Volga region; Telegrams PTA; rear area; county periodicals; censorship; private newspaper
• Online Access: http://bg.sutr.ru/pdf.html?n=1488816955.pdf

The article is devoted to the formation of public opinion on the pages of Middle Volga region's periodicals during the First World War. During the analyzed period the relations of authorities and provincial publishers of local socio-political media had differed not only from those in the both capitals, but also in the provincial centers. These features explained periodical influence on the formation of public opinion about the war in province and identified the image of the First World War and their own methods of communicating with the authorities. Topic changes and presentation methods are clearly observed in different periods of the war. If in 1914 the press trying to fill the information vacuum, spread the «state's voice», since 1915 a significant proportion of newspaper space was given to local authors materials. In 1916, the interest to the war events shifted to the war's impact on the rear life, in 1917 the discussion of the possible peace treaty signing and the postwar life in Russia takes place in the newspapers. Analysis of local media shows various opinions about the war in prints of different political persuasion. However, the state policy didn’t have a differential attitude – the ineffective restrictive policies was widely spread, which was completely ignored by private publishers. As a result, the newspaper industry parted the province society. The article is based on a large source base. The authors used the published material (legislation, memoirs) and the documents collected in archives. The article deals with the materials of local periodicals of 1914–1917.