Economic problems and the threat of the Old World: the USA media assessment

The paper is dedicated to the evolutionary formation process of the American mass media perception towards the Soviet Russia during the severe Russian famine of 1921–1922, also known as the Povolzhye famine. The research novelty lies in the deep analysis of the US press assessments concerning the famine. The authors provide the results of their American newspapers examination regarding the image formation of the Soviet authorities, the Soviet people and the so-called «Red Scare». The authors’ research included a review of the main anti-Soviet arguments made by the media; the review revealed that the Povolzhye famine image had a crucial role in the labeling Russia as a «retrogressive» country. Studying this informational phenomenon allows researchers to understand what impact it had on Soviet-American relations, since it directly affected the perception of Russia and the Russian/Soviet people through the media. This, in turn, might help with comprehension of some stereotypes about Russia that can still be encountered in the American public opinion to date.