The Alternative Press of Siberia in the context of the socio-political life of Russia at the beginning of the XXI century.

Savenko Elena Nal'evna ORCID: 0000-0001-9352-8522 PhD in History Leading Researcher; Book Science Laboratory; State Public Scientific and Technical Library SB RAS 15 Voskhod St., Novosibirsk, 630102, Russia, Novosibirsk region helensavv@yandex.ru

Introduction.

Russian researchers turned to a thorough understanding of the problems of alternatives in various fields of activity in the early 1990s against the background of fundamental social transformations in Russia. The characterization of "alternative" began to be applied to elements of traditional book culture. The concept of "alternative printing" appeared ^[13,15]. They began to designate the seal of "public dissent": non-governmental periodicals, the essence of which is the opposition of the official press and the dissemination of political views that do not coincide with the dominant ideas. To characterize a free, state-controlled socio-political press, the possibility of using the term "independent press" was also allowed. It seems incorrect to use these definitions to characterize only one type of publication: political periodicals. The range of alternative publications is much wider and affects not only the political sphere. As some researchers rightly point out, in the process of social transformation, there is a revision of not only established political doctrines, but also cultural values.^[7] In the course of transformations, various new trends are being formed that are opposed to the dominant norms of culture.

A broader interpretation of the essential characteristics of alternative media, including periodicals, is contained in the works of foreign scientists ^{[17,18,19,20]}. Summarizing and interpreting their points of view, it can be stated that alternative periodicals are non–governmental, independent, non-profit publications, the creators of which are non-professional authors. The main function of such media is to confront the political beliefs and cultural values that dominate the official mass media.

The study of alternative printing is relevant. It complements the overall picture of the transformations taking place in society, helps to better understand the socio-political processes.

The development of alternative periodicals in Siberia in the 21st century

The fundamental reforms of the late 20th century, during which ideological prohibitions were lifted, censorship was abolished, and the registration (rather than permissive) principle of media organization was introduced, led to the expansion of alternative publishing activities. This was most clearly reflected in the quantitative growth of the alternative political press. Having lost the Soviet ideology, Russians actively sought new ideological orientations ^{[9, 10]}. The study identified about 100 alternative political periodicals published in Siberia in the 1990s.

This trend continued in the early 21st century. In the first decade of the new millennium, opposition socio-political periodicals continued to be a significant part of the independent press. Even two decades after the collapse of the USSR, the political culture of post-Soviet Russia was a synthesis of diverse ideological values and attitudes. Researchers reasonably believe that the crisis of national and state identity that occurred after the collapse of the USSR was long-term ^[3,4,6]. The new government "could not offer a coherent model of political identity that would become common to a significant part of Russian citizens" ^{[13, p. 6]}.

The study identified 85 independent newspapers and magazines published in Siberia in the first decade of the 2000s. The most active propaganda activities were carried out by supporters of communist ideas. According to calculations, in the first decade of the 21st century, they published 27 newspapers and magazines, i.e. more than 31% of the entire Siberian alternative socio-political press of the specified period. Among them are the "Combat Leaflet" of the Chita city branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the information and theoretical bulletin "For Stalin" (the Stalinist block of Krasnoyarsk), the newspapers Komsomolets of Transbaikalia (the Trans-Baikal regional branch of the Union of Communist Youth, Chita), "Our Motherland – USSR" and "Red Revenge" (the Novosibirsk branch of the Avant-Garde of Red Youth), bulletin of the Irkutsk Komsomol "SKM38" and others.

Other adherents of leftist ideologies were also involved in publishing. According to V. Skraschuk, who studied the samizdat of Siberian anarchists, in the first decade of the XXI century. There were 10 anarchist periodicals published in the Siberian region ^[11]. The center of the anarchist movement in the Siberian region was Irkutsk, where the combat leaflet of Irkutsk Anarchists Activist (2005), the newspapers Volnaya Sibir (organ of the Autonomous Action movement branch, 2005-2012) and Direct Speech (publication of the Irkutsk Federation of Anarchists, 2001) were published. In addition, with the participation of Irkutsk anarchists, the local history, countercultural, literary and musical magazine Sibirskiy Trakt was published, which outlined the political declarations of the anarchist movement. Anarchist press was also published in other cities of the Irkutsk region. In Shelekhov in 2005 The newspaper Shelekhovsky Rabochy was published, which was the publication of the Siberian Confederation of Labor, an initiative group of the interregional association of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions. In 2006-2008, the monthly newspaper of the Opposition to state power, Che Burashka, was published in Bratsk.

Periodicals of left-wing social democratic parties, which positioned themselves as opposition forces, were also represented in the region. However, in terms of publishing activity, representatives of these political associations were significantly inferior to their political competitors. A large number of their printed products were published in Siberia during the pre-election campaigns.^[2] Among the publications published regularly in Siberia, one can mention the newspaper Slovo I Delo, which was published by the Tomsk branch of the Yabloko party, as well as the newspaper Just Russia. Altai" and "Communal Watch" of the Barnaul branch of the Fair Russia party.

