DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2021.2.35152

Abstract: The article considers "Babaevets" newspaper as a source for the USSR food industry history during the first five-year plan. The author studies the issue of formulating the correct methodological approaches for the most complete disclosure of the information potential of the factory press and introduces the materials of a little-studied source (the newspaper of P. A. Babaev’s confectionery factory) into scientific discourse. The article studies the texts of this paper by means of content analysis and network analysis. The study highlights the priority topics that were traced in the newspaper during the first five-year plan, analyzes their internal relationships, both explicit and implicit. The analysis provided for a conclusion that the source understudy is informationally rich as far as food industry history and the impact on workers’ mass consciousness in 1928-1932 are concerned. The author comes to a conclusion that "Babayevets" primarily covered the issues of production process management and ideological work with the staff. The problem of production efficiency was the main connecting element in the content of the newspaper. Special role of all levels of the factory management in achieving the indicators of the first five-year plan was emphasized by the newspaper explicitly and implicitly thus proving the status of the factory newspaper to be an official tool of the party committee. 

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2021.1.35525

Abstract: The article discusses the developing of correct methodological approaches to compare the content of the USSR food industry branch and general circulation newspapers related to the formation of the “new worker” in 1925-1937.  Analyzing branch newspaper “Pishchevik” (“Za pishchevuyu industriyu”, “Pishchevaya industriya”) and general circulation newspapers “Babaevets” (Babaev confectionery factory), “Nasha Pravda” (Krasnyi Oktyabr' confectionery factory) and “Za Boievye Tempy” (Rot Front confectionery factory) by means of MAXQDA program, the author concludes about the equal focus of these newspapers on the formation of the “new worker” who was expected to fulfill the tasks to develop food industry and industrialize the USSR. The "new worker" of general circulation papers is a young lady striving to become a competent and full-fledged participant in production processes, social and party life. The branch newspaper of food industry portrayed the youth, production leaders, shock workers, Stakhanovites and Komsomol members as the "new worker". Differences in the main features of the "new worker’s" image between the branch and general circulation periodicals tell us about the specific feature of the target audience of these periodicals. The confectionary factories were dominated by females whereas males were prevalent in food industry as a whole.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2020.2.32033

Abstract: The article considers the difficulties in formulating the correct methodological approaches for studying the Soviet print mass media. The article's research subject is the source study specifics of the sectoral newspaper of the USSR food industry during the first and second Five-Year Plans, which influence the choice of methods for analyzing this source. The author proposes an approach to studying this periodical based on a combination of classical sources and computerized analysis of editorial texts in the MAXQDA 2020 program, providing a brief description of the possibilities offered by the new version of this program to scholars studying media texts. The article concludes that the study of such a multifaceted historical source as the branch newspaper Pishchevik ("For the Food Industry", "Food Industry") should be carried out using content analysis, which will systematize the dynamics of changes in the agenda of one of the largest industries of the USSR in 1928–1937. The article considers the difficulties in formulating the correct methodological approaches for studying the Soviet print mass media. The article's research subject is the source study specifics of the sectoral newspaper of the USSR food industry during the first and second Five-Year Plans, which influence the choice of methods for analyzing this source. The author proposes an approach to studying this periodical based on a combination of classical sources and a computerized analysis of editorial texts in the MAXQDA 2020 program, providing a brief description of the possibilities offered by the new version of this program to scholars studying media texts. The article concludes that the study of such a multifaceted historical source as the branch newspaper Pishchevik ("For the Food Industry", "Food Industry") should be carried out using content analysis, which will systematize the dynamics of changes in the agenda of one of the largest industries of the USSR in 1928–1937.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2019.3.29991

Abstract: The article addresses the issue of forming a “new person” in the industry of the USSR in the 1930s on the example of the food industry. The author advances the thesis that mass-copy publications are an invaluable source for a thorough study of this issue. The study examines the activities of the “Nasha Pravda” and “Za Boevye Tempy” newspapers of the "Rot Front" and "Krasnyi Oktyabr" confectioneries in the formation of the “new man” at these enterprises. On the example of these publications, the author examines the basic techniques of shaping and the components of the image of the “new person”. The study applies the descriptive methods for interpreting sources, as well as content analysis in computerized and traditional versions. The author comes to the conclusion that the mass-copy publications used such techniques to construct the “new man” as: the publication of editorial articles that proposed workers specific behavioral patterns and the publication of biographies of “truly socialist workers” in which the life-course and personal qualities of the worker were covered only from the positive side. One of the important features of the mass-copy publication business of the confectionery industry was their primary focus on describing a young woman as a “new person”.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.4.24841

Abstract: The article studies how Soviet food industry problems were described in mass-circulation press of this branch during the 1933 crisis year. The author compares ideological, production and social issues in mass-circulation newspapers by Red Oktyabr’ and Rot Front confectionery factories. Interaction between two content layers of these periodicals is studied as well. Emphasis is laid on general and distinctive features of the way problems were described as well as the extent certain issues of mass-circulation newspapers of different enterprises were typical to. New research technique has been developed and employed to analyze mass-circulation newspapers with the help of MAXQDA program. The computer based content-analysis lets the author conclude that in the crisis situation of the first year of the second Pyatiletka (Five-Year Plan) mass-circulation newspapers were used to socially mobilize workers and draw their attention away from that situation. Social and production problems taken together were more common in the papers than ideological ones. However, attempts to form a positive reality relate to qualitative rather than quantitative aspect of propaganda in food industry mass-circulation newspapers.