Download Script

Soviet Propaganda Machine
POST PRODUCTION SCRIPT
US & INTERNATIONAL VERSION
RED FILES
SOVIET PROPAGANDA MACHINE
an InVision Production
with
Abamedia in association with
PBS & Devillier Donegan Enterprises
Series Producers
William Cran
Kate Leonard-Morgan
ሁ
1
Soviet Propaganda Machine
2
Pre-title tease
NARRATOR
CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION MARCH
TOWARDS THE “BRIGHTER SOVIET DAWN”.
00.19
00.29
THEY ARE TOO YOUNG TO KNOW THEY’RE
GROWING UP IN A SOCIETY BUILT ON HALF
TRUTHS….
00.36
… TOO YOUNG TO KNOW THAT THEIR MINDS
ARE A BATTLEFIELD IN THE WAR OF
PROPAGANDA.
00.45
VLADIMIR POZNER
The Cold War was really a propaganda war. It was
not a hot war, it was a propaganda war in which all
sides participated very, very actively, it was a struggle
for people’s minds.
00.57 Series Titles____/
RED FILES
Subtitle_______/
01.35
Soviet Propaganda Machine
NARRATOR
THE HISTORIC MEETING OF AMERICAN AND
SOVIET ARMIES AT THE RIVER ELBE IN
GERMANY SYMBOLIZED HITLER’S UTTER
DEFEAT.
01.50
THE VICTORIOUS ALLIES, ‘GI JOES’ AND
RUSSIAN SOLDIERS, CELEBRATED THEIR
VICTORY TOGETHER.
01.59
THE ALLIANCE OF THE TWO GREAT POWERS
HAD NEVER SEEMED CLOSER.
02.12
YET WHILE THE WEST WAS WINDING DOWN THE
WAR EFFORT, STALIN WAS REBUILDING THE
RED ARMY AND TIGHTENING HIS GRIP ON THE
COUNTRIES OF EASTERN EUROPE…
NARRATOR cont…
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
02.25
02.31
3
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ALLIES WAS
ABOUT TO CHANGE FOREVER.
SOF - Iron Curtain speech
“From Stetin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an
iron curtain has descended across the continent.
Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient
states of central and Eastern Europe...”….
02.50
atomic explosion
02.56
03.06
03.09
SOF - newsreel
“…the stunning news that Russia has the atom bomb
and has exploded it bursts upon America. John Hugh
Citizen wonders ‘what happens now?’”
SOF – PRESIDENT TRUMAN
I want to talk to you today about what our country is
up against…
NARRATOR
THE SOVIETS HAD ACHIEVED A BALANCE OF
TERROR WITH THE WEST.
SOF – PRESIDENT TRUMAN
All the tings we believe in are in great danger. This
danger has been created by the rulers of the Soviet
Union.
03.22
NARRATOR
NUCLEAR PARITY MEANT MILITARY STALEMATE
AND A NEW KIND OF WAR.
SOF – PRESIDENT TRUMAN
.. working together, we hope we can prevent another
world war.
HERB ROMERSTEIN
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
03.32
03.43
4
The whole concept of Cold War is not having a hot
war, not shooting at each other. So if you’re not using
military weapons, then you’re using weapons of
propaganda or ideology.
NARRATOR
THIS IS THE STORY OF AN UNPRECEDENTED
STYLE OF WARFARE. IT WAS A WAR FOUGHT
WITH WORDS, IDEAS, IMAGES AND THE
TECHNOLOGIES OF THE NEW AGE.
04.00
FOR THE KREMLIN THE STAKES WERE HIGH. IT
HAD TO MAINTAIN ITS GRIP OVER THE HEARTS
AND MINDS OF ITS OWN CITIZENS AND COMBAT
WESTERN INFLUENCE.
04.16
Sov dub theatre/tanks
RUSSIAN SOF - SUBTITLES
“…This parade of American tanks reminds one of
fascist times.”
04.24
NARRATOR
WARMONGERING AMERICANS AND GRASPING
CAPITALISTS WERE THE NEW FASCISTS.
04.32
Cartoon
RUSSIAN SOF -SUBTITLES
“How charming this western chief looks. But he
doesn’t need peace, he needs war.
04.43
Cartoon
RUSSIAN SOF -SUBTITLES
“like a drunkard he reaches for the nuclear button
ready to disrupt peace.”
04.50
ሁ
NARRATOR
BORIS YEFIMOV, WHO DREW HIS FIRST
POLITICAL CARTOONS IN 1918, WAS FORCED TO
TOE THE NEW PARTY LINE.
Soviet Propaganda Machine
05.03
05.22
5
BORIS YEFIMOV
I was often impressed by Churchill, by his will power,
by his wonderful oratory, his jokes. I really liked him.
But then suddenly it was announced that he was our
enemy, and we had to draw cartoons about him
NARRATOR
YEFIMOV’S POLITICAL CARTOONS BEGAN TO
SHOW WARTIME ALLIES AS MIRROR IMAGE
FASCISTS.
BORIS YEFIMOV
But that was government policy, and it was a situation
I couldn’t do anything about.
05.47
05.54
..atomic blast
ሁ
NARRATOR
DOCTORED NEWSREELS SHOWED CHURCHILL’S
IRON CURTAIN SPEECH AS PROOF THAT THE
WEST WAS EAGER FOR NUCLEAR WAR.
RUSSIAN SOF - SUBTITLES
“it was a monstrous speech. It resounded into almost
complete darkness. A fuse had blown.”
