At 7:20 pm on October 3, 1993, a nervous and shaky anchor broke
into coverage of a soccer match to tell Russian viewers that their
state television was shutting down. In the opening salvos of the
parliamentary revolt against Boris Yeltsin's government, a mob had
besieged the station's headquarters. A man had just been killed in
front of the news director. Moments later, screens all across
Russia went blank, leaving audiences in the dark. But in less than
an hour, Russia's second state channel went on the air. Millions
watched as Sergei Torchinsky anchored thirteen straight hours of
coverage, often with the sound of shooting clearly audible in the
background. Streams of politicians, trade union leaders, writers,
television personalities, and other well-known figures braved
gunfire to reach Channel Two's makeshift studios and speak directly
to the nation. In one stunning moment, a famous actress
extemporaneously pleaded with viewers not to return to the horrors
of Stalinism. Boris Yeltsin, who had been glued to his television
set like everyone else, later recalled, "For the rest of my life I
will remember the anxious but resolute and courageous expression of
Liya Akhedzhakova. . . her hoarse, cracking voice remains in my
memory."
In that time of crisis, television bound the nation together, a
continuing emblem of legitimate authority which lent an image of
stability and credibility to Yeltsin's besieged government.
"Television saved Russia," the Russian president said. Changing
Channels vividly recreates this exciting time, as television both
helped and hindered the Russian nation's struggle to create a new
democracy. From the moribund, state-controlled television
broadcasts at the end of the Soviet Union, through Mikhail
Gorbachev's glasnost, up to Yeltsin's victory in the most recent
Russian presidential elections of 1996, Mickiewicz charts the
omnipresent role of television, drawing on interviews, public
opinion surveys, research, and the television programming itself.
Analyzing the rise of political advertising (sometimes with
controversial US participation), the birth of journalists as
opinionated television personalities, and the changing news
coverage of coups, elections, and wars, she shows both how the
gradual development of private, independent stations has begun to
make real pluralism possible and how the authoritarian legacy of
the Soviet state structure continues to affect Russian television
even today. With television in 97% of all Russian households, and
the nightly news watched by a viewership matching that for the
Super Bowl in the US, the struggle for control over television
became the struggle for control over the nation. Mickiewicz
illuminates the efforts of those both in and out of power to
control the media.
Behind the momentous political changes are the stories of the men
and women who chose to resist, test, or submit to the system.
Mickiewicz offers brilliant sketches of these individuals: Yegor
Ligachev, Gorbachev's second in command, a man of strongly held
opinions who, in retirement, still orated loudly, even over tea;
Boris Yeltsin, having not even put on his shirt yet, watching the
early morning coverage of the attempted coup against Gorbachev; or
the new breed of Russian journalists covering the war in Chechnya
with footage of bombed out streets and charred corpses for
privately owned NTV, despite continuing government intimidation. In
vivid interviews, all the key players, including Gorbachev himself,
offered Mickiewicz their unique insights and frank personal
commentary. Drawing on these interviews and on her extensive
research on the interactions of politics, economics, and society,
Mickiewicz presents a rich and authoritative analysis of television
in Russia. In many ways, Mickiewicz writes, no other country in the
world offers television a greater opportunity and a greater role.
Changing Channels tells the fascinating story of a truly modern
phenomenon: the struggle to create genuine political pluralism,
helped and hindered by the barrage of information, advertisements,
and media-created personalities that make up modern television.
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