Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Propaganda, Soviet – History'

This thesis is the first detailed study of the way in which science and technology were portrayed in propaganda and popular culture during the Khrushchëv period, a time when the Soviet leadership invested significant resources, both at home and abroad, in order to capitalise on its scientific achievements. It draws upon a wide range of previously unseen materials from the archives of the RSFSR Ministry of Education, the Soviet Academy of Sciences, the State Committee on Radio and Television and the Central Committee of the CPSU. It provides the first archive-based analysis of the lecturing organisation 'Znanie', which was crucial to the dissemination of Soviet propaganda in the post-war period. The thesis also makes use of a variety of published sources, such as popular science publications and journals, as well as a number of Soviet films from the Khrushchëv period. The thesis examines the manner in which scientific information was disseminated to the Soviet public and the ways in which public scientific opinion was able to participate in, and influence, this process. It is shown that a general lack of institutionalised control enabled members of the scientific intelligentsia to exercise a degree of control over the content of scientific propaganda, often in a very idiosyncratic fashion. The way in which the rhetorical and ideological presentation of science changed during the Khrushchëv period (often identified as 'the Thaw') is analysed, and it is shown that while Soviet popular science did become increasingly open to foreign influence it became preoccupied with new threats, such as generational and personal conflict. The thesis also uses the available sources to consider popular responses to scientific propaganda and, in particular, whether attempts to use scientific-atheistic propaganda to create a 'materialist' worldview amongst Soviet citizens met with any success. The thesis provides detailed case studies of the use of science in Khrushchëv's atheistic campaigns, of propaganda surrounding early Soviet achievements in the space race and of the portrayal of the Lysenko controversy in the popular media.

The use of arguments containing increasingly technical materials has grown significantly in the recent years. Specifically, arguments that are used to justify military expenditures or to allege violations of international agreements are becoming more sophisticated. This study examines the dissemination and use of technical argument in claims made by the United States government that the Soviet Union violated chemical and biological treaties in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan. This study employs the Jowett-O'Donnell method for analyzing propaganda to determine the extent and effectiveness of the government's claims. The study concludes that propaganda was used extensively by the government in order to justify new weapons programs and that the propaganda campaign was effective because of the technological orientation of its claims.

In both western and Russian historiography the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40 enjoys, at best, only a passing reference in any narrative of the period and is poorly integrated into existing scholarly analyses of the Soviet regime under Stalin. It is my contention that this conflict offers an invaluable opportunity to test for continuity and change in the form and function of the Stalinist system. Between the disastrous efforts of its forces and the condemnation of the international community, the Kremlin was confronted with the serious challenge of how to portray the events of the war in the media, while managing domestic and international opinion over the course of the fighting. This thesis examines the extent to which the Soviet regime under Stalin had the institutions and agents in place at the close of the 1930s to cope with the crisis of war in Finland; to be in command of the military campaign, while simultaneously controlling the direction of the official narrative about the fighting; and to censor conflicting interpretations, experiences and information channels, which might expose the Red Army's woeful performance on Finnish territory. This mobilisation of press, propaganda and censorship organs in the face of widespread international condemnation and domestic disquiet constituted a significant challenge for a regime still dealing with the sudden reorientation of the Communist International, required after the Soviet Union's conclusion of a non-aggression treat with Nazi Germany in August 1939. An international perspective is central to this thesis, with a view towards assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the public face and private practice of Soviet information controls.

