Carolyne Abel
History of Russia during the Soviet Era
The Soviet Union was newly formed after the country of Russia had been formed after a long era of the Romanov dynasty ruling the country for a very long time. This energy after a Civil War which ended in 1921. According to a historian from “History” the country then became known as one of the most powerful countries with the force of communism they used. The roots of the Soviet Union date back to when the Russian Revolution was happening in 1917. Revolutionaries did not like the way the country was being run and overthrew Czar Nicholas the Second which is the park that ended Romanov rule. This was the formation of the Bolshevik socialist state which was formally the empire.
Vladimir Lenin was the first leader within the newly established communist party and was replaced by the infamous Joseph Stalin. Stalin's ruling strategy was to install fear in everyone within his reign. He killed thousands of people within his time as a ruler for not following what he believed to be the best government known to man. His goal for Russia was to transform it into a military country making it feared by all other countries. Stalin created a period of time known as "The Great Purge" in which he killed an estimated 600,000 soviet citizens for any opposing thoughts or actions they may have had.
After Stalin had passed the new successor was Nikita Khrushchev who overtook during the most intense years of the Cold War. He was the one who instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis which was in 1962 and when nuclear weapons were installed just 90 miles from Florida's Coast within Cuba. He aimed to make the soviet society less repressive and even called it "De-Stalinization." He removed many neighboring relationships including with China, which made it more difficult for Russians to get food and other resources at the time.
Mikhail Gorbachev came to power within 1985 and he installed glasnost and perestroika. This meant that people were going to be deemed political openness and remaking the economic structure at the time. As far as the fall of the Soviet Union goes, as soon as people were able to start expressing themselves without communist ideas, they were able to loosen the reins on the Soviet Union. Following Gorbachev resigning as leader, the Soviet Union fully collapsed in 1991.
Population over time in Russia
There was not much of a chance for mobility for many people in Russia at any moment in time. The population in Russia from 1961 to 2021 went up about 44% according to “WorldData” which means that there are increasing birth rates. As of now, under Putin's control it is very hard for Russian Citizens to come and go as they please from the country itself.
The population is predicted to steadily increase for about the next three years, then have a sudden plateau of birth rate as Gen Z grows older. This means that there would be even less of a chance of Russian mobilization for citizens there now.
Geography in Russia
The Eastern half of Russia is actually very mountainous and gets very cold within the winter time according to “Nations Online”. The eastern part of the country is much more flat and has good terrain for farming and agriculture. Russia is also the largest country in the world giving it the ability to have a multifaceted geographical range.
The air within Russia is normally fairly dry, but when the heat comes within the summer they can face extreme humidity so much so that the air becomes a thick and wet range. Overall, Russia is greatly captured as being both mountainous and full of great farming areas.
Language Policy within Russia Over Time
In the early 90's only about half of people in the USSR spoke fluent Russian. According to “University of Pennsylvania”, it was predicted that the number of English speakers would rapidly increase as the continent of Russia requires students to learn English proficiently within schools.During the soviet era there were many attempts to force the Russian language upon Poles and Ukrainians.
The language was taught within school and often spoke more than students native language. Russian over time between the various leaders has been deemed to have been forced upon many people now in various countries in Europe.
During the Stalin era many times if people were caught speaking another language they could have been punished by being sent to a camp or imprisoned as they saw this as a threat to their nationality and their power. They claimed that their goal was to "universalize" the language of Russian and to continue to spread their values with other countries.
There were several campaigns for universal knowledge of Russian, but they were obviously not powerful enough to conquer the entire world as other continents were trying to stay away from their ideals as much as possible.
The Russian Press - Julia Hintz
In every 80’s movie, Russia is always portrayed in the same way: as a country of narcissistic communists who cheat in sports, lie to the population, and make inconvenient people “disappear.” Films like “Rocky” and “Mission Impossible” indirectly (and sometimes, directly) tell their viewers that Russians can never be trusted, and that it is up to the West to discover the truth. But is this western stereotype actually true? As I researched this issue, I discovered that, while the Russian government does, in fact, suppress the truth when it deviates from the political agenda, the Russian people are committed to spreading and publishing the truth–even when this becomes dangerous.
