Redesigning the Activities of Kalmykia’s Crucial Government Agencies during the Great Patriotic War: a Content Analysis of the Leninsky Put Newspaper (1942-1943)

Abstract

The article examines the activities of republican government agencies during the Great Patriotic War mirrored in the pages of the Leninsky Put (‘Lenin’s Way’) newspaper. The period from July 1942 to January 1943 was the toughest one in the history of the republic, with armed hostilities in the territory of the region and a temporary military occupation of some its districts. Materials of periodicals stored at the National Archive of Kalmykia testify of certain changes in the propaganda work of the mentioned organs. In the summer of 1942, front pages of Leninsky Put dealt with the situation at the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, government decrees, mobilization of the population to support the Red Army, and some international news. The analysis of article headings (e.g., 'To Involve More Citizens in Crop Harvesting Activities', 'No Experience of Best Workers Propagated', 'Best Livestock Breeders of Sovkhoz', etc.) shows that the Kalmyk Executive Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) laid special emphasis on the propaganda of labor mobilization. Such agitprop materials were often supplemented with some clarifying photos. The qualitative analysis of printed texts testifies that the words 'hectare', 'labor', 'competition', 'kolkhoz', and 'crop harvesting' dominated within the regional articles of that period. During the military occupation, republican printed texts were published on front pages of Leninsky Put, the number of regional articles remaining the same as before. The printed articles were expanded and became sizeable enough - up to 5 500 printable characters. The analysis of headings of republican articles ('One Labor Month during Fishing Season to Support Army', 'Victory Will Be Ours', 'Young Women at Fronts', 'Fishing in Closed Water Bodies', etc.) detects that in agitprops the emrpasis was shifted from labor feats to deeds of valor. In early 1943, Leninsky Put's opening pages also contained some republican printed texts. The headings of republican articles ('Fundraising to Construct Tank Column', 'Moscow, Kremlin. To Comrade Stalin', etc.) start recurring wich may provide evidence of the establishment of long-term propaganda priorities. One such priority was an overview of fundraising activities aimed to create the Sovetskaya Kalmykia Tank Coulmn. The printed texts became even more sizeable reaching 6 300 printable characters. The qualitative survey shows the words 'Germans', 'fascists', 'evil creatures', 'occupants', 'Red Army', and 'Stalin' still prevailed in regional articles during the period under consideration. However, there appeared some new often used words, such as 'roubles', 'Elista', 'Khulkhuta', and 'Yashkul'. The genre diversity of printed articles was also retained to draw readers' attention. Thus, the analysis of printed publications of the Leninsky Put newspaper dealing with republican affairs allows for the conclusion that Kalmykia's Soviet authorities were able to redesign their agitprop activities to meet the war-time requirements and basically attained the assigned goals.