3-GORBACHEV+Hendrix,+Noah

=**__The Media__**=

// What was the situation for that group/institution before Gorbachev became Premier////?//
The state of the media in the Soviet Union before Glasnost and Perestroika, the media in the Soviet Union was heavily influenced by Leninist ideologies. Lenin considered the ideals of free speech and press to be bourgeois and, as such, detrimental to a strong communist state. However, Lenin did see value in the press. Even before the Bolshevik revolution, Lenin advocated that free press was a public press controlled by the government. He advocated that the press should support the government and produce party literature. Until Gorbachev's reforms, the press was heavily regulated by the government. The Glavlit was a government organization that worked closely with the secret police to enforce the restrictions on the press. Any type of publication was required to receive Glavlit approval before printing. A large number of topics were forbidden to be discussed and editors generally did not have much control over what they could print. In the years leading up to Gorbachev's regime, the world was undergoing an information revolution. Information was becoming increasingly mobile and accessible. The Soviet Union was losing its ability to control the media as foreign cassette tapes and radio broadcasts undermined the Soviet effort to have complete control over information. The Soviet press began to lose credibility and reform was necessary.

//"local work will remain narrowly ‘amateurish’. The formation of the Party—if the correct representation of that Party in a certain newspaper is not organised—will to a considerable extent remain empty words. An economic struggle that is not united by a central organ cannot become the class struggle of the entire Russian proletariat." // The above excerpt was written by Vladimir Lenin in 1901. Lenin was fearful of the power of the mass media and believed that it needed to be severely restricted. He did use it during the Bolshevik revolution and his belief led to the establishment of a united Soviet media. In the quote above, he argues that without a central organization (if freedom of the press was allowed), the revolution and following communist state could not be successful.

// How did that group/institution interpret the application of those policies to it?//
The members of the media were very positive about the Glasnost and Perestroika reforms. The hope was that the reforms were the beginning of a transformation to an openly informed country with the ability to view information from outside the USSR and publish any content. However, actual expectations were much more realistic. Some of those expectations were access to all unclassified government documents, access to some Western content, and social pluralism. Social pluralism is the idea that there could be differing opinions that were both communist. The movement had begun before the reforms but was able to become more prevalent after them. For example, two newspapers could publish opposing views on the feasibility of a nuclear war or economic policy. Editors also expected to receive more control over what content they could publish and did, for the most part. Lastly, the media became a more important instrument in carefully criticizing the government, which Gorbachev's regime actually encouraged.

//"is an integral aspect of socialist democracy and a norm of all public life. Extensive, timely and candid information is an indication of trust in people and of respect for their intelligence, feelings and ability to comprehend various events on their own…Glasnost in the work of Party and state agencies is an effective means of combating bureaucratic distortions and obliges people to take a more thoughtful approach to…the rectification of shortcomings and deficiencies. In large part the persuasiveness of propaganda…depends on this…We should respond promptly and effectively to questions posed by world development and the course of the struggle and competition between the two opposing systems and promptly make adjustments of one sort or another in our ideas and practice when life so requires" // The excerpt above was taken from a speech delivered by Gorbachev on December 10, 1984 to party workers. The speech is an example of why Gorbachev was able to come to power: he was very persuasive. He pitched the Glasnost and Perestroika reforms as steps to create a new USSR that would thrive. He states that the information, and the media, helps empower the citizens of a country and keep the government in check. Due to that rhetoric, the media believed that it would have a new-found freedom and power.

// How did the Soviet state apply those policies to that group/institution, and what were the effects? //
Gorbachev viewed the power of the media in a different way than Lenin. Lenin believed the power needed to be contained and extremely limited. Gorbachev was willing to allow some of the power to be exercised and he knew that it could be used to his own benefit by becoming more visible in the press. That being said, the Soviet state certainly did not grant freedom of the press through Glasnost and Perestroika. The list of forbidden topics was greatly reduced and editors were granted more freedom to control what the content of their publications. However, certain topics were still controlled by the state (the topics could change at Gorbachev's discretion) and the application of Glasnost was inconsistent in the press. Once some freedom was controlled, it was difficult to control, and some press against Gorbachev and communism began to surface in the late 80's. However, the Soviet coverage of events like the Chernobyl crisis and the Yeltsin affair could still be considered party literature and is an example of how limited the new freedom was.

//"I suppose that the Soviet Union has a constitution defining civil rights. But here in the West, human rights are determined by one’s bank account. If you have nothing in the bank, you have no rights. Gold rules in this savage world of every man for himself. // //Mrs Thatcher ignores those people who are entitled to social security benefits, but don’t receive them. It is absolutely clear that she is not worried about this. She thinks singlemindedly about one thing – how to take money from the poor." // The excerpt above was published in Pravda, the official paper of the communist party, on January 26, 1988. It was originally written by a Mr. Soley in Lancaster, but was sent to Pravda for publication. It is an example of Western media that was published in the USSR. Access to foreign information was not unrestricted, but it had been almost impossible before the Glasnost and Perestroika reforms.

// What was the significance of Gorbachev’s reforms as it pertained to that group/institution? //
The changes overall benefitted the media. The media received more freedom and access to information than it had in the past. The reforms in the media were also very important for daily life in the Soviet Union. One shift that occurred and will seem strange to people living with Western media was in the content of the news; crime and natural disasters were rarely reported before the reforms but became more commonplace after them. The freedom of the press also made it more difficult to keep the USSR together. The media began to transmit revolutionary messages as the USSR began to fall apart. The messages were not super extreme, as they were ultimately allowed to be printed, but they were still revolutionary in nature. The media was a key part of the Baltic protests that occurred in 1989. It is not realistic to attribute the collapse of the USSR to the media alone, but the increased criticism led to increased unrest and the media was also more credible after the reforms, which only exacerbated the problems for the government.

//" in discussing social justice, one cannot close one’s eyes to the fact that Party, Soviet, trade union, economic, and even Young Communist League officials sometimes objectively deepen social inequality, taking advantage of all sorts of special refreshment bars, special stores, special hospitals, etc. Yes, there is socialism in our country, and everyone should receive according to his work. Let it be so, without wage-levelling. An official has higher earnings in monetary terms. But in other respects there should be no privilege. Let a director join everyone else in going to an ordinary store and standing in line—perhaps then the lines that everyone is sick of would // //be eliminated more quickly."// This excerpt was taken in Pravda on February 13, 1986. It is believed to be the first piece of criticism published after the reforms. Gorbachev had encouraged the publication of criticism, still somewhat regulated by the government, and advocated that the media would empower the people. By doing so, he restored credibility to Soviet media and gave people the belief that they had a new power, information (even though it was still limited(.

Works Cited:

=
Gibbs, Joseph. //Gorbachev's Glasnost: The Soviet Media in the First Phase of Glasnost //. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999. Print ======