Download Propaganda

 Central Question: How did the Soviet totalitarian state regulate every aspect of the lives of its citizens? 
Life in the Soviet Totalitarian State:
PROPAGANDA
OVERVIEW
With the Russian Revolution of 1917, for the first time in history an entire nation was governed by a communist
system. In order to support this system, the Soviet government used propaganda, or the spreading of ideas and
information to promote their ideas and to damage their opponents. Propaganda appeared in a variety of forms,
including radio, film, theater, newsreels, newspapers, billboards, and posters. People of all ages were subject to
bombardment by communist ideas; even children were formally instructed in communist ideology and values in the
free schools that the Stalinist state provided and required them to attend.
The propaganda posters from the first years of the communist government under Lenin show revolutionary zeal
and optimism of building a new society. Campaigns were waged to eliminate illiteracy and to improve health care.
Other posters attacked the opponents of Lenin’s government: a bloody civil war swept the country until 1920.
Progressive artists used the poster as a medium to reach a broad public. As far as style was concerned, they did not
have to cope with artistic directives from the government yet.
By 1930, Stalin was in full control. Under Stalin, propaganda began to focus on political discipline and the Five
Year Plans, ambitious programs for the collectivization of agriculture and establishment of heavy industry. The
posters gave a powerful, dynamic impression, using photomontage, compositions with diagonal lines, and strong
contrasts in colors and shapes.
PRIMARY SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY INTERVIEW WITH RUSSIAN POLITICAL CARTOONIST
The following text is an excerpt from an interview with Boris Efimov, a Russian political cartoonist for Pravda, the newspaper of the
Communist party. While the interview was conducted by PBS in 1999, Efimov began his career as a political cartoonist in 1919, just
as the communists were beginning to build a totalitarian state.
Efimov: Propaganda was certainly huge, broad, and I would say skillful, talented. Propaganda used music, and
poetry and songs and paintings and cartoons. All this was managed by a system, which went from the top down to
the bottom, which made people first of all somehow forget, although everything defended all these atrocities, which
they committed. At the same time it somehow hypnotized people, that these things were only occasional, that they
were necessary, that there in the West it was a lot worse, that here in the Soviet Union it was good. And they told us
about the wisdom of Stalin, his kindness and that we shouldn’t despair. And people had no way out but to believe.
What alternative did they have? Not believing? That would lead to certain death. You had to live under the
conditions that existed all over the country. That’s what propaganda is.
In my opinion, propaganda appeared together with Soviet power, after the October revolt. Before I think people
didn’t even know the meaning of the word. People knew it existed, but it didn't have such a wide meaning or scope.
All of the 70 years of Soviet power, all were based on propaganda. Sometimes propaganda suggested something
correct and fair, and sometimes suggested something completely absurd, inhuman, against nature. But the strength
of propaganda always overcame. People started to believe in something. […]
The role and meaning of propaganda are very great, very great. Propaganda was born together with the Soviet
regime in 1917, and through all 70 years of its existence propaganda helped to consolidate society, held it in some
kind of unified, strong community. And when the Soviet Union disappeared and propaganda disappeared with it,
there was left a sort of emptiness. Because where, on the one hand, there used to exist one united strong
propaganda of the Soviet regime, there now exists several propagandas. Every group, every party has their own
propaganda. All this is confusing. It creates some kind of instability. People are disappointed. They don't know who
to believe. […]
PRIMARY SOURCE: PROPAGANDA POSTERS
S. Mirzoyan, A. Ivanov, Help build the gigantic factories (1929).
The first Five Year Plan aims to build up heavy industry
from virtually nothing. This poster advertises a state loan
for the building of large factories.
Sirocenqo, Long live the great Stalin! (1938).
A parade, tanks, military airplanes and soldiers: Stalin may
be smiling friendly, but war preparations are in full swing.
Designer unknown, Literacy is the path to communism (1920).
In its first years, the communist regime organized extensive
campaigns to combat illiteracy. This poster uses the classical
symbol of the winged horse Pegasus as distributor of
knowledge. The text in the book reads ‘Proletarians of all
countries ...’