Word-of-mouth communication in the Soviet Union

Abstract

Despite official attempts to inhibit word-of-mouth communication, an unofficial oral communications network co-exists with the official Soviet communications system and is an important source of Information for all Soviet strata. Its major functions are to supplement the official system and/or to act as a substitute for it, supplementary for the better educated and substitutive for the lower classes.Although a large part of the contents carried by the unofficial word-of-mouth network is hostile or at least embarrassing to the regime, participation in this network, especially by the intelligentsia should not be interpreted as an index of disaffection. As a matter of fact, there is a strong tendency for the less anti-Soviet persons in the upperclasses to be more active participants in word-of-mouth communications. For lower class Soviet citizens, especially peasants, however, there is a slight tendency for participation in this unofficial network to be related to anti-Soviet sentiment. © 1953 by Princeton University Press.