Soviet Propaganda Machine
6
GVs Moscow
06.10
NARRATOR
AS EARLY AS 1917, BOLSHEVIK
REVOLUTIONARIES HAD GRASPED THE NEED
FOR RUTHLESS CONTROL OF INFORMATION.
06.23
LENIN HIMSELF CALLED PROPAGANDA THE
REVOLUTION’S MAIN WEAPON.
06.32
LEONID VLADIMIROV
when in 1918 Lenin closed all the non-communist
newspapers.… There was no opposition voice. There
was nothing you could hear apart from the Party line.
The Soviet propaganda became overnight, total.
06.50
06.56
07.20
NARRATOR
TOTAL PROPAGANDA WAS REINFORCED BY
TOTAL CENSORSHIP
LEONID VLADIMIROV
….You couldn’t publish an erm bottle, err a label.
You couldn’t publish a err, wrapper of a sweet, an
invitation card, nothing until you get the stamp of the
Glavlit, that’s the abbreviation of the Russian
Censorship.
NARRATOR
INTELLECTUALS AND ARTISTS WERE SET TO
WORK GLORIFYING THE PEOPLES’
REVOLUTION.
07.36
BRIGHTLY PAINTED “AGITPROP” TRAINS
SPREAD THE COMMUNIST MESSAGE.
07.50
RAILCARS WERE CONVERTED INTO LIBRARIES,
PRINTSHOPS, MEETING ROOMS, PLAYHOUSES
AND, ABOVE ALL, MOBILE MOVIE THEATRES.
08.05
ሁ
LEONID VLADIMIROV
… Lenin said, of all arts, the most important for us is
Cinema…
Soviet Propaganda Machine
08.19
08.20
NARRATOR
LENIN CALLED FOR NEW FILMS
TO EXALT THE COMMUNIST CAUSE
08.25
THE PEOPLE HAD A NEW HOUSE OF WORSHIP.
CINEMA WAS USED TO GLORIFY THE
REVOLUTION AND TURN ITS LEADER INTO AN
ICON.
08.43
Lenin ‘October’ film
RUSSIAN SOF - SUBTITLES
“He’s so ordinary”
08.52
NARRATOR
JOSEF STALIN TOOK THE ‘CULT OF
PERSONALITY’ TO NEW EXTREMES
09.03
LEONID VLADIMIROV
Before the war Stalin was shown of course very
widely but, only erm err as a real person. During the
war some new element was introduced, Stalin was
portrayed in feature films. ……. and some of them
were sheer deification of him…..
There was a film….where Stalin suddenly
appears….much bigger than anybody else in a snowwhite uniform like a deus ex machina. … like God
10.01
Stalin feature film
RUSSIAN SOF - SUBTITLES
“Peace and happiness to you all, my friends!”
10.20
NARRATOR
STALIN (to:_p_deep_bio_joseph_stalin.doc) NOW
CONTROLLED EVERY FORM OF INFORMATION.
10.29
ሁ
7
HISTORY BOOKS WERE REWRITTEN.
NEWSPAPERS CLAIMED FALSELY THAT SOVIET
Soviet Propaganda Machine
8
SCIENTISTS HAD INVENTED EVERYTHING FROM
THE TELEGRAPH TO RADIO, FROM THE LIGHT
BULB TO PENICILLIN.
10.42
STALIN’S GREAT TERROR FORCED DOUBTERS
TO STAY SILENT.
10.52
ANYONE WHO DEVIATED FROM THE PARTY LINE
COULD BE PUT ON TRIAL AS A SPY.
11.02
BORIS YEFIMOV
My brother was arrested in the office of Pravda
newspaper where he was an editor and he
disappeared. I realised what was going on and
prepared myself for my own arrest, since I was as
guilty as he.
11.24
NARRATOR
BORIS YEFIMOV WATCHED HIS OWN BROTHER’S
SHOW TRIAL.
11.29
RUSSIAN SOF - SUBTITLES
Under the party of Lenin and Stalin, the exploitation of
man by man has been abolished.
11.35
INDICTED AS AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE,
MIKAIL WAS FOUND GUILTY OF CRIMES
AGAINST THE STATE …AND SHOT.
11.45
12.07
12.17
ሁ
BORIS YEFIMOV
I was allowed my freedom. I was left alive and
continued to work. I could have just said you killed my
brother, no, I'm not going to work. But they would
have sent me to the same place.
NARRATOR
AS MILLIONS DIED IN STALIN’S PURGES, THE
MOST FANATICAL PARTY MEMBERS SUDDENLY
BECAME “NON-PERSONS”.
ENEMIES OF THE STATE WERE AIRBRUSHED
FROM THE PAGES OF HISTORY
Soviet Propaganda Machine
12.24
13.08
13.19
13.27
13.57
14.19
ሁ
9
ALFRED PORTER
.when people would be taken away and shot uh, they
would be a new circular sen, sen, sent to all libraries
to all schools and everywhere that they had to cut out
a page from the Great Soviet Encyclopaedia and put
another page in which was sent to them specially
printed and so when Trotsky disappeared, young
people who didn’t, you know didn’t know better would
ask Trotsky who they’ll say. Don’t, don’t talk about it,
don’t talk about it, nobody, nobody, not important.
That’s how it was.
NARRATOR
THIS WHOLESALE CENSORSHIP GAVE STALIN’S
GOVERNMENT A MONOPOLY ON EVERY FORM
OF INFORMATION.
A RELENTLESS STREAM OF PREVALENT
PROPAGANDA REACHED INTO EVERY HOME.
