Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
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Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas
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de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co “Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che” (IEPDP) de la Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas de la Uni ver si dad del Zu lia.
En tre sus ob je ti vos fi gu ran: con tri buir con el pro gre so cien tí fi co de las Cien cias
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ción, dis cu sión y con fron ta ción de las ideas y avan ces cien tí fi cos con com pro mi so so cial.
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas apa re ce dos ve ces al año y pu bli ca tra ba jos ori gi na les con
avan ces o re sul ta dos de in ves ti ga ción en las áreas de Cien cia Po lí ti ca y De re cho Pú bli-
co, los cua les son so me ti dos a la con si de ra ción de ár bi tros ca li fi ca dos.
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Asis ten tes Ad mi nis tra ti vos
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Vol. 39, Nº 69 (Julio - Diciembre) 2021, 335-343
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
The Inevitability of the USSR Collapse
and the Emergence of New Russia in the
Mass Media
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3969.20
Lusine Ovakimovna Muradian *
Abbas Mohammadovich Dzhuma **
Ntentie Mari Nzhipuakuyu ***
Khussein Madzhid Kasem Salekh ****
Abstract
From a documentary perspective the article addresses issues
such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, separatism in the USSR
and the existence of similar destructive processes in modern
Russia. Special attention is paid to the role of the media in the
collapse of the USSR. The goal was to nd out whether the collapse
of the Soviet Union and the rise of New Russia were inevitable.
Consequently, the additional objectives of the article are to identify the main
reasons for the collapse of the USSR, to draw an analogy with the situation
in modern Russia, to analyze propaganda techniques by examining the
Moscow News newspaper, and to study and generalize the main problems
of inter-ethnic dialogue in the Soviet and post-Soviet space. The relevance
of the topic is justied by the lack of a unied view in the community of
experts on the causes and consequences of the collapse of the USSR, as well
as by the lack of a unied assessment of the period of Perestroika and the
inevitability of the transition from socialism to capitalism in Russia. It is
concluded that in the geopolitical phenomenon of the collapse of the USSR
occupies a special role the national and international media dimension.
Keywords: Russia; USA; mass media; autonomy; federalism.
* People’s Friendship Russian University of Russia (RUDN University), Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1367-2223. Email: lurdes_lesli@mail.ru
** People’s Friendship Russian University of Russia (RUDN University), Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9891-9434. Email: abbasrudn@mail.ru
*** People’s Friendship Russian University of Russia (RUDN University), Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0789-3780. Email: njimarie2002@mail.ru
**** Academy of Labour and Social Relations, Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
2978-7519. Email: majedqasem@mail.ru
336
Lusine Ovakimovna Muradian, Abbas Mohammadovich Dzhuma, Ntentie Mari Nzhipuakuyu y
Khussein Madzhid Kasem Salekh
The Inevitability of the USSR Collapse and the Emergence of New Russia in the Mass Media
La inevitabilidad del colapso de la URSS y el
surgimiento de una nueva Rusia en los medios de
comunicación
Resumen
Desde una perspectiva documental el artículo aborda temas como el
colapso de la Unión Soviética, el separatismo en la URSS y la existencia
de procesos destructivos similares en la Rusia moderna. Se presta especial
atención al papel de los medios de comunicación en el colapso de la URSS.
El objetivo fue averiguar si el colapso de la Unión Soviética y el surgimiento
de la Nueva Rusia fueron inevitables. En consecuencia, los objetivos
adicionales del artículo son identicar las principales razones del colapso
de la URSS, establecer una analogía con la situación en la Rusia moderna,
analizar las técnicas de propaganda examinando el periódico Moscow News
y estudiar y generalizar los principales problemas del diálogo interétnico en
el espacio soviético y postsoviético. La relevancia del tema se justica por la
falta de un punto de vista unicado en la comunidad de expertos sobre las
causas y consecuencias del colapso de la URSS, así como por la falta de una
evaluación unicada del período de la Perestroika y la inevitabilidad de la
transición desde del socialismo al capitalismo en Rusia. Se concluye que en
el fenómeno geopolítico del colapso de la URRS ocupa un papel especial la
dimensión mediática nacional e internacional.
Palabras clave: Rusia; EE. UU; medios de comunicación en masa;
autonomía; federalismo.
Introduction
After 70 years of the fraternity of the Soviet peoples, as a result of the
desire of some ethnic, sub-ethnic and regional groups for sovereignty
or autonomy, the Russian Federation appeared in the 1990s. After the
collapse of the USSR, separatist sentiments emerged in Russia. The most
striking and aggressive separatist movement was in the Republic of Ichkeria
(Chechnya) with the subsequent heavy ghting against federal troops.
