| Summary: | Introduction. The paper provides insight into archival sources and shows the
development of Kalmykia’s party-Soviet print media during the 1920s and 1930s. Kalmyk
Party Organization tended to keep a strong focus on the growth of mass media in the region.
So, before 1926 there was only one newspaper in Kalmyk Oblast ― Ulan Khal’mg (Kalm.
‘Red Kalmyk’), while that very year proper witnessed the emergence of multiple periodicals,
such as Krasnaya step’ (Russ. ‘Red Steppe’), Kalmytskie izvestiya (Russ. ‘Kalmyk News’),
journals Vestnik Kalmytskogo obkoma VKP(b) (Russ. ‘Newsletter of Kalmyk Oblast
VKP(b) Committee’), Za rabotu (Russ. ‘Down to Work’), etc. Goals. The study seeks to
clarify the impacts of Kalmyk Oblast Party Organization on the development of regional
print media. Materials and Methods. The article analyzes multiple ― and authentic ―
documents stored at the National Archive of Kalmykia (Party Collection), key research
principles being those of objectivity and historicism. Results. The work concludes that issues
of print media’s development were regularly discussed at Party conferences, plenums, and
meetings of Kalmyk Oblast Party Committee. The latter’s Bureau would employ experienced
journalists to strengthen republican and district-level newspapers. The published books and
brochures were summarizing political, organizational, and ideological experiences of party
organizations. Kalmyk- and Russian-language newspapers and journals were tightening ties
between the Party and people, which facilitated an easier implementation of state policies.
Thus, print media were used by the Party and its agencies as a means of political mobilization
and education.
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