scholarly journals Mass Media as an Instrument of Propaganda Policy During the Civil War in Siberia

Author(s):  
Yuri Petrushin ◽  
Olga Shilova

The article studies information systems of the main political centres operating in Siberia during the Civil War. The Soviet government, the White movement, the allied forces of the Entente were developing a large-scale propaganda in their struggle for power. The articles studies the methods and forms of confrontation of the political centres, their strong and weak points, as well as the channels of information transfer and means of information dissemination. The role of the information aspect during the Civil War in Siberia has not been studied properly so far. One does not have a complete scientific notion of how mass media were related to different political regimes and allies in Siberia. Therefore, the history of the political centres’ struggle for power needs to be widely researched applying interdisciplinary synthesis. It is necessary to consider the information-propaganda policy of the political centres as a specific activity of the governments of Siberia and allies, and as a significant instrument of implementing a new state ideology. In addition, the article discusses the information propaganda policy of the foreign countries participating in the Civil War, revealing the ideological views imposed by the government propaganda of the political centres. Studying the press, telegraph and printing has allowed to define the specific features of the information policy of the political centres. Controlling mass media, effectively set political propaganda contributed to the government stability. The First World War and, then, the Civil War became the pivot point that helped the political centres realise that mass media are the main allies in a crisis as the role and significance of information in society increases profoundly.

Author(s):  
Mikhail E. Razinkov

On the basis of published and previously unexplored archival materials from Voronezh, Orel, Kursk, Tambov, Bryansk, the self-organization and relationship with the government of entrepreneurs of the Central Black Earth Region in the period from spring 1917 to summer 1918 is studied. Studying this social group is important for understanding the balance of power in the region. The author comes to the conclusion that entrepreneurs, despite their active participation in political life in the spring and summer of 1917, due to the preservation of traditional ideas about power and the desire to protect and enhance their rights, could not have a significant impact on the development of the political situation in the region. Entrepreneurs did not enjoy exclusive support from government bodies, including government, which refutes the concept that existed in Soviet historiography about the bourgeois nature of the February regime. Moreover, in resolving conflicts, the authorities in 1917 tried to take into account, first of all, the interests of workers. This situation worsened even more for the bourgeoisie with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who not only supported workers' demands, but also openly robbed entrepreneurs with the help of indemnities. Nevertheless, in order to maintain peace, the Soviet government (especially by the summer of 1918) tried to resolve relations between workers and employers for mutual benefit. At the same time, during the period under study, conflicts between workers and employers reached a high intensity relatively rarely, leaving room for agreements and dialogue, which, however, narrowed.


Author(s):  
Cecy Balogun ◽  

The role of new technologies in driving agricultural sustainability is crucial for the socio-economic survival of rural households in Nigeria. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the livelihood of farm families as they had difficulties accessing inputs, supplies and farm labour needed for maximum productivity of their farming enterprises, and in selling farm produce due to the lockdown restrictions policies imposed by the government.Additionally, the income of farm families was affected as a result of spoilage of perishable produce. This review highlighted the impact of COVID-19 on agricultural activities of rural families, constraints to accessing agricultural information, responses of the government in providing information to farmers and the innovative information sources for improved livelihood outcome. This review concluded that innovative information dissemination methods can enhance the livelihood of farm families in the face of crisis like the covid-19 outbreak.


Significance The leading candidates for the presidential contest set out their agendas at the annual meeting of business executives (CADE) on December 3-4. The campaign, aggressive and personalised, had so far lacked policy substance. With each candidate supporting the continuance of business-friendly economic policies and backing measures to clamp down on public insecurity and corruption, they were at pains to distinguish themselves one from another. The dispersion of parties and candidates still makes a second round likely. Impacts With the political focus increasingly on the election, support for the government may recover slightly over the next six months. The main thrust of campaigning will remain highly personalised. The lack of any strong party system means that the mass media will play a decisive role in shaping voter preferences. The left, lacking funding and organisation, is unlikely to flourish.


