The Making of a Media Nation: Television and Popular Culture in Soviet Ukraine During the 1950S-1980S

This book contributes to a scholarly understanding of socialist media and the public sphere, particularly within the Ukrainian context. It focuses on the period from the late 1950s—when television was introduced across much of the Soviet Union—to the late 1980s, when media became a tool in reformist and oppositional movements. Bohdan Shumylovych investigates the evolving role of media in the post-war and late Soviet Ukrainian society. Based primarily on extensive archival research conducted in multiple Ukrainian regions between 2016 and 2020, the study also uses oral history interviews with former media practitioners and viewers. The book is neither solely a media history nor exclusively a study of popular culture and television. Rather, it integrates regional and republican television with state-sponsored popular culture, revealing how these intersecting domains co-produced a distinct Soviet Ukrainian mediascape. By examining the formation of socialist media culture at the convergence of radio, television, and popular music, Shumylovych highlights the ideological dimensions and politicization of the cultural output of this time. Ultimately, the book contributes to understanding how Soviet media not only reflected state priorities but also played a central role in shaping national imaginaries that anticipated Ukraine's post-Soviet nationhood.