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: 10.7256/2585-7797.2023.2.40749

EDN: UVQFXL

Abstract: The article examines the large-circulation newspapers of the oil industry enterprises of the Ural-Volga region in the 1960s-1980s as sources for the study of labor motivation. For the first time, newspapers produced at the oil enterprises of Bashneft, Permneft and Tatneft are being introduced into scientific circulation. Initially, an assessment of the information potential of the sources was carried out. Based on the selected materials, a content analysis of letters from oil workers to the newspaper of one of the divisions of the Permneft production association "Neftyanik Polazny" in 1973 - 1985 was performed. Descriptive methods of source analysis are also used in this study. Content analysis was provided by MAXQDA 2022 and UCINET software and consisted in analyzing the frequency of occurrence of selected categories and their visualization to assess the degree of significance of social and industrial topics related to labor motivation for oil workers. The study proved that for the employees of NGDU "Polaznaneft" the most urgent problems were related to "bottlenecks" in the social sphere and in the organization of production processes. In addition, it is noted that the category of "production management" was a key factor in solving various problems. The results of calculating the frequency of occurrence of categories and visualizing these frequencies can be useful for further research in the field of labor motivation.

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: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.4.24627

Abstract: The authors demonstrate opportunities and discuss prospects of a new text editing software application of similar origin and general structure. This application is developed to be integrated within a program of fuzzy genealogical classification. The research focus is medieval texts which have long been in use and have been preserved in many variants. The study aims at searching links between different variants of texts that are hidden to experts and their presentation for further expert evaluation. Such an approach adapts and develops fuzzy sets theory means and thus lets us single out close groups within the variants preserved and genealogically link them to any reliability degree desired. The classification proposed bases not only on quantitative data (number of variant readings, texts proximity coefficients), but qualitative parameters as well (weight coefficients of variant readings) accounting for their importance for textological classification that has been ignored in formalized approaches before. Successful work of this software application is sure to provide a researcher with a powerful and handy tool to compare and analyze numerous medieval texts with the help of algorithm based mathematical methods.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2018.4.28053

Abstract: The article studies personal alphabetic indexes to transcripts of State Duma meetings in the early 20th century. Alphabetic transcripts indexes are important as they structurally demonstrate activity of each Duma member thus allowing one to qualitatively and quantitatively estimate deputies’ work. The article traces changing approaches to publish information about personal characteristics and parliamentarians’ activity and studies the source structure and content dynamics. The research methodology is based on the analysis of historical XML markup texts. To solve the research problems the author has developed a scheme of XML markup of indexes texts. Their structure included tags to describe the main source parameters such as source metadata, deputies’ personal characteristics and activities during sessions of the first through the fourth convocations of the Russian parliament. Tag analysis provided for estimating the degree of precision deputies’ activity was described as well as changing structure of data presentation and find permanent information about deputies and variable data in different session indexes. The results of this study allow one to estimate the information potential of the source in its dynamics, make up for incompleteness of data with information from transcripts and analyze the nesting of tags to classify deputies according to activity characteristics.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2024.1.70068

EDN: PFJLPC

Abstract: The study analyzes the evolution of camp press through the example of the newspaper "Perekovka," published within the Soviet penitentiary system. Based on content analysis, the author reveals how the press was used to attempt to instill ideas of re-education and "reforging" of prisoners, turning their labor into a tool for building a new state. The article emphasizes the multifaceted and deep propagandistic role of camp newspapers, considering them as a means of mass information aimed at forming new "homo soveticus". Researcher analyzes how the content of the newspaper changed over different periods, reflecting transformations of the Soviet leadership's view on the goals of the penitentiary system. The work is enriched with examples from archival materials. The research methodology includes the use of the computerized content analysis program MAXQDA 2024 for processing large volumes of text. This approach allows for both quantitative and qualitative analysis of texts, providing an extensive set of features for coding, quantitative lexical analysis, and data visualization. The scientific relevance of the work lies in the comprehensive analysis of the camp newspaper "Perekovka" as an instrument of ideological influence, re-education, and motivation in Soviet camps. The study applies computerized content analysis methods to the complete collection of this publication for the first time, enabling not only the study of the content and evolution of this publication but also a deeper understanding of the motives of the camp system's leadership and the transformation of their views over time. The results of the research contribute to historical science, expanding perceptions of the complexity and multifaceted nature of the work of penitentiary media in the USSR and introducing new sources for further work.

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. 