Author(s):  
Наталья Валерьевна (Natalia Valerievna) Шляхтина (Shlyakhtina)

Автор рассматривает социальную категорию нищих в религиозном контексте, а также в свете конкретной русской этнической традиции. В последнем случае нищие были близки группе «странников», богомольцев, которые посвятили свою жизнь паломничеству по святым местам. Между тем уже в начале XX в. немалое число нищих были просто бедняками, не имеющими дома и заработка. В советское время с нищенством начинают целенаправленно бороться, как с социально вредным явлением. Но при этом советская власть своими масштабными проектами – индустриализацией и особенно коллективизацией, борьбой с враждебными классами, порождала миллионы нищих. Она боролась с ними, как с врагами народа. Еще одна большая волна нищих появилась после Великой Отечественной войны, но и эти нищие не нашли должного сочувствия у власти. В целом, отношение к нищим в советское время можно охарактеризовать как репрессивное, вне традиции, вне религиозных норм, что служит обличением власти. The author considers the social category of the poor in a religious context, as well as in the light of a specific Russian ethnic tradition. In the latter case, the poor were close to the category of “wanderers,” pilgrims who dedicated their lives to pilgrimage to holy places. Meanwhile, at the beginning of the XX century. a considerable number of beggars were simply poor people who did not have a home or income. In Soviet times, the authorities began to struggle with poverty in a deliberate way, as with a socially harmful phenomenon. But at the same time, the Soviet government with its large-scale projects - industrialization and especially collectivization, the struggle against hostile classes - generated millions of beggars. It fought with them, as with the enemies of the people. Another big wave of beggars appeared after World War II, but these beggars did not meet the proper sympathy of the government. In general, the attitude towards the poor in Soviet times can be described as repressive, outside of tradition, outside of religious norms, which serves as a denunciation of power.


1965 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arcadius Kahan

To discuss economic activity in Russia of the eighteenth century is to deal with an economic and social order that antedates the age of industrialization. Industrial activity in Russia during the eighteenth century was carried on within the political framework of an autocratic state, with ill-defined norms of legal behavior, and against the background of a serf agriculture which reached its apogee during this very period. The state of the industrial arts was low in comparison with western European standards, and the use of waterpower as a motive force in manufactories was introduced in Russia by foreign entrepreneurs only in the seventeenth century. Against this background, the efforts by Peter the Great (reigned 1682–1725) to modernize Russia appear genuinely heroic. The demands of his policy forced the government to engage directly in a vast program of establishing new industries, of converting small handicraft workshops into large-scale manufactories, and of encouraging private entrepreneurs to follow the government's example.


Author(s):  
Alexander Skorik

Introduction. The article reveals ambiguity and illegitimacy of using the verbal (textual) expression (definiens) defining the content of “decossackization” concept (depriving the Cossacks of independent political and military rights) in scientific literature and journalism as identical to genocide in relation to the chronological period of the 1920s. Methods and materials. The author uses known and rare, including archival, historical sources. The article does not deny the social unraveling process that was going on at the time, but the author attempts to prove the absence of total decossackization throughout the 1920s due to preparing and implementing by the ruling party of the Bolsheviks their “face to Cossacks” policy in the middle of this decade as a forced search of a political union with the Cossacks by the government agencies. The socio-demographic statistical data for the period of the late 1920s summarized by the quota (local) representative sample and attracted by the article indicate the absence of negative population dynamics, including the Cossack population, which leads to the conclusion that the red power did not use terror and genocide against the Cossacks massively in the designated period of time, and, accordingly, the Bolsheviks did not carry out a large-scale decossackization policy. Analysis and results. The decisions made at the end of 1924–1925, along with many other measures taken by the authorities (supporting repatriation of the Cossacks, amnesty for repatriates, creating territorial military units, etc.) during the decade under consideration, give reason to talk about a certain truncation of the decossackization social class practice in the 1920s. Historically, the decossackization issue goes back to the 19th century, and is not the exclusive policy of the Soviet government. Moreover, there are four main sides in this complex process: political, social, economic and spiritual-corporate one, which requires conducting additional research of this scientific problem today.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002234332110246
Author(s):  
Marieke Zoodsma ◽  
Juliette Schaafsma