ALFRED PORTER
Every house, every flat had to have, had to have a
radio on the wall which was wired into, into special
socket...It was mostly silent but then one, two times a
day it would start crackling and then some voice
would say, from Soviet Inform Bureau.
It was, really like Orwell, like, like, like big brother
talking to you telling you what you uh, what you
should know.
LEONID VLADIMIROV
Wired network always err told you about the err
achievements in every walk err of life.
Achievements around, and of course very negative
information about the outside world.
NARRATOR
BY 1950, STALIN HAD ACHIEVED A TRULY
TOTALITARIAN STATE.
Soviet Propaganda Machine
10
14.29
FROM WOMB TO TOMB, EVERY SOVIET CITIZEN
WAS DRILLED IN THE PARTY LINE
14.29
LEONID VLADIMIROV
The Old Russian saying says that you may influence
a child only when it is as small as to fit across the
bed. And when he grows longer than that and you
have to fit him along the bed, it would be too late.
15.01
15.46
16.08
ALFRED PORTER
… The moment you arrive in kindergarten you are
Little Octoberist, they put on you badge with uh, some
little face supposedly Lenin when he was little one
and they start indoctrinate you. Uh, granddad Lenin,
kindest of all people, Granddad Stalin kindest and
wisest of all people.
….by age of four I could already read by heart some
poem called uh, Death of Illich, Illich of course being
Vladimir Illich Lenin. Uh, you know and, and I was
singing songs like uh, something like uh, I am little
boy, I dance and sing, I never saw uh, granddad uh,
Lenin but I love him
LEONID VLADIMIROV
So the picture of the world is formed in the mind of a
toddler, or, or a 7 year old. Was very simple, we live
in the best country err in the world. The most
advanced. The freeist, and err, the country where
erm, the erm, workers and peasants err actually rule.
RUSSIAN SOF – SUBTITLES (little girl poem)
If you’re singing a song of happiness
If you’re going down a hard road
You should know that you’re not alone…
NARRATOR
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
11
16.25
LITTLE GRADUATED TO THE PIONEERS, WHERE
THE MESSAGE OF UNDYING LOYALTY TO THE
MOTHERLAND WAS CELEBRATED IN FANFARE
FASHION
16.44
TATIANA VORONTSOVA
Everyone wanted to be in the Pioneers. Including me.
I was ten when I joined, in the third form. There was
an acceptance ceremony and we bought pioneer ties
for it. And when mother brought the ties home, me
and my sister were stroking them .
17.06
Young Pioneers
tie ceremony
17.44
18.11
NARRATOR
TATIANA VORONTSOVA JOINED THE YOUNG
PIONEERS IN 1958. FOR HER AND HER
CLASSMATES IT WAS A DAY OF INTENSE PRIDE.
TATIANA VORONTSOVA
The pioneer leaders came, they took the ties and all
the pioneers who stood in front of us hung the ties
around our necks.
We felt so good, we were happy, we were
congratulated. At last we were pioneers!
ALFRED PORTER
.. in summer we would go to a special Young
Pioneers Camps. Where also be indoctrinated very
heavily all those songs about uh, revolution, about
this, uh, civil war, about uh, such a great uh, personal
examples such as this guy called Pavlic Morozov ….
NARRATOR
SINCE THE EARLY 1930s, THE HERO HELD UP TO
EVERY YOUNG PIONEER WAS A THIRTEEN YEAR
OLD BOY CALLED PAVLIC MOROZOV.
Kulaks & grain
NARRATOR
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
12
18.25
THE STORY GOES THAT WHEN PAVLIC FOUND
HIS FATHER HOARDING GRAIN HE REPORTED
HIM TO THE AUTHORITIES.
….
HIS FATHER WAS ARRESTED AS AN ENEMY OF
THE PEOPLE - AND EXECUTED
18.41
HORRIFIED BY THE BOY’S ACT OF BETRAYAL,
THE LOCAL COMMUNITY TURNED ON THE CHILD
AND KILLED HIM.
18.48
TO PARTY PROPAGANDISTS, THE BOY WHO
DENOUNCED HIS OWN PARENTS WAS A HERO
AND A MARTYR.
18.57
TATIANA VORONTSOVA
So he was killed, he died a hero. We wanted to be
heroes too, and at that time if I had been in the same
situation, and my father had done something against
the Soviet state, I would have gone and reported him,
simple as that.
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
13
NARRATOR
THANKS TO PAVLIC MOROZOV, PARENTS
LEARNED TO FEAR THEIR OWN CHILDREN.
19.17
.
19.22
LEONID VLADIMIROV
There was a psychosis of denunciation and parents
were very much afraid to say a free word in the
presence of the children
19.34
JANE LITVINOVA
My parents definitely held back information from me.
Er, I think they were just very cautious and they had a
very good cause to be afraid… My father was working
in a scientific research institute, but I believe for the
military institute. For them every word er spoken by
me er which er, er, could arise some suspicion about
er their loyalty, could be ruin of his career…
19.57
ALFRED PORTER
…….. in the Soviet Union you, you, you never knew
who was the, the KGB spy really you know, the
informer, the snitch. Uh, the on, uh, the only thing you
could be sure that they were every where. Your
neighbour could be, your friend could be …..
20.16
NARRATOR
FOR OVER TWO DECADES THE SOVIET
PROPAGANDA MACHINE HAD DEIFIED STALIN.
…..
BUT IN 1953, THE GOD PROVED TO BE MORTAL.
