Influence of the early phases of the Civil war in Siberia on moderate and socialist periodical press of the region in the late 1917 - may, 1918

The purpose of the article is to analyze party-class differentiation of the press of the Trans-Ural region during establishment of the so-called first Soviet power in Siberia. Positive interpretation of our subject gives additional material for consideration of sharp and unresolved problems of the October Revolution and the Civil War in Siberia. Besides, this subject has not been sufficiently considered in monographs by A.L. Posadsky, V.G. Handorin, V.V. Shevtsov and in articles by S.A. Krasilnikov and V.V. Shevtsov. Considering the insufficiency of scientific developments on the subject and also its scientific importance, we tried to create the integral, generalized picture of the attitude of the moderate and socialist periodical press in the late 1917 - May, 1918 to political and public events of that time, as that periodical press formed the basis of small bourgeoisie agitation and propaganda system of impact on the population and imparted certain social and political resolutions to various social groups. The source base of the research was made by a wide range of the sources: office work documents, reference media, periodicals and materials of a personal origin. The main sources for studying of the subject were the all-Russian and Siberian newspapers and magazines of the late November, 1917 - May, 1918. The technique and methodology of the research include the principles of historicism and objectivity; historiographic, bibliographic, comparative historical and genetic historical methods were used. While conducting the research, the author had come to the conclusions: the Bolsheviks, coming to the power at the end of 1917 and at the beginning of 1918 in various areas of Siberia, brought down repressions on editorial collectives of newspapers and magazines, undesired to them for political reasons. Thereby, they significantly reduced not only quantitative, but also qualitative characteristics of that periodical press practically at once. However, local Communists and Bolsheviks did not manage to suppress non-Bolshevist periodical press ideologically. Dispersal of the legitimately elected Constituent Assembly, municipalities of domicile, signing of the separative Brest peace treaty with Germany and its allies, promoted quite fast and marked weakening of their popularity among the population of the region. It also developed either not support or neutral attitude from broad masses of the peasantry and considerable part of workers during the so-called "Czech Mutiny" in Siberia.

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