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2023.3.43663

EDN: XELKNL

Abstract: The subject of the research is the materials of articles of the journal "Bulletin of Finance, Industry and Trade" for 1917 – the leading printing body of the Ministry of Finance. The methodological basis of the article was a computerized content analysis, which made it possible to fully reveal the information potential of the source. Special attention is paid to the construction of a representative system of semantic categories and indicators based on the frequency dictionary, which revealed thematic priorities and semantic accents in the entire array of issues of the "Bulletin ..." in the specified year. The analysis of the frequency of occurrence of the created categories (including joint ones) in dynamics by quarters is carried out. The interrelationships of the categories make possible conclusions based on the argumentation of the authors of the journal articles.   The materials of Vestnik ... have previously attracted the attention of scientists, but only now, with the help of computerized content analysis, a hidden layer of information contained in it has been introduced into scientific circulation, which is the scientific novelty of the work. The content analysis showed that the journal "Bulletin of Finance, Industry and Trade" reflected the situation and processes in the socio-political sphere in the country and abroad that developed in the economy at the turning point of 1917, unfolding against the background of the ongoing First World War. The main core of the constructed system of semantic categories turned out to be financial issues in close connection with the industrial, trade and tax spheres, as well as problems caused by the war and growing in the economy and society.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2023.1.40459

EDN: RHGMVN

Abstract: This study examines the materials of the Soviet, Russian and American press devoted to the program of the first Soviet-American space cooperation "Soyuz–Apollo", implemented in July 1975. The display of the preparation, implementation of the project and the results of the flight is the subject of this study. The source base of the research is the periodical press, namely articles of the Soviet (Russian) newspapers Izvestia and Pravda and the American The New York Times, which are located on the EastView resource and on the website of the New York Times archive. In this study, a set of analytical methods and computer technologies was used, including the method of content analysis. The novelty of the study is related to the task of comparing the press coverage of the participating states of information about the preparation, implementation of the project and the results of the flight. The relevance of the research lies in the approbation of new research methods and approaches when working with large full-text databases, including in a foreign language. The study revealed four aspects of the reflection of the Soyuz-Apollo program in the analyzed newspapers: cooperation in space, the impact of the project on international relations, the impact of the program on the further development of the world manned cosmonautics, as well as the role of Soviet and American participants of the program in its successful implementation.

DOI: 10.7256/2306-0891.2017.1.22922

Abstract: The subject at hand is complexes of documents “The Letters by the Black Hundreds and Other People” stored in the archival fund of the Russian People Union (The Russian Federation State Archive, F. 116) as a source to study public moods in the Russian Empire in the early 20th c. The employment of the complexes mentioned in a historical study poses a number of source studies problems. These are an authentic interpretation of texts; the development of letter content analysis methods; the analysis of informational value of letters for public moods study. The use of mass data demanded the employment of formalized analytical methods allowing revealing hidden information of “The Letters by the Black Hundreds and Other People” and increasing their informational return. Summarizing the source studies research based on content analysis one can say that the complexes of documents “The Letters by the Black Hundreds and Other People” are a valuable source for studying public moods in the Russian Empire in the early 20th c. Moreover, having aggregated all the opinions of correspondents related to political and socio-economic situation in the country within semantic categories and having counted their occurrence provided for reconstructing stable mental dispositions of the authors which can be characterized as conservative and monarchial ones.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.4.24999

Abstract: The article studies the formation of the “Council of Chief Designers” cooperation that was a collective body and an unofficial coordination center determining technical and methodical course the Soviet space branch followed (Sergey Pavlovich Korolev, Vladimir Pavlovich Barmin, Valentin Petrovich Glushko, Nikolai Alekseevich Pilyugin, Mikhail Sergeevich Ryazanskiy and Viktor Ivanovich Kuznetsov as well as Boris Evseevich Chertok and Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh). The author analyzes their relations and reveals the role of communication for this process on the basis of private sources (letters, diaries and recollections) by means of content-analysis and statistical analysis. The period understudy is the years before 1966 when the Council was in its first “Korolev” composition. In spite of the fact that Soviet and Russian cosmonautics can boast a period of over 60-year development, top secrecy has resulted only in official biographies of the Council members. Works studying them as people, individuals with their own traits, fate and relations have not been written yet. 

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2022.1.37831

Abstract: Political terror was a distinctive phenomenon of the Soviet era, affecting broad segments of the population of the USSR. In addition to the official traditional sources on the history of this period (statistics, personal files of prisoners, court materials, periodicals), sources of personal origin play an important role – diaries, letters, interviews and memoirs of prisoners of camps and special settlers. Of particular interest among other sources of personal origin on the history of repression in the USSR are collections of memoirs of the repressed. The largest collection of memoirs is presented on the resource of the Sakharov Center "Memories of the Gulag and their authors". The texts of memoirs posted on this electronic resource have become the main source of this research. Based on the materials of the resource, a full-text thematic collection of memoirs was created and analyzed using the methods of content analysis, network analysis and statistical analysis. A comparative analysis of the reflection of camp life on the pages of memoirs of male and female prisoners is carried out. The analysis suggests that men and women converge in the fundamental aspects of the perception of camps: regardless of gender, the camp stage of life became the most traumatic and was remembered by former prisoners in similar tones. At the same time, neither the gender of the authors of the memoirs, nor the profession, nor the age at the time of arrest, nor the number of years that prisoners were forced to spend in camps globally affect these general perception trends. There are particular features inherent in individual subgroups, both among women and men, of the perception of camps, but in general the perception is the same, and it is the general features of the perception of camp life that are brought to the fore, overshadowing the particular elements. This can serve as a confirmation of the thesis that the collection of memoirs collected and studied in the framework of this study is a mass source.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2022.4.39538