It is often assumed that we are currently living in an ‘age of apology’, whereby countries increasingly seek to redress human rights violations by offering apologies. Although much has been written about why this may occur, the phenomenon itself has never been examined through a large-scale review of the apologies that have been offered. To fill this gap, we created a database of political apologies that have been offered for human rights violations across the world. We found 329 political apologies offered by 74 countries, and cross-nationally mapped and compared these apologies. Our data reveal that apologies have increasingly been offered since the end of the Cold War, and that this trend has accelerated in the last 20 years. They have been offered across the globe, be it that they seem to have been embraced by consolidated liberal democracies and by countries transitioning to liberal democracies in particular. Most apologies have been offered for human rights violations that were related to or took place in the context of a (civil) war, but there appears to be some selectivity as to the specific human rights violations that countries actually mention in the apologies. On average, it takes more than a generation before political apologies are offered.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Aaron Ola Ogundiwin ◽  
Joel N. Nwachukwu ◽  
Funminiyi Jacob Babajide

In contemporary times, democracy has become the political buzzword and, indeed, the basic acceptable form of government with the emergence of liberalism which links democracy with freedom, consent, and political and legal equality. The mass media – which include newspapers, radio and television – play a prominent role in governance and democratic sustainability of any state. In fact, it is a truism that the media serve as the watchdog of governmental activities, ensuring that quality information with which the governed can hold their leaders accountable is made available. The mass media were actively involved in the struggles against colonialism and military rule, as well as the eventual restoration of democratic government in Nigeria. However, in Nigeria, the mass media are fast becoming a pawn in the hands of the government and party in power in particular, and are found in conspiracy with the political elite class in general. This article takes on the contributions of the mass media to effectual democracy in Nigeria. Using agenda setting theoretical framework, it x-rays the effectiveness and shortcomings of the media in delivering on its mandate as the fourth estate of the realm towards ensuring that democratic practices in Nigeria produce the intended result of promoting good and inclusive governance. The paper adopts qualitative research design with data drawn from secondary sources only. It equally uses descriptive and content data analysis. It is found that the mass media have indeed been the middlemen in entrenching democracy in Nigeria but these efforts are being undermined by pecuniary, ownership, political and structural-institutional influences. It is concluded that while the mass media strive to ensure the general inclusion of the populace in the process of governing which fulfills a core democratic tenet, they can do more to overcome the challenges. Among other things, this paper recommends that the government should be deliberate in guaranteeing the freedom of the press to allow for free transmission of information between the government and the people without fear or favour, and likewise, the press should be professional, objective, critical and independent in their reportage, embracing the virtue of investigative journalism.