20.28
ሁ
ALFRED PORTER
…. in intervals between very, very sombre music
which was played twenty-four hours on the radio.
…They were giving bulletins about uh, state of his
health. ..Very low blood pressure and this and that.
Soviet Propaganda Machine
14
And my uncle was very good doctor he said to his
wife, it is the end and she said, “SSHH don’t, don’t
talk, don’t mention”. People were afraid even, even,
even among themselves in the family…
21.14
21.42
…I remember a lady doctor came to us and she was
asking, God what will happen now with all of us, how
can we live without Stalin? And it was genuine you
know, people were brought up to believe that without
Stalin they, they, they couldn’t survive.
NARRATOR
STALIN’S DEATH WAS THE END OF AN ERA.
21.46
NO SUCCESSOR COULD APPLY THE SAME
DEGREE OF RUTHLESS CONTROL.
21.54
AFTER 1953 OTHER VOICES BEGAN TO
PENETRATE THE IRON CURTAIN.
Arch Reagan Radio arch
22.18
22.29
SOF
“My name is Ronald Reagan. Last year, the
contributions of sixteen million Americans to the
crusade for freedom, they were this powerful 135
thousand-watt radio free Europe transmitter in
western Germany. This station daily pierces the iron
curtain with the truth.”
NARRATOR
THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT WAS SAID TO SPEND
MORE MONEY TRYING TO JAM WESTERN RADIO
STATIONS THAN THE AMERICANS SPENT ON
ALL THEIR BROADCASTS TO COMMUNIST
COUNTRIES.
NARRATOR cont…
THESE EFFORTS WERE IN VAIN, MILLIONS OF
ORDINARY RUSSIANS STILL GOT ROUND THE
JAMMING AND TUNED IN.
ALFRED PORTER
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
15
22.40
No jamming could be really hundred percent. Once I
remember I was listening and jamming was not
effective and I could hear a voice telling in Russian
about some Catholic priests in the Soviet Union being
persecuted, being arrested, being thrown in prisons,
sent to camps and I was thinking camps what camps.
I knew only Pioneer, Young Pioneer camps no, no
other camps. So I thought how people can tell such
lies. then I thought maybe are they people to not lie
to. Maybe the radio doesn’t lie.
23.21
JOE ADAMOV
The official propaganda told its people one thing, and
the from abroad be it from London or from New York
or whatever, or from Germany they heard the, the true
end of the story, that was it. It was only natural they
wanted the true story and the only way to do it was to
tune in a foreign station
23.49
VLADIMIR POZNER
I think they had a great impact err, according to
different statistics but approximately 40 million people,
40 to 50 million people listened regularly to those
broadcasts for information.
24.01
ABBOTT WASHBURN
If they know that there is, there is freedom, there are
free people, other, elsewhere, its a stubborn idea that
stays in their mind that they can enjoy freedom some
day, and this is what these radios were doing,
keeping up the hope.
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
24.29
24.41
24.50
25.23
16
NARRATOR
IN 1956, HUNGARIANS, URGED ON BY RADIO
BROADCASTS FROM THE WEST, ROSE UP
AGAINST THEIR COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT.
SOVIET COVERAGE OF EVENTS GAVE NO HINT
THAT RUSSIAN TANKS WERE CRUSHING A
GENUINELY POPULAR UPRISING.
ALFRED PORTER
In the Soviet Union, they were telling basically that in
Hungary the forces of reaction tried to take over the
country, to bring Hungary out of Soviet block to bring
it in to the capitalistic camp. And that brotherly
Hungarian people asked Soviet Union to intervene, to,
to save them from, from, from dread of uh, return of
capitalism.
NARRATOR
COMMUNIST POLICEMEN, LYNCHED BY
HUNGARIAN MOBS, WERE USED TO JUSTIFY
SOVIET INTERVENTION.
25.32
Soviet Arch of Uprising
RUSSIAN SOF - SUBTITLES
“A terrifying spectre of the fascist beast had risen all
over Hungary. It was necessary to save the fate of the
country.”
25.50
VICTOR LISTOV
The uprising in Hungary in 1956 is a very important
landmark in our history. People started to argue with
each other over events there. Some thought our
country was wrong, but sadly they were in the
minority. The majority were brought up in the old way,
thought we were right.
NARRATOR
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
17
26.21
THE RED ARMY’S BRUTAL SUPPRESSION OF
THE HUNGARIAN UPRISING HAD SHOCKED THE
WORLD.
26.32
THE NEW SOVIET LEADER, NIKITA
KHRUSHCHEV, DECIDED ON A DRAMATIC
CHANGE OF TACTICS. TO SHOW A FRIENDLIER
FACE,HE TOURED AMERICA IN 1959, EATING
FAST FOOD, SWAPPING JOKES WITH
MIDWESTERN FARMERS AND EVEN VISITING
HOLLYWOOD.
27.06
DURING THIS THAW IN COLD WAR RELATIONS,
MR.KRUSCHEV AGREED TO A PROGRAM OF
CULTURAL EXCHANGES, WHERE EAST COULD
MEET WEST.
27.16
ABBOTT WASHBURN
The American National Exhibition in Moscow was a
real Cold war blockbuster. Eisenhower said we must
do this, it will be the first time since the Bolshevik
revolution that we’ve been able to interface one on
one with several million Soviet citizens. We must not
miss that opportunity.
US Exhibition arch
28.00
28.09
ሁ
SOF
“….demonstrations of youthful dance steps are
appreciated too….other young Americans perform
folk dances.”