EDN: QMJQFJ

Abstract: This article describes the experience of content analysis of letters from oil industry workers in 1956. New little–studied sources are being put into circulation - the territorial-branch newspapers "Neftyanik of Tataria" and "Neftyanik of Bashkiria". The purpose of the study is to research the system of motivation of workers of oil-producing enterprises of the Ural-Volga region through the prism of their letters to the editorial offices of territorial-branch newspapers. The object of the study are the letters of employees published in newspaper issues for 1956. The comparison of letters published in newspapers was carried out in two aspects: by type of newspaper publisher and territorial affiliation. The article describes the experience of content analysis of letters from employees of associations and enterprises of the oil industry. The text of the article describes the analysis of letter materials carried out using the MAXQDA computer program, which implements the basic content analysis method. The use of the program made it possible to obtain data on the characteristic problems of concern to oil workers, the links between the identified categories. The UCINET program was used to visualize the data. The obtained results expand the understanding of the sources used in research on labor motivation, as well as directly supplement the data on motivation and stimulation of labor in the post-war USSR. The content analysis of the revealed semantic categories of letters showed the special importance of the category "production management" for solving both industrial and social issues.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2019.1.29390

Abstract: One of the phenomena that left a noticeable mark in the national history of the Soviet period was political repressions which affected all social layers. The large complex of sources of personal origin available reflects authors’ experience and their views on the events or the most significant period of their lives as well as evaluations of the repressions period. A valuable complex of memoirs has been collected on the site of the Sakharov Center. The current study aims at women’s memoirs of the site as a mass source on history of repressions. To achieve this goal one had to solve two main tasks: to describe a collective portrait of memoir female authors and analyze the entire complex of female memoirs revealing common features in their perception of camp life. Prisoners’ memoirs have not been thoroughly studied yet. The same is true as far as female memoirs are concerned. The study uses a set of analytical methods and computer technologies to create a collective portrait of memoir authors (a prosopographic database), carry out their statistical analysis and perform content analysis of the full-text base of memoirs. On the basis of the analysis undertaken, it can be argued that memoirs of female prisoners mainly describe rather the problems of everyday struggle for existence in inhuman conditions that were commonplace in the camp than human emotions which were especially painful to think about.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2021.2.36032

Abstract: The article studies St. Petersburg Stock Exchange speculator’s economic thinking at the beginning of the 20th century. It finds out how market participants analyzed fundamental (or economic) and speculative / irrational pricing factors to make trade decisions. The author primarily addresses the way the market was perceived by its agents. He makes content analysis and network analysis to create the matrix of perception by identifying connections in categories of economic thinking. The main idea of the study is its address to the level of trade decision formation. Describing the stock exchange life in the Russian Empire in the early 20th century, the author attempts to see how trade participants understood the way the stock exchange market functioned. Based on the results of the study, two key findings are formulated. According to I.P. Manus, the fundamental factors of the economic process are a part of the concept of the perfect economy which the real economy strives for. The main distortion that prevents this utopia from coming true is the human factor: the desire for easy money that leads one to a financial crime; artificially maintained information asymmetry; the stupidity and emotionality of the "crowd" which is the "eternal" victim of a cynical speculator, etc. At the same time, it turned out that any speculative strategy presupposes (in the reflexive model of Manus) the exploitation of fundamental mechanisms (such as "liquidity" or "supply volume") through the creation of barriers to the functioning of the perfect economy.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2020.4.34212

Abstract: In this study the methods of lexicometry are used to address the problem of what the “medieval power” is in the written documents of the period. The article presents the results of two complementary experiments completed through the platform TXM (to create lexical tables) and by means of the R language (to perform the factor analysis). The first experiment is based on the linguistic model of the “semantic field of the power”. The study of the field structure of the corpora of the 18th century documents of the French aristocracy enables the author to find several types of the power: the right to possess lands and their inhabitants, the right to do something (including the right to command and to order) and the type “in the power of the institution, the person”. The aim is to classify the authorities in addition to the binominal “the spiritual power/the temporary power”. The second experiment answers the following question: what types of the power are more specific for distinct groups of the aristocracy? It has been found out that while abbots and counts mainly used written documents to control their possessions (that is mainly used the right to possess), bishops and kings were empowered with many different rights exercised in the written form. The second experiment also provides for tracing the global process of the concentration of possessions (property) in the hands of the Church. This property was transferred to religious institution from the laic aristocracy in a number of ways.