Separatism began to gradually emerge in Dagestan, Ingushetia, Tuva,
Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Yakutia, Buryatia and even in some regions
inhabited mainly by Russians. Since the 2000s, separatism in Russia has
been gradually declining, although its potential remains great. The collapse
of the Russian Federation according to the scenario of the collapse of the
USSR was a threat for a long time, and only the right policy of Moscow in the
2000s made it possible to stabilize the situation. Nevertheless, the threat of
separatism in Russia remains relevant. Formally, the relevance of the threat
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of separatism is conrmed by the existence of Article 280.1 of the Criminal
Code of the Russian Federation, which provides deprivation of liberty for
up to three years for public appeals to take actions aimed at violating the
territorial integrity of the Russian Federation. For similar actions using the
mass media and the Internet, the term of imprisonment is increased to 5
years. In the summer of 2014, these standards were tightened.
Despite this, today, the issue of the state structure of Russia remains one
of the most controversial among scholars and politicians. Some of them insist
on the status quo, while others are convinced that a federation, especially
an “ethnic” one, is destructive for Russia. There are ongoing disputes in the
expert community about the inevitability, as well as the consequences of
the collapse of the USSR. To gure out who is right and to nd the truth, it
is necessary to analyse the key reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union
and to deepen the understanding of political and ideological contradictions
in Russia, which remain relevant today.
1. Materials and methods
Defending the ideas of the unitarization of the country, one can appeal
to the ideas of representatives of the Russian school such as F.F. Kokoshkin,
I.A. Ilyin and others. At the very beginning of the formation of the Russian
Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the 1920s, after it, during the
adoption of the Constitution of the USSR in 1936 and the Constitution of
the Russian Federation in 1993 and even today, the issue of the need to
transform the Russian Federation into the Russian Republic is insistently
raised. According to the authors of the initiative, it would equalize the
rights of the Russians with the peoples who have their national statehood in
the Russian Federation. There are still many supporters of “gubernization”
(division into provinces) and, on the contrary, the federalization of Russia
(Konyukhova, 2006).
There is a certain concept, hence, a part of civil society, behind each of
the positions. These concepts can either unite or divide society; therefore, a
constant search for agreement and an exit to the legislatively enshrined state
doctrine of national and federal politics are necessary. The 1996 concept
of the state nationality policy of the Russian Federation is outdated; it no
longer provides answers to the challenges of modern time (Konyukhova,
2006). Therefore, it is extremely important at a new stage in the country’s
development to identify and scientically substantiate the priorities in
nation-building, ethnocultural policy and interethnic relations, which
would, at the same time, preserve and transfer the accumulated experience
(Konyukhova, 2006). There was such an experience in Imperial Russia and
the Soviet Union. Yet, the connection between the times was interrupted for
338
Lusine Ovakimovna Muradian, Abbas Mohammadovich Dzhuma, Ntentie Mari Nzhipuakuyu y
Khussein Madzhid Kasem Salekh
The Inevitability of the USSR Collapse and the Emergence of New Russia in the Mass Media
ideological reasons: rst through the fault of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union and the Soviet regime, then through the fault of democratic
Russia, not without external inuence.
In this regard, the key factor is an objective interpretation of conceptual
approaches to solving the examined problem in a historical retrospective
(Stalin, 1949).
In Russian history, state integrity was destroyed twice, and the scenarios
were similar. First, in 1917-1918, when the world revolution was broken out
for the sake of victory over capitalism. Then, in the 1990s, when the national
separatism was used under the slogan of self-determination of nations for
the sake of an open society and victory over communism. The lessons of the
past can help in strengthening the unity of the Russian peoples, as well as
in choosing perfect forms and methods of the state structure of the country
(Stalin, 1949).
2. Results
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the following threat of the collapse
of the Russian Federation are mainly caused by subjective circumstances.
Conceptually, the disintegration mechanism was programmed by the
VII (April) All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic
Workers’ Party of 1917, which, following V.I. Lenin’s suggestion, adopted
resolution on the demand for the right to free secession and the formation
of an independent state for all nations that are part of the USSR, which
contradicted the guidelines of the Second International on national self-
determination and world practice (Konyukhova, 2006). This mechanism of
disintegration was no longer theoretical; it was put into action on December
30, 1922, with the adoption of the Declaration and Treaty on the Creation
of the USSR, when each republic was assigned the right of free secession
from the USSR. This right was exercised by the union republics in 1991
(Abdulatipov and Mikhailova, 2010).