Author(s):  
Anissa Daoudi

While the literature on the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962) is extensive, studies on the armed conflict between the Algerian military and the armed Islamic groups, which cost the lives of more than 200,000 remain insignificant. The complex intersections between the political, social, and economic factors leading to the war in the 1990s show that the critical junctures began after independence in 1962. These junctures continued through the 1970s (Arabization movement) and 1980s (1988 Berber Spring), which together can help in contextualizing the Algerian Civil War. These different periods reveal the history of the National Liberation Front (FLN) as a one-party rule and contextualize its historical strong relationship with the Algerian National Army, revealing the power dynamics between the two and the roots of the struggle over the country’s sovereignty. Furthermore, the 1980s were marked by the youth riots in 1988 (Berber Spring) and their crucial role in what president Chadli Benjedid presented as a political reform program, including a new constitution, which ended the political monopoly of the FLN and saw the emergence of more than thirty new political parties. In January 1992, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) overwhelmingly won the municipal elections, with a much larger number of votes than the ruling FLN in the first round. However, instead of accepting the Islamists’ victory, the military promptly stepped in and cancelled parliamentary elections, banned the FIS, and arrested its leaders. After President Mohamed Boudiaf’s assassination, the government imposed a national state of emergency and used a combination of strategies including economic reforms as well tough laws to repress the Islamic armed groups and control the situation. The idea that the armed Islamic groups started after the official ban of the FIS has been contested. Two parallel strategies were adopted by the successive governments of the 1990s: one was based on the repression of the FIS, who in turn retaliated with car bombs and assassinations of women, intellectuals, police, and military forces; and the other was based on the introduction of social and economic reforms. The country went into cycles of extreme violence for more than a decade, in which the negotiations between the Islamists and the military were not interrupted. President Liamine Zaroual’s amnesty initiative, Rahma, was unsuccessful, yet it was the basis upon which his successor, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, proposed his project of amnesty, known as the Civil Concord, in 1999, later replaced by the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation in 2005. Bouteflika resigned on April 2, 2019, after months of mass protest called the Revolution of Smiles, which started on February 22, 2019, against his candidacy to the presidency for a fifth mandate.


1988 ◽  
Vol 44 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 226-239
Author(s):  
R. Gopalakrishnan

Soviet intervention in Afghanistan clearly indicates the strategic implications of its location. The political instability in the region (rise of fundamentalism in Iran, Iran-Iraq War and so on) has added to this significance. Be that as it may, Afghanistan's situation can be expressed in terms of its susceptibility to external pressures and intense factionalism within the land-locked state's dynamic populations. This latter aspect had divided the country several times over. Afghan foreign policy, therefore, has been viewed in this perspective. The present article reviews the stated facts to highlight the geographical significance of the location and its impact on the foreign policy. Introduction of the armed forces in national politics (this formed an important element in the country's politics right from the beginning) has been the most conspicuous development; it determined the who's and what's of the government. Traditional pressure groups, despite retaining some of their old hold on the society, had given way to radical groups or factions, armed forces and insurgent elements. These penetrated various strata of the Afghan society. Since 1963, when political liberalisation and participation was introduced, disruptive tendencies gradually impinged on the state's activities. Generally, this was evident between 1963–73 and was particularly so after the 1973 coup, when the Monarchy was replaced by a republican regime under Daud. Both, the Armed Forces and the Communist Party were involved but were sidelined once power was secured. This change did not bring the expected transformations in the patterns of administration. The change was only in name and power was still concentrated with Daud who began to implement his own policies that emerged between 1953–63. The period of his first stint in power coincided wiih an aggravation of problems, political and economic, caused by a closure of transit facilities. However, this pause was fully exploited by the radical parties who gradually brought the dominant elements of the Armed Forces under their influence, so that, they were able to deliver a coup d'etat under the leadership of Tarakki in April 1978. The new regime was not able to maintain effective control over the political situation that for the next twenty months brought internal political instability to its height and compelled the Soviet Union to move (this was perhaps to protect its vulnerable southern underbelly). The period from April 1978 onwards, saw active non-cooperation, large scale desertions from the Armed Forces and a deterioration of the economy. In addition, open opposition by the religious groups and insurgent elements presented a political picture that has been so vividly illustrated by Afghan political history. Intense factionalism and infighting within the regime saw Amin replacing the moderate Tarakki in September 1979. This led to a worsening of the political situation with the state at war with itself. This compelled the Soviet Union to move into Afghanistan. In a short but bloody war, Amin was disposed and a government under Karmal was established with Soviet support1. These developments then, clearly suggest the need to review the background of the patterns and problems of the foreign policy of Afghanistan as determined and identified by its locational characteristics.


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