Download New Propaganda History

The Soviet World War II
Propaganda Experience: A
Theoretical and Institutional
Analysis
Prof. Alexander Livshin (Moscow State
University)
Prof. Igor Orlov (National Research
University – Higher School of Economics)
Major Research Goals
• Developing basic research
principles and approaches of the
« New Propaganda History »;
• Reconstrcucting the institutional
foundations of the Soviet World
War II Propaganda
New Propaganda History
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Looking at propaganda as a two-way process of socio-cultural interaction
between the authorities and the society (dialogicality of propaganda)
Analysing the war-time propaganda as the crucial factor of political
legitimation as well as a specific mechanism of socialization in the
Stalinist society
Propaganda as a key institution in any society (institution of political
communication)
The variety of historical sources and the broadening of research
opportunities for empirical historians
Multi-faceted complex analysis of interactions of all elements constituting
the institution of propaganda; important aspect – the symbols and images
of propaganda
The text of propaganda message is a form of dynamic and dialogical
interaction within a certain socio-cultural context between the leaders,
who generate major propagandistic meanings; the propagandist who
executes the will of the leaders; and the « consumer » of propaganda – the
people
Multi-disciplinary approach – researching propaganda using the methods
of different social sciences
The complexity and
variety of historical
sources
Documents of the
organizational and
structural aspects of
propaganda
Documents reflecting the
financial, material and
technological aspects of
propaganda
Documents showing the
qualitative and
quantitative parameters
of the propaganda
apparatus and personnel
Documents reflecting
propaganda’s images,
signs, its the symbolic
and discursive aspects
Documents showing the
impact of propaganda on
mentality and popular
opinion
The Multi-Disciplinary Nature of the “New
Propaganda History”
New social history
New cultural
history
New political history
Political
sociology
New Propaganda
History
Communication
theory
Political
anthropology
Political
psychology
Major Problematic Areas of the « New Propaganda
History »
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The mechanisms of transforming information into propaganda
Interpreting propaganda messages and reacting to them
Propaganda’s social role and efficiency, including the long-term
tendencies of propaganda’s impact
The « feedback mechanism » with regard to the rank-and-file agitators
and propagandists dominating the Soviet propaganda sphere
The material resources of propaganda
The limits of a propagandist’s initiative
The balance of censorship and self-sensorship
The balance of continuity and change within the space of propaganda
The role of political emotions in propaganda
Propaganda as an instrument of constructing collective political
identity
The reasons for the « Propaganda State » inefficiency in the first stages
of the war
The propaganda mechanisms of World War II evolving into those of the
Cold War period
Continuity Versus Change
• General principles of the war-time propaganda had been
developed long before the war
• The War propaganda hasn’t been the start of the new ideological
tradition: Soviet propaganda of the WWII period continued the
process of constructing the Stalinist society’s social order
• Stalinist propaganda could be viewed as the process of the
pseudo-reality construction
• Main indicator of the Soviet propaganda’s variability – finding
evidences of popular opinion transformation in the course of the
war
• Important role played by the “propaganda of the deed” (The
phenomenon of “Soviet martyrdom”, etc.)
• Propaganda regulating “the levels of tolerance and hatred” with
regard to the enemy
• The complexity and heterogeneous character of the society’s
emotions and its psychological atmosphere accompanies by the
growth of patriotic sentiment
• The parental image of “Motherland” was in the center of the
cultural space constructed by the interaction of such images and
symbols as “Enemy”, “Defender of the Homeland”, “Treason”,
“Heroism”, etc.
Propaganda pyramid
Secretariat of the Central
Committee of the AllUnion Communist Party
(Bolsheviks)
Central Committee of the
All-Union Communist
Party (Bolsheviks)
Propaganda and
Agitation Department
Higher Party Schools
Lecture Bureau at the
Committee for Higher
School affairs
Mass defense
organizations
TASS (Soviet Union
Telegraph Agency)
Radio Committee
Sovinformbureau
Cultural and educational
institutions
Committee for
cinematography affairs
Party organizations
Main Political Direction
of the RKKA (Workers
and Peasants’ Red Army)
Main Political Direction
of the VMF (Naval
Forces)
Political directions for
the fronts
Political Directions for
Fleets
Political sections for
divisions
Commissary of the
regiment
Political instructors
Propaganda and Agitation
Department of the Central
Committee of the All-Union
Communist Party
(Bolsheviks)
(1939-1945)
Agitation section
Paper industry section
Cinematography section
Cultural and educational
institutions section
Section for Marxist-Leninist
education and re-education of
Party members
Local newspapers section
Science section
Party propaganda section
Printing section
Main Political
Directorate of the
Workers and Peasants’
Red Army
organization and
instruction section
agitation and
propaganda
department
printing department
cultural and
educational
institutions
department
section responsible for
work with Komsomol
members
section responsible for
work with armed
forces and civilians of
the enemy
human resources
section for political
work among the
population of occupied
regions
Main forms of
propaganda
Printed
propaganda
Radio
propaganda
Verbal
propaganda
Visual
agitation
The Leading Role of the Printed Propaganda
“There is no better propaganda in
the world than the press:
magazines, newspapers,
brochures. The press is
something that creates the
opportunity for this or that truth
become known to everyone”
(Stalin)
Over one third of the Department
of Propaganda and Agitation
apparatus have been
employed in the Division of
the Press:
• To monitor the work of the
central and local periodicals;
• To control the personnel
selection and recruitment for
newspapers’ and magazines’
editorial boards;
• To investigate and control the
main publishing houses’
thematic plans;
• To bear responsibility for the
policies of circulation;
• To monitor and direct the
activities of TASS and Glavlit