However, it is not entirely correct to argue that the collapse of the
USSR occurred only because there was a legal possibility for collapse.
Today, it is possible to consider in more detail the reasons for it. After such
consideration, it becomes obvious that several factors played an important
role in this process (Baglai, 2009).
Even during the existence of the USSR, the press reected fears about the
possible collapse. Historians identify the degradation of the management
system, the economic crisis, the crisis of communist ideology and the rapid
growth of democratic sentiments in Soviet society as the main prerequisites
(Popov, 1990). Among the main reasons for the collapse of the Soviet
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system, experts consider the intraparty tensions, which were based on the
personal ambitions of M.S. Gorbachev, the former General Secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Chernyaev, 2011).
Since the late 1990s, theories of the collapse of the Soviet Union
have begun to appear. In addition to internal reasons, external ones also
began to be recognized. Namely, the United States and Western media’s
interference in these processes. Thus, Igor Panarin, political scientist, is
condent that the victory of the USSR in the Second World War marked the
beginning of the collapse of the Western colonial system and contributed to
the integration of new subjects of geopolitics. The Soviet Union became a
superpower, and the world order became bipolar, which resulted in the Cold
War between the USA and the USSR (from 1946 until the collapse of the
USSR in 1991) (Boltenkova, 2012). These factors caused an unprecedented
anti-Soviet information campaign in the West. The project of globalization
required justication and after the defeat of Hitler’s Germany, the USSR
became the main threat to the “open society” (Mikhailova, 2010).
Allen Welsh Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence, advocated the
struggle against the Soviet regime. He formulated the key strategic goals
of conducting information and ideological war against the Soviet Union,
which are relevant up today.
It suggests that the version that includes all aspects is the closest to reality,
since the problem of the collapse of the USSR appears to be a multifaceted
and global process. Consequently, we can conclude that there were internal
party tensions, as well as the impact of third forces: the information
and psychological war waged by the United States (Mikhailova, 2002).
According to V.A. Lisichkin, the Soviet and Russian economist, the main
goal of the information confrontation was a large-scale impact on public
opinion both in the Soviet Union and abroad. The key role belonged to the
mass media. V.A. Lisichkin writes about three stages of the information
and psychological war against the USSR: the introduction of citizens closely
connected with the CIA to high positions under Gorbachev, the control of
the key mass media and the destabilization of the economy (Mikhailova,
2002).
As for the methods of waging information war through the mass media,
V.A. Lisichkin identies the following techniques. Firstly, limiting the
alternative point of view in the press. Secondly, the glut of the information
space with topics that were atypical of the Soviet mass media: those
related to the cult of money and consumption, the Western model of the
development of society (including the family), as well as with unusual for
Soviet people entertainment. Thirdly, the pursuit of a policy of historical
revisionism in the mass media. Fourthly, total disinformation related to
events taking place in both the USSR and abroad (Mikhailova, 2002).
340
Lusine Ovakimovna Muradian, Abbas Mohammadovich Dzhuma, Ntentie Mari Nzhipuakuyu y
Khussein Madzhid Kasem Salekh
The Inevitability of the USSR Collapse and the Emergence of New Russia in the Mass Media
Thus, Mikhail Gorbachev in his report in 1988 announced the need
to restore historical justice concerning those who died as a result of mass
repressions. It was the year when the print media published the largest
number of materials on the topic of repression. The Soviet press was ooded
with publications about the fault of the repressed Bolsheviks, as well as the
memories of those who passed through the Main Directorate of Camps
(GULAG) and their children. Articles about the tragic fate of the children of
“enemies of the people” became extremely popular (Panarin, 2010).
The Perestroika period was unique, since, on the one hand, there was a
request to discredit the Soviet communist system and, on the other hand,
there was an opportunity to involve directly the victims of repression in
this process, which at that time included many media workers. Thus, the
role of the Moscow News newspaper (“MN”) was especially remarkable in
covering the topic of repression. It was believed that “MN” was the most
popular newspaper and the most accurate in reecting public sentiment.
This statement is just as true as thу one that “MN” formed these sentiments,
and it happened often with the help of crude propaganda techniques. Thus,
in the 9 June 1991 issue of “MN”, an article was published with the headline
“President Yeltsin: For or Against? For! Why?”. We are talking about an
interview with Alexander Gelman, the People’s Deputy of the USSR, where
he urged Russians to vote for Yeltsin, calling him a man who sought the
development of democracy and market relations, as well as the formation
of a state of law (Lisichkin and Shelepin, 1999).
