Free Time and Recreation of Citizens in the Visual Images of the Soviet Press of the 1920s

The purpose of the study. This article analyzes the visual content of the Soviet press of the 1920s, in order to reconstruct the normative and deviant models of recreation reflected in it by the urban population of the country. Conclusions. In visual media stories, the problems of free time and recreation exist in several planes: imperative (approved, ideologically correct strategies and practices of organizing free time are broadcast); normative (examples are given indicating the «sprouts» of a new way of life); critical (deviant practices and «remnants» of the past that need to be eliminated are ridiculed and castigated). In quantitative terms, in the press of the 1920s, the plots of the first and second groups, devoted to cultural recreation of citizens in parks, libraries, theaters, etc., prevailed. The practices of deviant recreation (drunkenness, gambling, etc.), explained by pre-Soviet remnants, the difficulties of the recovery period, and the lack of education of citizens, were more often represented by anonymous plots indicating vice, but not discrediting specific citizens. The press was intended to form cultural leisure practices among citizens rather than reflect the realities of the pastime of citizens in the 1920s.