NARRATOR
THE SOVIET LEADERSHIP WAS TOTALLY
UNPREPARED FOR THE IMPACT OF AMERICAN
CONSUMER GOODS ON ORDINARY RUSSIANS.
VLADIMIR POZNER
In a country where you had only shortages, where
most people, the overwhelming majority lived in so-
Soviet Propaganda Machine
18
called Communal apartments, several families
sharing one bathroom, one kitchen, where you had no
modern gadgets, what, what was seen there was like
it is from a different planet and people grabbed
everything that was available, every flier, every
booklet, every er badge, pin, every tin can,
everything, it was gobbled up by people who stood in
line for hours to get in.
SOF
“…. Another magnet for crowds is the soft drink area.
Brightly coloured stands on the exhibition grounds
provide liquid refreshment, eighty thousand servings
on an average day. For most, the taste is a totally
new experience.”
29.02
29.37
ALFRED PORTER
…The American Exhibition really was like a, like a, a
ray of sun into a room which was alone in the dark,
completely sealed off. Because we never saw abroad
we, we could never go abroad…. And then suddenly
in this dark room, a ray of sun and we thought, we
don’t need this communists really you know they’re
talking about, they talk to us about shiny tomorrow,
we saw shiny today. People abroad are living in this
shiny tomorrow …...
NARRATOR
SOVIET PROPAGANDA TRIED HARD TO PAINT A
NEGATIVE PICTURE OF THE EXHIBITION.
29.42
RUSSIAN SOF - SUBTITLES
”We tried our best to understand our transatlantic
guests...”
29.53
VICTOR LISTOV
I remember a case of a student from the aviation
institute who was banned from lectures and the young
Communist League just because he was wearing an
exhibition badge. It was a foreign badge, it was hostile
propaganda and it was immediately suppressed.
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
30.22
30.29
30.50
30.55
31.15
31.21
ሁ
19
NARRATOR
BUT THEIR GOVERNMENT’S EFFORTS TO
DISCREDIT THE EXHIBITION MADE THE SOVIET
PEOPLE EVEN MORE CURIOUS.
SOF
“A model home on the exhibition ground is jammed
with visitors having read much criticism of this model
home in the soviet newspapers, has not been typical.
They rushed to see it in such numbers that a central
viewing quarter can hardly contain them. Actually, the
six room house is not immodest by American
standards.”
NARRATOR
RUSSIAN PREMIER KRUSHCHEV TOURED THE
EXHIBITION WITH VICE-PRESIDENT NIXON.
SOF
“…a crackling exchange between Nixon and
Kruschev began off camera and finished off before
the American Ampex video tape recorders. Says Mr
Kruschev ‘Soviets will overtake America and then
wave bye-bye.”….
NARRATOR
EARLIER THAT DAY KRUSCHEV AND NIXON HAD
ARGUED IN THE KITCHEN OF THE MODEL HOME.
VLADIMIR POZNER
Kruschev was saying "This isn't an average American
kitchen, this is propaganda", he was reacting, it was
so nice, you couldn't allow your Soviet visitors to
believe that Americans had kitchens like this, because
if they had kitchens like that, (clap) capitalism was
better than socialism, simple as that.
Soviet Propaganda Machine
31.41
31.48
31.52
32.15
NARRATOR
THE SUCCESS OF THE AMERICAN EXHIBITION FORCED
SOVIET PROPAGANDISTS TO TRY A NEW TACK.
…..
A MORE SOPHISCATED APPROACH WAS
ADOPTED.
VLADIMIR POZNER
Intelligent propaganda is not a propaganda that tells
blatant lies. It's, erm something where you try to
show the good side of what you’re supporting and
you don't tell about the negatives, you only tell about
the positives which is true but it's only a half truth, and
then it makes it err a half lie if you will.
SOF
This is your program ‘Moscow Mail Bag’
Radio Moscow Studio
32.19
NARRATOR
IN FLAWLESS AMERICAN ACCENTS, RADIO
MOSCOW BEGAN TRANSMITTING ITS NEW
STYLE PROPAGANDA TO THE WORLD.
SOF
“and Joe we kick off with…Humpy-doren-whatsenflabbin from Sweden…”
ሁ
20
Soviet Propaganda Machine
32.31
32.46
Radio studio tapes etc
33.29
21
NARRATOR
FORTY YEARS AGO JOE ADAMOV’S RADIO
PROGRAM, MOSCOW MAILBAG, BEGAN
ANSWERING QUESTIONS FROM LISTENERS
ABROAD. BUT THE RUSSIAN MEDIA’S NEW
‘OPENNESS’ WAS A SHAM.
JOE ADAMOV
There was a question, err, from a student, I think it
was in America who asked me who is richer, the
United States or the Soviet Union, I said well naturally
you're richer, but that was just a time when Krushchev
said that we in 20 years time will be the richest
country in the world. What do you know, the err,
censor cut it all out. Not only the answer but he cut
the question out, so I came to him and I said, would
you please explain to me why you cut it out, he said
where did you get the idea that they're richer. I said
everybody knows it, he says, I don't know it. Well I
said Krushchev that was only a year ago, in the
States kept saying it all the time, well he says, he said
it there but not here.
NARRATOR
AS A JOURNALIST ON THE NEWSPAPER
IZVESTIA VICTOR LISTOV EXPERIENCED THE
LABYRINTHINE RULES OF CENSORSHIP AT
FIRSTHAND.
