THE FREE HIGHLANDER NEWSPAPER AS AN ORGAN OF INDEPENDENT NORTH CAUCASIAN DEMOCRATIC THOUGHT DURING THE CIVIL WAR

The revolutions of 1917 gave impetus to the development of multi-party journalism in the North Caucasus. The thesis about the vanguard role of the local Bolshevik press in the political arena in these crisis conditions, prevalent in the overwhelming majority of historical and journalistic studies of the Soviet period, does not correspond to reality. The concept that sheds light on the fact that during the February and October revolutions the Bolsheviks used local liberal and enlightenment publications more pragmatically to promote their ideas and established a monopoly over the press in the post-October period is relevant at the present stage. In the course of the civil war a branched system of small press developed in the region, which has so far remained beyond the scope of journalism historians.