A significant place in the general flow of socio-political alternative periodicals in the region was occupied by the press of the right forces. Russian Russian Society was actively promoted by various national patriotic associations: branches of the Russian National Union and the political party "People's Union" that later arose on its basis, regional public organizations "Russian Society", local organizations of the public movement "National-sovereign Way of Russia", the national-patriotic movement "Loyalty", the public organization "Union of Russian The People" and others. For the first decade of the 21st century. In Siberia, 22 periodicals of national patriotic orientation were published: Vityaz (Barnaul, 2002), Our Frontier (Omsk, 2004-2005), Nation (Tomsk, 2005), Narodnaya Volya (Omsk, 2005-2006), Narodny Soyuz (Omsk, 2007) Russian Russian Transbaikalia (Chita, 2005-2008), Russian Siberia (Novosibirsk, 2001), Russian Way (Tomsk, 2005-2008), etc.

Publications of other right-wing public associations were occasionally published in the region. For example, the Tomsk Orthodox monarchical socio-political organization "Autocracy" published in 2000. the newspaper Russian Word, and the Irkutsk socio-political organization Siberian Monarch published a newspaper of the same name in 2003.

Members of the National Bolshevik Party (NBP) were also involved in publishing activities in the region, whose programmatic provisions bizarrely combined both ultra-left and ultra-right ideas. In the first half of the 2000s, almost every major NBP cell in Russia had its own newspaper. The Siberian branches of the NBP also produced periodicals. For example, the newspaper Action was published in Irkutsk in 2003-2004. In 2005, the NBP was liquidated by a court decision, and in 2007. It is legally prohibited as an extremist organization. However, even after the official liquidation of the party, supporters of National Bolshevism continued their publishing activities. After the creation of a new unregistered opposition party, The Other Russia, part of the alternative press of the National Bolshevik trend began to be produced by the regional branches of this organization. In Irkutsk, the newspaper "Tinplate" began to be published in 2009 and the newspaper "Action" continued to be published until 2011, while in Novosibirsk the national bolsheviks published the newspaper "The Day Before".

By the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, the scale of publishing alternative political periodicals in Siberia had decreased. She disappeared into the general flow of the independent press. This was due to a number of reasons. As noted earlier, in the early 2000s, a large number of opposition press was caused by crisis phenomena in the political and socio-spiritual spheres. However, according to sociological research, by the end of the first decade of the 21st century, social tension in Russian society had decreased. In December 2000, 75% of respondents had a negative opinion of the situation in Russia, while at the end of 2006, the proportion of those dissatisfied with the situation in the country was already 45%. ^[17]. The change in the general political situation in Russia has affected the production of alternative press: the number of "aggressively minded marginal newspapers and publishing houses with irreconcilable positions has sharply decreased" (8, p. 104).

The reduction in the number of alternative press was due to measures to strengthen the "vertical of power" and strengthen counteraction to the destructive activities of a number of political parties and public associations. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, a number of right-wing radical organizations were ousted from the political scene. According to the list of extremist organizations of the Russian Ministry of Justice, in February 2010, the National Socialist Movement was recognized as extremist and banned by a court decision. In June 2010, a similar court decision was issued against the nationalist organization Slavic Union, and in September 2011, the Russian National Union was banned [https://ru.ruwiki.ru/wiki )].

The scale of alternative publishing activities has also been affected by increased monitoring of compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on freedom of the press and mass media. Publishers of the independent opposition press often did not comply with the requirements of regulatory legal acts and either teetered on the edge of the law or crossed this line. The violations resulted in the termination of periodicals. In March 2004, the newspaper Russian Siberia (Novosibirsk), which was published by the regional branch of the National Party of Russia, was discontinued for inciting religious hatred. In February 2008, the newspaper Russian Transbaikalia (Chita) was closed for publishing extremist materials.

Internal party disagreements between socio-political associations also affected the publication performance, as a result of which they suspended the publication of printed publications.

The massive spread of the Internet, which simplified the publishing process, has played a significant role in reducing the number of alternative political print media. Some alternative publications have stopped being published in print and have moved online. An example of such a transformation is the Krasnoyarsk bulletin For Stalin (https://vk.com/wall-98704306_47591 ). In some cases, Internet sites have taken the place of the printed alternative press. The political blogosphere has become an important form of political communication ^{[1, 14, 16]}. The Irkutsk Federation of Anarchists, the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of the Tomsk Region, and the Siberian Confederation of Labor had their own websites, which were later closed for radicalism. However, representatives of Siberian anarchists are still present on the Internet, as confirmed by the website of the Omsk Union of Autonomous Youth SAM-SKT (https://omsksam.wordpress.com ).

Pro-communist associations are actively using Internet technologies. An example is the website of the Union of Non–Partisan Communists BesPartCom (https://vadim1980.livejournal.com/128341.html ); blog of the anti-capitalist left forces of Siberia "Left Siberia" ((https://leftsib.blogspot.com / ). The Siberian Bolshevik Party has its own web platforms on the Vkontakte social network (https://vk.com/siberiafree ), groups of the regional organization of the RCRP and the MOUTH FRONT of Novosibirsk ( https://vk.com/club213059610 ) and Tyumen https://vk.com/rkrp72 ).

Conclusion

Summing up, it can be stated that at the beginning of the new millennium, in addition to the official press, a significant number of alternative periodicals were present in the information field of the Siberian region. The ideological orientation of independent periodicals in Siberia was very diverse and reflected the full range of political sentiments of Russian society. The dynamics of the Siberian alternative periodical press in the period under study was determined by the peculiarities of the economic and socio-political processes taking place in the region and Russia. In addition, the output of alternative periodicals was influenced by the active development of new information technologies. Internet resources began to replace and displace printed publications.