УДК 93/94

EDN KIYZLC

 

Reflection of Criminality of the Post-War Period in the Regional Periodical Press (Case Study of the Kuibyshev and Ulyanovsk Regions)

Pashkin A. G.

 

Abstract

Introduction. The deterioration of the criminal situation in the first post-war years significantly complicated the economic recovery of the country. This research of the public opinion formation issue, based on resources of the periodical press, allows us to identify the main directions of the implementation of state policy in the field of criminal crime prevention. Comparing the reflection of illegal acts on the pages of newspapers with the real composition and dynamics of the criminogenic situation, in turn, allows us to conclude about the status of the periodical press as a tool for crime prevention.

Materials and methods. The Kuibyshev regional newspaper “Volzhskaya Communa” and the Ulyanovsk regional newspaper “Ulyanovsk Pravda” were involved in this research as the main historical source. The research was carried out by a step-by-step review, with the allocation of all publications in which either the fact of the initiation of a criminal case or the fact of a court verdict was mentioned, that is, the described act was recognized as criminally punishable in the legal field. General scientific methods of formal logic, comparative method, as well as methods of statistical analysis were used in this research.

The results of the study and their discussion. The greatest density of crime occurred in the period 1946 — 1949, and the vast majority of articles and notes were devoted to official mercenary crimes and theft of agricultural products. This did not correspond to the characteristics of the dynamics of the real criminogenic situation in 1948 — 1951. The minimum number of crimes was noted, as well as the composition of criminal crime, where more than 60 % of criminally punishable acts accounted for embezzlement, but at the same time, it is fully reflected in the orientation of the state to suppress illegal actions related to state and public property.

Conclusion. The results obtained in the course of the research allowed us to conclude that newspapers covered the main directions of the party-state policy in the field of combating criminal crime, without taking into account the real state of the criminogenic situation, and therefore were a tool for crime prevention in the studied regions.

Keywords: Middle Volga region, criminal crime, press, theft

For citation: Pashkin AG. Reflection of Criminality of the Post-War Period in the Regional Periodical Press (Case Study of the Kuibyshev and Ulyanovsk Regions). Bulletin of the Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia. 2023;15(3):107—121. EDN KIYZLC

 

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The article was submitted 02.02.2023; approved after reviewing 27.04.2023; accepted for publication 05.05.2023.

 

Information about the author:

Andrey G. Pashkin, Director of the State Archive of Contemporary History of the Ulyanovsk Region (16 A. Matrosova Str., Ulyanovsk 432063, Russia); Doctoral Student of Department of History of Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University (4 Lenin Square, Ulyanovsk 432063, Russia), Candidate of Historical Sciences, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2602-1806, pashkin.ag@mail.ru

 

Conflict of interests: the author declare no conflict of interests.

 

The author read and approved the final version of the manuscript.