33.39
VICTOR LISTOV
….there existed a very strange rule, saying that since
both Lenin and Stalin were earthly gods, their names
had to be written on the same line. Under no
circumstances could one name be on a line below the
other. Also, their names could not be mentioned in a
paragraph, which had a negative context. For
instance, you couldn’t say that work in the Stalin
collective farm was not going well, that would have
been insulting god.
34.21
ALFRED PORTER
…You knew basically that you cannot write anything
which would be negative about Soviet system, about
Communist party, about our bosses, uh, about
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
22
anything that, that was essence of Soviet system at
all. So everyone had a censor in his own head….
34.39
LEONID VLADIMIROV
Every journalist knew three iron rules - …first of all, no
negative event in the Soviet Union or in the Eastern
European countries can be reported straight ….. Rule
2, no positive event err in Capitalist countries can be
reported straight,... and the third rule, never
generalise.
…Whoever says that production of steel generally
goes down err compared to last year, would be erm,
laughed out of the err editorial office. Because that is
a generalisation …
.
35.32
35.59
ALFRED PORTER
You wouldn’t write that, that, that something is bad
because, because your editor will think that you are
an idiot a dangerous idiot. Also he can think that
maybe you are agent provocateur of KGB who want
to know the reaction of, by the editor. So editor will,
uh, ring KGB on you because he will be afraid that
you will ring KGB on him
NARRATOR
THE US CONFLICT WITH CUBA GAVE RUSSIAN
JOURNALISTS A RARE OPPORTUNITY FOR
“STRAIGHT” REPORTING.
36.13
WHEN CASTRO’S CUBA DEFEATED THE
AMERICAN BACKED INVASION AT THE BAY OF
PIGS, IT WAS A PROPAGANDA COUP FOR THE
SOVIETS.
36.21
VLADIMIR POZNER
Well the Bay of Pigs was a terrible American
miscalculation clearly. It was a disaster from the
military view point, it confirmed that the Soviet Union
had always said which was to say that American
imperialism er would use force against anything that it
saw as a threat, and there you there you saw this. It
also sent messages out to the rest of the world that
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
23
this is the way America er reacts to a er a system that
it doesn't like so that it really did Soviet propaganda a
tremendous favour, the Soviets could then sit back
and say "Hey look, we're not going to argue about
this, just look at what they did and draw your own
conclusion”
37.07
NARRATOR
SOVIET PROPAGANDA FILMS CAPITALISED ON
THE WAVE OF ANTI-AMERICAN
DEMONSTRATIONS THAT SPREAD ACROSS THE
WORLD.
37.24
EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATER, PRESIDENT
KENNEDY TURNED A SECOND CUBAN CRISIS TO
HIS ADVANTAGE.
37.36
US SPY PLANES HAD DETECTED THE SOVIETS
INSTALLING MISSILE LAUNCHERS IN CUBA.
THE COUNTRY WAS PUT ON ALERT FOR WORLD
WAR THREE.
37.47
37.58
38.11
ሁ
SOF
“Photographs rushed to the laboratory for developing
and printing showed positive proof that the nuclear
missiles and bombers posed an immediate threat to
the security of the U.S.”
NARRATOR
FOR 12 TENSE DAYS THE WORLD THOUGHT IT
STOOD ON THE BRINK OF NUCLEAR WAR. THEN
THE SOVIETS BACKED DOWN AND SHIPS
CARRYING MISSILES TO CUBA TURNED BACK.
GEN. A. HAIG
The American people were told but for a few heroic
moments by a democratic American president err,
Jack Kennedy, the world was saved the catastrophe
Soviet Propaganda Machine
24
of a nuclear Holocaust. That's nonsense, the
Russians at that time knew they were outgunned 20
to 1 by the United States, their missiles were all err,
err stone age technology they are not today but they
were then, and they would never have contemplated
a nuclear exchange with the United States, err, and
yet we believed that and we told that to the American
people.
38.52
39.09
cartoon
NARRATOR
THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS CREATED SO MUCH
FEAR AMONG ORDINARY PEOPLE, THAT BOTH
SOVIET AND AMERICAN GOVERNMENTS HAD TO
CHANGE THE THRUST OF THEIR PROPAGANDA.
NUCLEAR WAR WAS NOW PORTRAYED AS LESS
FRIGHTENING AND EVEN SURVIVABLE.
SOF
There was turtle by the name of Burt
& Bert the turtle was very alert.
When danger threatened him, he never got hurt, he
knew just what to do.
He’d duck and cover, duck and cover
NARRATOR
IN AMERICA MILLIONS OF SCHOOLCHILDREN
WERE TOLD THEY COULD SURVIVE A NUCLEAR
HOLOCAUST IF THEY FOLLOWED SOME RATHER
SIMPLE RULES.
SOF
You and I don’t have shells to crawl into like Bert the
turtle. So we have to cover up in our own way. First
you duck and then you cover & very tightly you cover
the back of your neck.
39.56
ሁ
NARRATOR
FOR THEIR PART, SOVIET CITIZENS WERE
TAUGHT TO PUT ON THEIR GAS MASKS AND
DAMP DOWN THE RADIATION BY HAND.
Soviet Propaganda Machine
25
40.00
Soviet nuclear
drill caption
RUSSIAN SOF - SUBTITLES
“Attack Repelled!”
40.16
VICTOR LISTOV
In every soviet institution they gave really boring
lectures on what to do in the event of a nuclear strike.
They were called "lectures on civil defence". And the
people responded to these lectures with a joke:
"When the Americans drop the atom bomb, what do
you have to do?
