he article's emphasis on Soviet media theory as a major force in future ex-Soviet developments in the television industry is an indicator of his orientation.
To this end, the article presents a clear and easily-understood framework of reference, delineating the four major points of original Soviet media theory as identified by Lenin:
These cornerstones of Soviet media theory, McNair's article explains, appear from the very beginnings of Lenin's writings, dating back to 1905 (304) - an important legitimizing factor in Mikhail Gorbachev's subsequent exhumation of Leninist concepts in the 1980s as a means of reviving the moribund, bureaucratically-corrupted Communist Party/Soviet system (307).
Establishing the theoretical foundation and drawing heavily upon the prior works of Soviet media historians, the article then proceeds to apply a broad-stoked characterization of how the aforementioned bureaucratization, and even more pernicious Stalinization, took Lenin's relatively democratic-oriented media theory and perverted it into justification for a closed, blindered, state-(sometimes leader-)dominated propaganda organ. Stalin, of course, takes the brunt of the criticism, creating as he did a cult of personality and dictatorial overview that precluded even the most minimal expressions of uncontrolled opinion from the public media.
Yet, McNair is scrupulous in pointing out, the seeds of corruption that lie within any polemicist media theory - and he notes that Lenin's positions were notably advocatist-leaning - had already begun t
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