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• 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 Multi-Disciplinary Nature of the “New Propaganda History”

New PropagandaHistory Political

anthropology

Politicalsociology

Politicalpsychology

New social history

New political history

New culturalhistory

Communicationtheory

Major Problematic Areas of the « New Propaganda History »

• 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

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