You have to put on a white sheet and slowly crawl to
the cemetery." "But why slowly?" "Very simple - so
you don't cause a panic."
man in white sheet
41.01
ሁ
TATIANA VORONTSOVA
At school they told us that there could be a nuclear
war. And they showed us films so that we knew what
it was. When we saw the films and saw the
mushroom cloud, after the blast we were terrified.
They told us that the bomb had been dropped in
Japan and that was very frightening too. They said
that only Americans could drop the bomb, so to us,
Americans were very bad people, they were the
enemy.
Soviet Propaganda Machine
41.50
26
NARRATOR
RUSSIA’S FEAR OF THEIR ENEMY HALF A
WORLD AWAY HAD FED SOVIET PROPAGANDA
FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES.
42.00
WHEN AMERICA’S FEAR OF THE COMMUNIST
THREAT TOOK IT INTO VIETNAM, IT PLAYED
STRAIGHT INTO THE HANDS OF SOVIET
PROPAGANDA.
42.10
Soviet arch Vietnam
RUSSIAN SOF - SUBTITLES
Yet another American president links his name to
crime. He rewards soldiers for the killings in Vietnam.”
42.22
NARRATOR
AMERICA’S BOMBING OF SOUTH EAST ASIA
DAMAGED ITS NAME AROUND THE WORLD.
42.36
WITH AMERICA’S IMAGE AT AN ALL TIME LOW.
THE TIME WAS RIPE TO RECRUIT NEW
CONVERTS TO THE COMMUNIST CAUSE.
42.48
THROUGHOUT THE THIRD WORLD, SOVIET
PROPAGANDA CONTRASTED THE EVILS OF
CAPITALISM WITH THE VIRTUES OF
COMMUNISM.
42.58
Congo arch
RUSSIAN SOF - SUBTITLES
“The people of the Congo aim to end the exploitation
of man by man and to gain real freedom and
happiness.”
43.08
HERB ROMERSTEIN
The so-called third world was extremely important to
the Soviet Union as a major battleground against the
West. In part because there were raw materials in the
third World, in part because they actually thought that
they could establish communist governments in some
of those countries.
Soviet Cartoon
NARRATOR
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
43.28
27
SOVIET PROPAGANDA CARTOONS WARNED THE
THIRD WORLD WHAT IT MEANT TO DO
BUSINESS WITH THE WEST.
HERB ROMERSTEIN
A lot of the soviet propaganda to developing countries
was to present a threat of western capitalism moving
into their countries and taking them over.
44.04
AL HAIG
I think the United States, generally didn’t do well, in, in
communicating with the developing world. In many of
those areas of the developing world, especially in
Africa for example, the impression developed that the
imperialist capitalist west didn’t care about their
inferior economic status.
44.31
Angola archive
RUSSIAN SOF - SUBTITLES
“In the Angolan jungle, peasants watch a film about
Lenin.”
44.44
44.56
45.11
ሁ
AL HAIG
The Soviet propaganda machine er provided a
panacea if you will, a solution for their problem, and it
had a tremendous appeal for downtrodden people.
NARRATION
AT ITS MOSCOW HEADQUARTERS, THE KGB SET
OUT TO FABRICATE ANTI-WESTERN STORIES
AND DISSEMINATE THEM THROUGH THE THIRD
WORLD. TO DO SO, IT CREATED A SPECIAL
DEPARTMENT FOR DISINFORMATION, HEADED
BY A FULL COLONEL.
LEONID VLADIMIROV
There used to be a Colonel of the KGB who was
simply planting newspapers erm launching
newspapers in other countries. And the rumours were
of course carefully prepared.
Soviet Propaganda Machine
28
It could be the spreading of AIDS by the American
Secret Laboratory, it could be the, the erm, err
biological establishment in Pakistan, producing
mosquitoes spreading diseases, it could be the trade
in the parts of human bodies from Latin America…
45.45
46.01
HERB ROMERSTEIN
A denial of the story didn’t always help because for
one thing the story was by that time being used by
KGB in other parts of the world, the denial would
never catch up to the original false story.
NARRATOR
IN 1980 THE SOVIET INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN
CHANGED EVERYTHING.
46.14
THE RED ARMY FOUND ITSELF BOGGED DOWN
IN A BLOODY GUERILLA WAR THAT IT COULD
NEVER WIN.
46.24
THE TEN-YEAR WAR IN AFGHANISTAN BECAME
THE SOVIETS OWN VIETNAM.
46.36
PROPAGANDA FILMS SHOWED SOVIET
SOLDIERS AS THE FRIENDS AND PROTECTORS
OF A SOCIALIST NEIGHBOUR.
46.45
BUT THE OFFICIAL LINE WAS BEGINNING TO
WEAR THIN.
46.49
JANE LITVINOVA
The Soviet media covered the invasion of Afghanistan
in the most obvious way. It was er told er that er now
we come to Afghanistan to help our Afghan brothers
to live in a nice country, and er, to er, overthrow this
er, er regime and er, all to be equal and socialist and
wonderful.
47.05
VICTOR LISTOV
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
29
When we went into Afghanistan it was no longer a
question of whether the propaganda was believable,
as it had become just a formality. For the Soviet
Union it was just another step towards the abyss that
wasn’t far away.
47.23
TATIANA VORONTSOVA
I thought it was very bad when the war started with
Afghanistan. It was of no use to anyone involved, not
to us, not to them, they were managing fine on their
own. At least now they are living their own lives. I
don’t know why we marched in. I am ashamed that
our men went into Afghanistan.
