Soviet Communicative Control: Some Implications of Digital Activism in Contemporary Russia

Ch. 5. P. 51–60.

Kiriya I.

This paper suggests that Soviet communicative control was based on a particular balance between the manipulation of mass communication (propaganda) and restriction of interpersonal communication and particular elements of social mobility control (e.g. transport, postal communication and population localization). This particular balance formed a quite stable social structure in which social communications reinforced the state order and hierarchy. We argue that, to a great extent, some elements of this Soviet system of control are reproduced in the current Russian media and social system that has formed a passive attitude towards digital activism and to political life in general among the population. This phenomenon has significantly influenced the contemporary post-Crimean social consensus and caused the failure of the protest movement at the first half of 2010s, which was largely dependent on social media.

Keywords: Russian media, History of Soviet Union, activism, Runet, social media

Publication based on the results of: Ecosystem of Digital Modernization in Russia: Actors, Discourses, Practices (2019)

In book

Protest Technologies and Media Revolutions: The Longue Durée

L.: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2021.