A short history of the phantom republics of Wologdache and the White Sea in the Western mass media

Abstract

The paper for the first time allows us to consider the mention in the media of two state entities that never existed in reality, so-called Republic of Vologdache and the White Sea Republic. The author uses articles and notes in the US press for July – August 1918 as the main source. The study also contains the necessary information from some European media. The author comes to the conclusion that despite the relatively good awareness of the events in the North of Russia, most of the journalists could not correctly compare the available data, while many theses were invented. According to the author, this disinformation was unintentional, since the journalistic community conveyed information in such a way that the original message, although false, was in the context of real events.