47.47
VLADIMIR POZNER
The Soviet's thought that it would be like a parade
they'd walk in and it would be all over, turned out to
be the opposite, turned out to be the Soviet Union's
Vietnam in more senses than one, not only because
they lost that war like the United States lost in, in
Vietnam, but also the moral of the fighting man, and
what it did to the country psychologically speaking is
also very much what Vietnam did to the United
States.
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
30
48.11
JANE LITVINOVA
We never knew what was going on from the state
propaganda. From the state news or in
newspapers……but some people went there. Some
young boys er returned to some of them in coffins,
some of their alive but wounded. Some of them
wounded physically, some of them wounded
morally….. and they told us exactly what it was
like….. the feeling of horror, their amount of blood to
the corruption of Lieutenants and Captains a lot of
very brutal murders…
48.49
VLADIMIR POZNER
As the war dragged on, as it became clear …that we
were not being told how many people were dying,
mothers were not being told that their that their
children had been killed, they were not allowed to
bury them publicly. The truth about the war was being
hidden from the population and that gradually became
public knowledge…The Government was engaged in
an unjust war and was lying to me, the average
citizen, about what was going on there. And lying in
the most horrendous way.
49.29
49.38
49.51
ሁ
NARRATOR
AFGHANISTAN CREATED AN ATMOSPHERE IN
WHICH PRESIDENT REAGAN COULD DENOUNCE
THE SOVIET UNION AS AN EVIL EMPIRE.
SOF
“To ignore the facts of history and the aggressive
impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms
race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove
yourself from the struggle between right and wrong
and good and evil.”
NARRATOR
THE MILITARY EFFECTIVENESS OF PRESIDENT
REAGAN’S STRATEGIC DEFENSE INITIATIVE,
Soviet Propaganda Machine
31
WAS NEVER TESTED, BUT “STAR WARS” WAS,
PERHAPS, THE MOST EFFECTIVE PROPAGANDA
COUP OF THE COLD WAR.
50.02
VLADIMIR POZNER
To Ronald Reagan, it very much fitted in to his the
cowboy riding off into the sunset with the guns blazing
and all of this, it is a great idea, we're gonna put up
these, these shields and the United States err is going
to be totally protected from the evil empire.
50.19
Cartoon
SOF
“I asked my daddy what the star wars stuff was all
about. He said that right now we can’t protect
ourselves against nuclear weapons and that’s why the
president wants to build a peace shield. It would stop
missiles in outer space so they couldn’t hit our house,
then nobody could win a war and if nobody could win
a war, there’s no reason to start one.”
50.48
51.02
Soviet Arch. Star Wars
51.16
NARRATOR
IN MOSCOW STAR WARS WAS PRESENTED
VERY DIFFERENTLY.
RUSSIAN SOF -SUBTITLES
“As this animation shows, everything looks great but
even the Americans themselves are always saying
that a certain percentage of soviet missiles will get
through and this will mean a catastrophe and
universal death.”
GEN. AL HAIG
It created incredible nervousness in the Kremlin so in
that context unconsciously it became a very important
propaganda tool.
NARRATOR
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
32
51.31
PART PROPAGANDA. PART BLUFF. STAR WARS
HELPED PERSUADE MIKAIL GORBACHEV TO
SIGN A TREATY WITH AMERICA.
51.40
THE NUCLEAR ARMS RACE HAD DOMINATED
THE COLD WAR. NOW, IT WAS OVER.
51.49
THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER PRESIDENT
REAGAN HAD BEEN AN EAGER MOUTHPIECE
FOR ANTI-COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA - IT FELL
TO HIM TO BRING THE PROPAGANDA WAR TO A
CLOSE.
51.59
Reagan toasts
Gorbachev
SOF
“General Secretary and Mrs Gorbachev, to your
health….”
52.12
NARRATOR
THE PROPAGANDA WAR LEFT MOST
AMERICANS RELATIVELY UNSCATHED.
52.20
BUT FOR THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE ITS LEGACY
HAS BEEN FAR MORE PAINFUL AND ENDURING.
52.26
TATIANA VORONTSOVA
I don't even want to look back at my life, because they
led us. They said turn left and I turned left. They said
turn right and I turned right. I virtually didn't have my
own brain. I couldn’t think for myself because if I did I
was afraid I would be punished for that thought.
52.53
VLADIMIR POZNER
I think that propaganda is the tool of governments, of
power, and in the long run, it is average people who
pay for it, and it's not soon that you're going to find
people with any real kind of political ideals in Russia.
They’ve been lied to so terribly that they no longer
have the desire to believe in anything.
THE END
ሁ
Soviet Propaganda Machine
ሁ
33
Soviet Propaganda Machine
RED FILES: SOVIET PROPAGANDA MACHINE
PRONOUNCIATIONS
Pg6
Boris Yefimov
BORIS YE-FEM-OFF
Pg 11
Mikail Yefimov
ME-KYLE YE-FEM-OFF
Pg15
Tatiana Vorontsova
TATIANA VORONT-SOVA
Pg16
Pavlic Morozov
PAV-LIK MOR-ROZ-OFF
Pg 23
Nikita Khruschev
NI-KEETA KHRUS-CHEV
Pg31
Joe Adamov
JOE ADAM-OFF
Pg 32
Izvestia
IS-VEST-IA
Pg 32
Victor Listov
VICTOR LEEST-OFF
ሁ
34