Print Media and the Manipulation of Identity in the Early Twentieth-Century Caucasus

• In Event: Shaping Nations: Education, Media, Identity, and Politics in the Late Imperial and Early Soviet Caucasus

Abstract

This paper revisits debates around identity and processes of identity formation in the Caucasus in the final decades of the Russian Empire in the context of the “Russian” revolutionary movement that spanned Eurasia in order to take a closer look at the way advancements in communication and transport technologies influenced those debates and processes. It then explores how intelligence services and charlatans were able to manipulate print media and tap into transnational networks to affect the outcome of these processes. The paper concludes with a brief evaluation of key differences and similarities between the decentralization movements “in” the Caucasus (albeit largely an émigré phenomenon) of in the early twentieth century and today with regard to the use of media and communication technologies as a tool for both facilitating discussions about identity and purpose and for the manipulation of these discussions.

Author

• Sarah Elizabeth Slye, Independent Scholar