Radio Broadcasting as a Tool of the Sovietization Process in the Western Ukraine: Formation and Functioning Peculiarities in 1945-1947

Abstract

The Purpose of the article is to reveal, on the example of the Ternopil region, the peculiarities of the radio broadcasting process and its dynamics in the western regions of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic (USSR) as well as to show the establishment of radio broadcasting in the first postwar years like one of the Bolshevik propaganda tools in the Sovietization. The methodological basis of the study includes the principles of historicism, scientific compliance, combination of system and regional approaches, authorial objectivity, as well as the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special historical (historical-genetic, historical-typological, historical-systemic) methods. The scientific novelty of the study is based on the original problem formulation, as the researched topic has not been considered in Ukrainian historiography before. In addition, a significant amount of the archival documents that have not been involved in scientific circulation is used in the research. Conclusions. Radio broadcasting was an important tool for the Stalin’s regime to implement the Sovietization policy on the Western Ukrainian territories. Its formation began immediately after the liberation of the region from the German occupiers and during 1945-1947 there was a positive dynamics of its development. The editorial radio broadcast staffs were deprived of their right of independent creative search and were guided exclusively by the Bolshevik Party’s instructions in their work. The radio programs content corresponded to the main directions of the Sovietization policy implementation. Through the radio broadcasting, Stalin’s propagandists were able to significantly expand their audience, directly or indirectly impose the Bolshevik system of values on the people, to implement the priorities of a new lifestyle in which there was no place for the church, private property and freedom of choice in its broadest meaning. Gradually, radio became an attribute of the people’s everyday life in the western regions as it was one of the most accessible media.