The Soviet Press MOVEMENT TOWARDS POPULAR JOURNALISM

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29067, 2 December 1959, Page 16

The Soviet Press MOVEMENT TOWARDS POPULAR JOURNALISM

ißv

PAUL WOHL,

in the “Christian Science Monitor*]

(Reprinted by Arrangement)

Among the promising changes which have occurred of late in the Soviet Union is modernising of the government newspaper “Izvestia” under the skilful hand of Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev’s son-in-law, Alexei N. Adzhubei. In less than six months this young man, who was a boy of 15 when the Nazis broke over his country’s borders, has transformed the tedious daily of the Soviet Workers’ Deputies into a genuine newspaper. The rise of “Adzhubei and his new ’lzvestia’ ” recently was made the subject of a lengthy study published in the latest Columbia University Forum. Its author, Leo Gruilow, one of America’s foremost students of the Soviet press, calls the new “Izvestia” a “forerunner in the movement toward popular journalism in the U.S.S.R.” “Izvestia” is published simultaneously in a dozen cities throughout the Soviet Union. Only “Pravda,” the Soviet Communist Party newspaper, has a larger circulation. Both newspapers hitherto were solemn chroniclers of official events. News was carried only in so far as it jibed with the official line, sometimes weeks after the event. No effort was made to interest the reader. Cliches Abound Panegynes on the party alternated with endless speeches by Soviet and other Communist grandees. Foreign dispatches were so safely couched in cliches that they could have been written in Moscow. As a result many Soviet citizens got into the habit of reading their newspapers not for what they said, but for what could possibly be gleaned between the lines. Stalin’s associates were aware that the ponderous monotony of the Soviet press had blunted one of their chief tools of propaganda. Mr Khrushchev was the first to react. In December, 1953, shortly

after his confirmation as yu*. Party Secretary, he told a remff ence of newspaper editors tt stodgy writing “must be ifrC from the newspaper page,’* • • Except for “Pravda” and vestia” and a few other 1— papers, the effect was immarttS Soviet editors, it seemed, fe only waited for a signal. Tfe. writings became more lively, W they were still cautious. somolskaya Pravda,” the newspaper, and the country’s js evening papers, which always hid been dispensed from puhHahfr,every official speech, took tj printing actual news, spruced 'w their pages and even began t? carry crime reports. “Komenmoi. skaya Pravda,” the liveliest e f them all, was edited by Adzhubei. Discipline Tightened After the Hungarian uprising js October, 1956, in which writ«w and intellectuals had been prW movers, press discipline tightened again. The pressure not last, however. Once Jty Khrushchev had successfully rd himself of the opposition— the io. called anti-party group— the Soviet intelligentsia once again given more leeway. The prtfl was to go in for original report, ing, urged the Premier. It to help the party unearth short, comings, boost new initiatives, raise the spirits. In the last week of May, 1D&8, Mr Adzhubei was put in charge of “Izvestia.” By the second week of June the paper had become unrecognisable. Fancy border and rules, indented passages boldface and italics began to « pear. Headings such as “1 Vi« ed the Vinitsa Spy Centre” jum ed 12 points in size. Red ink was used to dramatis the front page. It happened ths cartoons took the place of e< torials “Izvestia” even carrio close-ups of starlets (graduates o dramatic schools) and three column pictures of water skip racing sailboats which might huv been published in an American tourist pamphlet. Most of the ceremonial of ths Soviet State which formerly took up whole columns was boilsd down to brief notices published under “Official Announcements,* usually in small print. Mr Khrushchev’s speeches stiß retained their usual length and of course, had to be carried is full, but, like “Izvestia,” they became livelier, more personal and direct General Change Indicated J Mr Adzhubei and his in all this were little more toil pacemakers. It would be a mistake, moreover, to attribute th* government newspaper’s nW dynamism merely to its editor, Basically the policy of todafl more breezy "Izvestia” remains at much in line with that of and government, as did the iff icy of the staid “Izvestia” of t!» past. But the party’s metho* of government and of polity* influencing have changed un«t Mr Khrushchev. The decisive force behind W | change may well be the ur|»} of the new generation to turn the hieratic Soviet state of th* Stalin era, into a modern industrial society in their own image. The talented Mr Adzhubei belongs to this generation which up to now has shows itself original in its metho* rather than in its ideas. His own writings in “Izvestia* during the Premier’s trip wen at times highly sarcastic * their description of certain forms of American social li* and always imbued with intense patriotic pride in what Mr Adzhubei indicates is wfl < political and spiritual superiodtl of the Soviet people. Incidentally, judging by his name, Mr Adzhubei is not a Russian, but of Tartar or Turkic origin and in this sense characteristic of the. new multinational pattern of ti» modem U.S.S.R.