Moscow State University Eclipse - By Vtorov Collection
Russia has a history of suppressing the truth when it fails to support the political agenda.
According to an article from Sage Journals, the earliest Russian newspapers were run by the government. Peter the Great first popularized the newspaper in Russia, founding Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti (St. Petersburg News) in 1702, and succeeding monarchs continued to control the press. The article notes that, because of their autocratic government, the Russian people did not dare to speak too openly through the news–preferring to publish political commentary in the less-obvious forms of literature and satire.
When the Russian Revolution commenced in 1917, the Russian world was turned upside down, but, surprisingly, its restrictions on the news remained similar. Although the Bolsheviks–the Russian rebels who overthrew the autocratic government in order to promote social equality–emphasized the importance of journalism, they suppressed certain unflattering truths. The article notes that, instead of allowing the press full freedom, Russian media became another tool in the hands of the government, and newspapers like the government-founded Pravda were used to spread communist propaganda.
Although newspapers were highly censored during the reign of the USSR, the article observed that, throughout the 76 years that the Soviet Union was in existence, journalists did retain a small amount of autonomy. During certain of these years–specifically, under Stalin’s regime–this amount was miniscule, as the Soviet Union moved toward its demise, journalism became increasingly free in Russia.
In fact, the Russian Press experienced such a rise in freedom, that by 2002, the world press index ranked Russia 121st out of 180 countries regarding the freedom of its press. However, as Russian president Vladimir Putin retained control over the country, Russia’s ranking began to slip, and by 2022, the country’s press freedom was ranked 155th out of 180.
Russian Revolution: Bolsheviks in Moscow. Red Guard. Guardia Roja * revolucion sovietica * bolcheviques * milicia * miliciana * - By rosaluxemburg
Despite its governments efforts to suppress critical or unpatriotic media, the Russian people have always found ways to spread the truth
According to Britannica, during the rule of the USSR, the Russian people used "samizdat," or illegally copied literature, to spread true news and undermine the communist regime.
Even today, as the Russian government cracks down on journalism that does not fit its narrative, the Russian people have found ways to obtain illicit, and authentic, information.
While the World Press Index notes that two out of every three Russians obtain their news from television, which is run by the government, and Russian social media, like VKontakte (which is also monitored by the government), Russians have discovered ways to get around these filters.
According to VPNoverview, Russians are beginning to use VPNs to dodge government website-blockers and obtain information from the outside world.
Samizdat Book - By Travis Goodspeed
The Russian government's crack-down on media has created a dichotomy between how news is presented in government-approved newspapers and how it is presented in the outside world.
Russian newspapers present the current War in Ukraine in a positive light. For example, the long-standing governmental newspaper, Pravda, stated in an article that Russia was enacting martial law in several territories, claiming that sabotage and attacks from Ukrainian terrorists made this necessary.
On the other hand, Western news source CNN reports the same news, but emphasizing Russia's hastened withdrawal from Kherson and lack of complete control in the stated regions. Unlike Pravda, CNN includes information that demonstrates Russia's losses on a larger scale.
It is also important to note, that, while Pravda discusses the regions as parts of Russia, CNN mentions that they were illegally annexed.
Pravda is not the only popular news site in Russia; in fact, there are many. Click on the button below to find out more.
Russian News is Old - By cogdogblog
In conclusion...
In summary, it appears that not all Russians are what the movies make them out to be: men in black burning microfilm and eliminating political targets. In reality, the Russian people are normal civilians, just like us, who happen to live under an oppressive regime that silences the truth. Although their government might hide the truth, the Russian people are bent on finding it out, as demonstrated by the prolific underground news sources that have existed in Russia's past and remain in the present. The Russian government might be oppressive, but its people are bent on setting their minds free.
Moscow - By josef.stuefer
Morgan Kabler: News and Media in Russia
Verifying news
It can get challenging to verify the news, especially from somewhere that is so corrupt. A lot of Russian propaganda has been spread around and has fake news. All this fake news is stirring up emotions in people and can eliminate the rational thinking that they once had. There was one website called “war on fakes.”. That is a fact-checking site in multiple languages, including English, French, and Chinese, so everyone can know what’s happening in Ukraine. According to the DW, the website is using fake claims. The creators of the website claim that they are signs of an information war against Russia. They provide fact-checking articles and objective publications so that people will fear less and be more confident about what’s happening. One thing about this website that has made it an unreliable source is that they always make Russia look better; they always prove that Russia was in the right.
