Organizational Structure of the Telegraph Agency of the USSR (1925–1939)

The article examines the organizational structure of the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) during the 1920s and 1930s. The subject of the study is the process of institutional formation of TASS, considered in conjunction with the factors that defined the agency's tasks and development directions during this period. The author discusses the agency's management system, the powers of its governing bodies, decision-making mechanisms, and the distribution of responsibilities among structural divisions. The structure of TASS's editorial offices is also analyzed: the principles of department formation, the control system, and the procedure for preparing materials for distribution. In addition, the article investigates the forms and nature of the agency's interaction with party-state authorities. Furthermore, special attention is given to the transformation of the agency compared to its predecessor, the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA), and the identification of organizational solutions that shaped the centralized nature of the Soviet information system. This research is based on the principles of historicism and an institutional approach, combined with comparative-historical and problem-historical methods of analysis. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study allows for the reconstruction of TASS's structure formation, describes the mechanisms of its integration into the party-Soviet apparatus, compares the agency with ROSTA, and systematizes material around key issues in the agency's formation. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the introduction of previously unused archival sources into scientific circulation, allowing for the restoration of a detailed picture of TASS's institutional formation. The main conclusions of the conducted research are propositions that the centralized and hierarchical structure of the agency was formed not spontaneously, but as a result of targeted state policy in the field of information. It is also shown that TASS performed not only purely informational functions but also political and managerial functions, becoming a key tool in forming a unified state information system in the USSR. At the same time, the study revealed that the degree of the agency's dependence on the party apparatus progressively increased throughout the examined period, which reflected both on the editorial policy and on the internal organizational structure of TASS. Thus, the obtained results open up perspectives for further study of the history of domestic mass media

Novelty · Organizational structure · Structure and agency · Library Science and Information · Social and Behavioral Studies · Soviet and Russian History

• When News Was New

  Open Access•Terhi Rantanen•When News Was New•2009

  Add to list