The Establishment Of The Soviet Image Under The General Background Of Sino-Soviet Friendship

This thesis seeks to generalize and arrange the propaganda of the Soviet Union published by China Youth magazine through the text analysis of China Youth from1948to1962and reading and interpreting other relevant documents and literatures, thus explore the multiple meanings borne by the Soviet Image established by China Youth and the method, logic and actual effect of China Youth’s establishment of the Soviet Image.China Youth’s establishment of the Soviet Image was conducted under the general background of Sino-Soviet Friendship, and the existence of the general background of Sino-Soviet Friendship is based on the Sino-Soviet Friendship Movement, which is an organized and top-to-bottom social movement. Therefore, China Youth’s establishment of the Soviet Image needs to be consistent with the general background and overall requirement of Sino-Soviet Friendship. Meanwhile, China Youth is not a landmark magazine in such general background, and it targets mainly on the knowledgeable youth. Therefore, it maintains relative independence when establishing the Soviet Image.Chapter II of this thesis mainly reviews the history of China Youth. China Youth is one of the important magazines which could represent the development history of magazines under the leadership of Chinese Communist Party. It was established during the time of general revolution, and was suspended and changed for many times until it resumed publication in the end of1948. As an organizational magazine of the Central Committee of the Communist Young League of China and its predecessor, it was highly valued by the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and the nation and enjoyed a relatively large circulation, which made it one of the magazines with the greatest influence in the New China.China Youth’s propaganda of the Soviet Union was very abundant, but has different characteristics in different stages. In Chapter III, the thesis studies the change of China Youth’s propaganda of the Soviet Union in different stages from the viewpoints of strength and content of such propaganda. From the viewpoint of strength of the propaganda, the thesis used the indices of (1) number of articles that introduces the Soviet Union directly or written by Soviet author,(2) the strength of targeted propaganda at important time point or upon occurrence of major events, and (3) the significance of the article, and thus discovered that China Youth, in its propaganda of the Soviet Union, went through three stages, which are prosper, adjustment and reduction. From the view point of content of the propaganda, the thesis discovered that in its propaganda of the Soviet Union, China Youth went through two stages, which are (1) general introduction of knowledge as primary content and (2) operating methods, literature and Sino-Soviet friendly communication as primary content and supplemented with other knowledge. Different overweight also exists during different time period. This thesis, after combining the strength and the content of the propaganda, generalizes China Youth’s propaganda of the Soviet Union into four stages:the Grand Entrance of the Powerful and Prosperous Nation (1948-1949), the Change from Instrument to Method (1950-1953), the Adjustment (1954-1956) and from Reduction to Vanish (1957-1961).Chapter IV reads and interprets the Soviet Image established by China Youth. Such Soviet Image can be divided into two parts,"powerful and prosperous" and "friendly", and each part consists of contents from various aspects. The power and prosper of the Soviet Union is mainly reflected in four aspects:(1) advanced institution as the first communist nationrr, including the advancement in social system and the advancement in each specific part of the state machinery;(2) well developed production and superior live under the advanced institution, in both agriculture and industry and in both city and rural area;(3) the world’s leading science technology, not only does it include the leading research level of the science technology, but it also includes the leading moral character of the scientists; and (4) lofty moral characters, including the lofty moral characters of general public and numerous heroic figures representing the lofty moral characters emerged. Further, as a youth magazine, China Youth specially demonstrated to its readers the advanced youth work and the happy life of the youth of the Soviet Union, which is also a reflection of the power and prosper of the nation. The friendliness of the Soviet Union is also reflected in four aspects:(1) its continuous help to China over the years, which includes a rebuilt history of Sino-Soviet friendship and communication and the confidence towards the future under the help of the Soviet Union;(2) the outstanding level of expertise and the lofty morality possessed by the Soviet experts as a group, which is a special product of the help to China by the Soviet Union;(3) the voluntary and enthusiastic expression of emotion during the social communication between Chinese and Soviet people; and (4) the Soviet Union’s absolute maintenance of the world’s peace and the internationalistic friendship bonded between China and the Soviet Union under the general background of maintaining the world’s peace, in which the issue of atomic bomb was explained in a unique way as a key point.In Chapter V, the thesis presents the conclusion by summarizing that the method of establishment of the Soviet Image by China Youth is to establish a nation recognized by the youth through a method liked by the youth. In the meantime, the thesis clarified the purpose of China Youth’s propaganda of the Soviet Union. The direct purpose is to propagate, and the ultimate purpose is to mobilize the youth to devote themselves into the Socialist Construction. The Soviet Image established by China Youth has proved that a powerful, prosperous and friendly Soviet Image can indeed achieve the purpose of mobilizing the youth to devote themselves into the Socialist Construction.