FROM FREE THOUGHT TO A SINGLE IDEOLOGY: THE FORMATION OF THE SOVIET PRESS IN TURKESTAN

Abstract

This article examines the  emergence and institutionalization of the Soviet press in Turkestan,  focusing on its organizational development and  ideological functions. Following the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks restructured the media landscape by eliminating “bourgeois publications and replacing national newspapers and journals with a party-oriented press. Using publications such as Mehnatkashlar O‘qi, Mehnatkashlar Tovushi, Ishtirokiyun, Turkiston, and Qizil O‘zbekiston as examples, the article reveals the early experience of the Soviet press, the activities of local journalists, inequalities in material and technical resources, and the influence of centralized administration. Particular attention is paid to the  transformation of the press into a tool of mass propaganda through compulsory subscriptions, the worker-peasant correspondent movement, wall newspapers, red corners, and red teahouses. Drawing on historical sources, the article also discusses the challenges faced by the local press in terms of paper supply, printing facilities, distribution networks, and personnel training. It argues that the Soviet press should be evaluated not only by its institutional growth but also by the increasing restriction on freedom expression and the subordination of journalistic initiative to administrative control. Although the Soviet press expanded institutionally and gained greater material and organizational resources, editorial independence, freedom of thought, and the ability to represent national interests became increasingly limited. The article emphasizes that, during the 1920s and 1930s, the centralization of the press through legislation, decrees, and party directives transformed it from an independent social platform into an instrument of ideological governance. The press of this period is therefore assessed as a contradictory phenomenon characterized by both institutional consolidation  alongside increasing dependence on party-state control.