There is currently a Belarusian hacking group that has taken over Facebook accounts owned by Ukrainian, and they have posted that the Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered. One way people have seen that this was a hacked account and was spreading fake news was that this person usually wouldn’t post, or the hacker would change the person's handle, and people who know the person know that something is different.
Manipulated pictures are widespread and easy to do. Most people's profile pictures are public and can be easily modified. Reverse image searching is straightforward, and a simple YouTube video teaches someone how to do it; this can quickly tell you if what you are seeing is real.
Misinformation in Russia
There is a vast ¬¬information problem going through Russia at this moment. The government of Russia monitors everything, from phone calls, mail, social media, zoom calls, and more. When we had our guest speaker Ann Simmons, there were certain things she could and couldn’t say; if she had given out too much information, she would have been flagged by the government and, at its worst, interrogated and imprisoned. Things can't be fully said otherwise; they can get in trouble with the government, so they work around it and make codes, but if those codes get misinterpreted, then misinformation gets spread. Stanford news was an article with seven reasons to spot misinformation and how to site-check claims.
After the invasion of Ukraine in February, lots of misinformation went around about what was happening, whether there was going to be a war, whether they were going to fight back, and why are they invading. Some people would come up with their own conclusions to these questions and spread them around, then everyone they told will tell the people they know, and the misinformation will spread like wildfire.
Well-known and reliable journalists in Russia
Marina Ovsyannikova: Mariana was born in Ukraine and moved to Moscow in 2000, and started working for channel one, Russia's primary news source. She is currently against the war Russia has begun. This got her in much trouble with the Russian government. In a video, she asked Russians to protest the war and stop all the madness; she also said not to be afraid of anything because they can’t imprison us all. For this, she was interrogated for 14 hours without access to contacting friends, family, or even a lawyer. BBC news goes on about her interrogation and the intensity it was held at. She was later detained, and no one was told of her whereabouts. She was praised by the Ukrainian president as well as the French president for her actions.
Yevgenia Albats: She is a very well-known political editor and CEO of the New York times. Yevgenia held her own talk show called Absolute Albats, and it aired on the only remaining liberal station in Russia called Echo Moskvy. She has a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University and has taught at Yale and Moscow's Higher School of Economics. Albats has written four books that she has independently researched, including the history of the Russian police and KGB, whose graduates are still running Russia. She is a very trusted journalist because of the number of awards she has won over the years, including the Golden Pen Award, and in 1990 she was named the Alfred Friendly Fellow. The Davis Center at Harvard has an article on all her accomplishments.
Tikhon Dzyadko: he worked for a company called TV rain from 2010-2015, which is one of the last remaining independent news sources in Russia. Now Tikhon works for RTVi, which is a Russian-based station in New York. He was the editor-in-chief of a company called Dozhd TV. He had decided to leave after being put in situations that were impossible to work in. after he left Russia and came to his current job, he felt safer when he was working because of being out of Moscow.
Credits:
Created with images by Kalyakan - "St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow at night, Ancient Moscow St. Basil's Cathedral is the main tourist attraction of city, Russia." • Koray - "Moscow, Capital city of Russia. Beautiful view of Saint Basil`s Cathedral during sunset time. Clouds are in purple and orange colors." • Arcady - "Vladimir Lenin portrait, Russian revolutionary and Head of government from 1917-1924. Picture from book LENIN, Published by OGIZ State Publishing House of Political Literature, Moscow 1939." • Leonid Andronov - "Valday Iversky Monastery in Russia" • bbsferrari - "Novo-Peredelkino Church with lilac, Moscow, Russia" • weyo - "Russia flag. Waving colorful Russia flag." • Maria Sbytova - "Cute little boy holding russian flag during walking in summer park" • Feodora - "Young man learning different languages" • fotogestoeber - "Hand is revealing that a "fact" is a "fake"" • serhiibobyk - "Closeup of pulse indicator on hand during lie detector test"