The satirical and humorous magazine "Red Pepper" as a source of reflection of everyday life in Soviet Ukraine: analytical review for 1932

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to reveal the peculiarities of the reflection of life in the USSR during the active phase of the establishment of Stalinist totalitarianism and the implementation of the Holodomor-genocide policy of the Ukrainian people in the satirical and humorous periodical «Red Pepper», to emphasize the source value of the periodical as an important factor in the formation of public attitudes, the principles of reflecting reality and criticism from the authorities of negative phenomena for it. Research methodology. The benchmark of the methodological approach is a complex interdisciplinary analysis of a complex socio-cultural phenomenon - the press coverage of everyday life in Soviet Ukraine and the positioning of international events through the prism of the politics of the Stalinist totalitarian regime. General historical methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison and generalization are used, the method of content analysis and criticism of periodicals as a historical source is used. The scientific innovation consists in tracking and summarizing the materials of the magazine «Red Pepper», where the most pressing issues of the state-political, socio-economic, everyday life of Soviet Ukraine and the most important events abroad are highlighted. This is an attempt to find out through the printed media the features of the formation of the appropriate attitude of the population to current problems by the authorities, to analyze the technologies of influence of the totalitarian regime on the public. Conclusions. Analyzing the magazine "Red Pepper" for 1932, we note the following positions: the publication was under total party (VKP(b)/КP(b)U) control and obediently relayed the main postulates of the forced building a «happy» socialist future. At that time, the most effective artistic personnel in the USSR were selected and verbal and visual channels of information were successfully combined, which became a kind of continuation of the best traditions of agitation and propaganda during the period of the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat in 1917-1922. Considering the low level of education of the majority of the population in the conditions of poverty, such measures became an effective tool for forming the necessary social attitudes and a new Soviet identity in the rigid oppositional paradigm of «own-alien». The publication «Red Pepper» performed the role of a public platform as, on the one hand, celebrating the successes of the frantic pace of building a socialist system and general criticism of the capitalist world, and on the other hand, it presented a picture of ruin, unprofessionalism in all spheres of management and economic activity, the flourishing of crime and fraud, acute social problems. For the purpose of stereotyping and preparation for a permanent merciless struggle, emphasis was placed on the construction of the image of both internal enemies (turtle, priest, opportunist) and external ones (capitalists with fascist aids, social democrats). Official humor in the conditions of totalitarianism loses its primary signs of being funny and becomes a tool of intimidation and harassment against any dissenting opinion.