Propaganda in the World and Local Conflicts

8-18

Authors: Artem Yu. Peretyatko

During the Crimean War, a series of patriotic texts by prominent Don writer I.S. Ul'yanov were published in The Don Military Gazette. This article represents an attempt to analyze these texts and compare them with the latest official Don Cossack propaganda. The author comes to the conclusion that I.S. Ul’yanov’s oeuvre clearly features a plotline that would later become typical for that kind of propaganda. This plotline is a panegyric for a Don hero who, rather than representing a real historical person, epitomizes an ideal Cossack, someone to whom the author ascribes some of the ideas and statements that matter to himself. Of particular mention in this respect is Ul’yanov’s work ‘Military Ingenuity’, which could qualify as a historically credible narrative but would eventually be positioned by his younger contemporaries as a literary story. Certain elements thereof were even included in the early 20th century in ‘The Pictures of the Past Quiet Don’, a book released at the behest of the military authorities which was intended to be read by those in military units and schools.

25-32

Authors: Vladimir P. Trut

This paper draws upon an analysis of various published documents, a pool of relevant Russian historiography, and materials from various mass media outlets (above all, various periodicals from the period under review) to examine the various aspects of the political-information component in the 1994–1996 Chechen military-political conflict. The author suggests that, in covering the Chechen conflict, the Russian media (above all, the nation’s print media) took different stances on the issue: some justified the activity of illegal political and military formations in Chechnya, others espoused the official position assumed by the Russian government, and still others, a rather small group, sought to cover the conflict as objectively as possible, opting to keep an open mind on the issue and eschew political bias and financial concerns. The paper examines a set of specific issues experienced by mass media at the time in covering the 1994–1996 Chechen military-political conflict. The author suggests that, judging from the process of covering the Chechen conflict, back then Russia still lacked free and independent mass media outlets committed to reflecting and protecting the interests of civil society in Russia, a direct consequence of the nation being dominated by an oligarchical system of power and a lot of its mass media outlets being run by various political forces. The paper shares the findings from an analysis of the key characteristics of media coverage of the Chechen ethno-political conflict, especially during its active hostilities phase.