Socio-Demographic Profile of Provincial Journalists in Late 1920s to Early 1930s (Orenburg Region)

This article presents an attempt to construct a socio-demographic profile of journalists from the late 1920s to early 1930s within a provincial region. The source base consists of personal files from the nomenclature of the years 1935-1939 pertaining to the Orenburg region. Data derived from autobiographies and questionnaires served as the foundation for creating a database that enabled the analysis of their primary sociographic characteristics. The results of the comparative analysis allow for several conclusions that are applicable to other provincial areas of the RSFSR during the specified period. The author emphasizes that the work of journalists was primarily viewed as propagandistic, which is why staffing issues were resolved by assigning nomenclature personnel to editorial offices, as these individuals were ideologically vetted. The most suitable candidates were propagandists, often serving as secretaries of district committees. For similar reasons, editors were redirected to other tasks related to propaganda when necessary. It has been demonstrated that the level of education and training of personnel who joined regional newspapers in the second half of the 1930s was sufficiently adequate for fulfilling their official duties, namely, ensuring the timely publication of issues of regional newspapers containing centrally disseminated information.