Transformations of the Communist Party’s official newspaper “Soviet Armenia” in 1989
At the end of the 1980s, the Armenian Communist Party had to adapt to a new political environment in the country, one which was conditioned by Gorbachev’s policy of democratization and Glasnost on the one hand, and the 1988 National movement on the other. This paper discusses the structural and ideological transformations of the Communist party’s official newspaper Soviet Armenia and follows a case-study approach based on the oral history interview. It also utilizes data drawn from the publications of Soviet Armenia newspaper and the currently declassified archive of the Communist party, to discuss the censorship, personnel policy and functions of the party’s newspaper. The investigation of the organizations affiliated with the Communist party in this transitional period can enhance our understanding of the causes of the later post-Soviet developments of the party. The party’s most vivid transformation in response to the changing environment was the “restructuring” of the party with a new personnel policy. In a less controlled environment, the new editor-in-chief tried to find new ways to reflect the issues of current interest. However, the party’s “invented” reality and the real demands were mutually incompatible. As such, the bottom-up initiative was limited by the party’s immutable system.