Multi-Circulation Newspapers: Typology, Status, Functions, Problems (according to archival documents and materials of Bukovyna)

For the first time in Ukrainian journalism, the phenomenon of multi-circulation newspapers as the grassroots link of the mass media system of the Communist-Bolshevik system was conceptualized, which determines the novelty of the study, which aims to define the typology of this segment of the press, to find out the time and procedure of its foundation, and to characterise the peculiarities of its functioning. This specific type of Soviet publications is an invention of a purely totalitarian system, one of the links of the control and repressive mechanism, with the help of which such a system could exist for so long. Such a press is considered in the article as an important means of organizing urban and rural workers to zombify the minds of ordinary Soviet people with the main ideologues of the system. The places of establishment of such newspapers were usually economically strong production enterprises, large collective farms, state institutions, educational institutions, military units, inter-collective machine and tractor stations. Together with the district, regional, republican and all-union tents, they formed a single mass media system. The typology of this segment of the press is analyzed. It is characterized by the following varieties: factory newspapers, collective farm newspapers, newspapers of political departments of machine-tractor stations (MTS), educational institutions. In the organizational aspect, the founders, financial foun­dations of publications, periodicity, volumes and budgets are characterized. The conclusions emphasize that in practice, control over the thematic direction of mass-circulation newspapers, as well as the selection of management personnel for them, belonged to the sphere of competence of the propaganda and agitation department of the regional party committee. However, taking into account the fact that this segment of the press was unprofitable and financed mostly by the founders themselves – enterprises, collective farms or educational institutions, the party’s control over compliance with periodicity, volume, design was weaker compared to the requirements for district newspapers. Instead, the propaganda departments of the district and regional party committees more closely controlled the content and ideological orientation of the publications. Keywords: mass-circulation newspapers, grassroots press, local journalists, collective farms, enterprises, machine-tractor stations, educational tasks, ideological work, labor groups.