In expectation of intervention: The image of the Entente countries and the United States in the non-Bolshevik periodical press of the East of Russia in November 1917 - August 1918
Authors:   Tomsk State University, Konev Kirill A. 
Published: February 2023

Under the conditions of society's movement towards a civil war at the end of 1917 - the first half of 1918, the images of “Others” (allies or opponents) acted as meaningful elements of the constructed identities of its potential participants and influenced the ideas they put forward. An analysis of the formation of the image of the UK, France, Japan and the USA in the non-Soviet periodical press of the East of Russia in the period from the end of 1917 to the summer of 1918 reveals the peculiarities of the foreign policy context's influence on public sentiment and the content of propaganda discourses of political opponents of the Bolsheviks. The aim of this work is to determine the content of the image of the Allies, constructed in the periodical press of the East of Russia, and to identify its influence on the ideological aspect of the formation of the anti-Bolshevik movement at this stage. The main source for the study were non-Soviet newspapers and magazines - party, cooperative and private publications published in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East in the period from November 1917 until August 1918. The author comes to the conclusion that the image of the Entente countries and the United States, which was formed in the non-Bolshevik periodical press of the East of Russia at that time, was distinguished by the duality of content. The change in value judgments, which were elements of this image, depended on a number of factors - the incoming information about the policies of the allied countries and the course of the World War, the perception of the external and internal political actions of the Bolsheviks, the peculiarities of the functioning of the information field itself. According to socialists (Social Democrats and SocialistRevolutionaries), the “imperialistic” Entente and the United States were no longer allies and helpers of Russia, which was sometimes expressed in the using of the term “former allies”. The analysis of the vicissitudes of international relations from the point of view of the class approach seriously forced the Siberian “revolutionary democracy” to fear an invasion from the East, which undoubtedly promoted to the formation of an opinion about the allies as a threat in the relevant publications. Liberals, in particular, the publications of constructive democrats, did not agree with their opponents from the left and viewed allies more as a potential helper, although they expressed concerns about the consequences of a possible intervention. At the same time, the key value-based attitude of the anti-Bolshevik forces was also being formed - the necessity of rallying society and creating a firm government capable of starting the revival of the country. Both socialists and liberals persistently sought to root in the minds of readers the idea that the unity of the whole society around the Constituent Assembly would create a new government - more effective than the Soviet one, thereby ensuring peace and avoiding the intervention of the Entente and the United States.