All these years, Yeltsin did not avoid but sought responsibility. Just
think, what it means for the democrats, for their leader, to take full
responsibility for the development of Russia, its cities and regions today,
after the destructive decades of the domination of the totalitarian regime?
Would not it be more protable to remain the “invincible opposition” for a
few more years? The economic recovery will not be rapid and triumphant.
Adjusting interethnic relations will also require a lot of time and eort.
What about the privatization processes, the ght against monopoly, the
organization of the free market? How about attracting Western capital to
help us? All these are problems that are dicult to solve, they can not only
break one’s career but also break one’s head. Yet, we all, voters, will forget
in six months that all these problems were not caused by the democrats, not
by Yeltsin, and in six months we will be holding him accountable with all
our impatience. Yeltsin is, of course, aware of all this. If he is nevertheless
ready to take responsibility, then he does it not only because he is power-
hungry. He believes in the power of his responsibility (Panarin, 2010: 153).
This is just one among hundreds and thousands of examples of systematic
destructive work by the media during the period of the undermining of the
Soviet system before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Similar mechanisms
of destruction, although in a “narrowed” legal eld, remain in the Russian
Federation today (Panarin, 2010).
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3. Discussion
Based on the analysed facts, it can be argued that throughout the history
of Russia, regardless of its state and political regimes, such factors as the
ethnic composition, features of life and religious beliefs of the population
of a particular region of the country have always been taken into account.
In other words, the interconnection of ethnic and territorial factors has
always been a constant attribute of state policy both in Imperial Russia
and in the Soviet Union. It remains the same in modern Russia (Baglai,
2009). The conceptual dierence of this relationship is determined only
by the dierences in the state structure. The new conclusion is that the
conceptual thesis of the “right of peoples to self-determinate up to division
and formation of an independent state” was not dictated by the situation
in Russia, but was given to the general public to radicalize the situation
(Abdulatipov and Mikhailova, 2010: 98). Mass media, both foreign and
Soviet, played a signicant role in this.
Conclusion
The Russian Federation has a complex ethnic composition. The share of
Russians in the population is less than 50% in 13 out of 85 federal subjects of
the Russian Federation. The regions with the highest share of titular ethnic
groups include the North Caucasian republics and Tuva. The separatist
movement in the Russian North Caucasus has a long and rich history,
including the existing states and those that tried to become independent,
of both individual peoples and ethnic groups, and several peoples in certain
periods: pre-Russian, tsarist, the period of civil war and the collapse of the
USSR (Lisichkin and Shelepin, 1999).
In 1990, the Supreme Council of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist
Republic adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Republic of
Tatarstan. The declaration, unlike some of the union republics and almost
all other autonomous Russian (except for Checheno-Ingushetia) republics,
did not indicate the location of the republic either in the RSFSR or in the
USSR. It was declared that Tatarstan, as a sovereign state and a subject
of international law, concludes treaties and alliances with Russia and
other states. During the collapse of the USSR and later, Tatarstan adopted
declarations and resolutions on the act of independence and entry into the
CIS with the same wording. A referendum was held, and a constitution was
adopted (Yeltsincenter, 1991).
In 2020, Tatarstan celebrates 30 years since the adoption of the
declaration of state sovereignty. According to Rustam Minnikhanov, the
president of the republic, the document dened “the modern development
of Tatarstan” and helped to build trusting relations with Moscow.
342
Lusine Ovakimovna Muradian, Abbas Mohammadovich Dzhuma, Ntentie Mari Nzhipuakuyu y
Khussein Madzhid Kasem Salekh
The Inevitability of the USSR Collapse and the Emergence of New Russia in the Mass Media
The fact that there is a threat of political disintegration in modern
Russia is indirectly evidenced by the fact that the events of 1989-1991
are to some extent similar to the events of 1917. The tsarist empire, like
the USSR, collapsed due to the loss of public condence. That is why the
external intervention in these processes became possible. According to
Pavel Milyukov, a Russian historian, revolutions become inevitable when
the government evoke mockery and contempt instead of fear.
Thus, given these and other problems, we can conclude that the collapse
of the USSR was an inevitable historical process provoked by several factors,
the most important of which can be considered the decline of ideology
and, as a consequence, Westernization, imposed mainly through the mass
media. All this became possible and was aggravated by the strongest social,
economic and political crisis, as a result of which the Communist Party lost
its power monopoly.
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www.produccioncienticaluz.org
Esta revista fue editada en formato digital y publicada
en julio de 2021, por el Fondo Editorial Serbiluz,
Universidad del Zulia. Maracaibo-Venezuela
Vol.39 Nº 69