La investigación ha abordado los contactos oficiales y extraoficiales entre España y la Unión Soviética durante el siglo XX, y, especialmente, se ha centrado en la proyección del modelo soviético desplegado por las Asociaciones de Amistad, tales como la Sección Española de los Amigos de la Unión Soviética y la Asociación España - URSS, como un medio de calibrar su impacto en España. Asimismo, se ha prestado atención a las asociaciones de amistad británicas para comparar el relativo éxito de estas asociaciones en los dos países. Las principales fuentes utilizadas han sido los fondos VOKS y SODD, procedentes de los archivos estatales rusos, documentos privados de las Asociaciones y testimonios, los cuales han sido cruciales para comprender estas asociaciones, los problemas que encararon así como sus éxitos y fracasos. Las Asociaciones de Amistad con la Unión Soviética fueron un medio de difundir ideales - el antifascismo y la coexistencia pacífica- defendidos por el gobierno Soviético. Así, estas asociaciones constituyeron un tipo de diplomacia popular. En términos generales, la gente que creía en un modelo diferente al capitalista se unió a estas asociaciones y proveyeron ejemplos de respecto en un mundo multicultural. Debido a ello, su mensaje no es obsoleto en el mundo de hoy.
The research deals with the official and unofficial contacts between Spain and the Soviet Union, focussing particularly on those perceptions of the latter disseminated through the various Friendship societies, such as the Spanish Friends of the Soviet Union and the Spain - USSR Society. As a way of assessing their impact in Spain, a chapter is dedicated to the British Friendship societies, which will compare the relative successes of these societies in the two countries. The main sources utilized have been the VOKS and SSOD files from the Russian Federation archives, private documents of the societies and testimonies, which have been crucial to understanding these associations, the problems they faced, as well as their successes and failures.The friendship societies with the Soviet Union were a way of spreading ideals -antifascism and peaceful coexistence - championed by the Soviet government. As such, these societies were a type of popular diplomacy. Broadly speaking, people who believed in a different model than capitalism joined these associations and they provided examples of respect in a multicultural world. Because of that, their message is not obsolete in today's world.

A travers l’étude de l’œuvre du cinéaste Roman Karmen, nous souhaitons reconstituer un patrimoine et tenter d’en définir les enjeux autour de questions historiographiques. En effet, les images de l’opérateur soviétique n’ont pas seulement marqué l’histoire du XXème, elles ont en partie contribué à la construire en un objet unique. Les propriétés métonymiques de l’image (photographies et prises de vues) ont bouleversé notre perception en même temps qu’elles ont participé à la construction d’un récit historique général d’un nouvel ordre. Il s’agit d’un récit visuel complexe où se mêlent prises de vues sur le vif et mises en scène, motifs et emblèmes, personnages principaux, personnages secondaires et masses anonymes. Disséminées, ces prises de vues constituent le principal réservoir d’images dites d’archives dont se servent régulièrement les documentaristes contemporains pour faire « témoigner l’Histoire ». Retracer le parcours de Karmen permet de revenir aux sources de ces images, de comprendre leurs enjeux, leurs contextes de production et leurs rapports au sein d’une œuvre dont le récit se confond avec l’Histoire. Nous faisons ici l’hypothèse que ce récit constitué de prises de vues, d’actualités et de films documentaires est à l’origine « d’une vulgate soviétique de l’Histoire »
With the study of Roman Karmen’s cinematographic work, we want to retrace a heritage and to identify its implications through an historiographical approach. Not only did the Soviet filmmaker’s images go down in history but they also contributed to shape the twentieth century into a single object. Indeed, the metonymic properties of Karmen’s shootings (cinematographic photography and live action) upset our perception and contributed to build an historical account that sustains a new order. It is a complex visual narrative bringing together live action and staging, subjects and emblems, main characters, secondary characters and anonymous masses. Disseminated, Roman Karmen’s work is the main reservoir of “archival images” often used by contemporary documentary filmmakers as a mean to present “first-hand History”. Following Roman Karmen’s artistic itinerary allows us to gain a better understanding of these images: their initial purposes, their making process, and their relationships in a work within which story merges with History. We assume that this narrative consisting of pictures, cinematic newsreels, and documentary films shaped the “Soviet vulgate of history”

This dissertation is a quantitative study with elements of qualitative analysis. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate WHAT was written about Ukraine's independence 1917 in Swedish press 1917–1918. The qualitative part of the survey was intended to answer the question if the newspaper's political attitude influenced the news reports during the chosen period. The exact periodization was determined to be between March 1, 1917 and June 30, 1918. This periodization was chosen because of the March Revolution in 1917, which triggered independence declarations in a number of countries oppressed by Moscow, who now saw their chance of freedom. June 1918 became the end of the investigation because it was just when the peace agreement between Ukraine and the Soviet Union was signed. The source material has been chosen to represent a multitude of ideological orientations. It was liberal, moderate, conservative, liberal and left-wing orientations. The source material consisted of newspaper articles from the following newspapers: Dagens Nyheter, Aftonbladet, Göteborgs Aftonblad, Svenska Dagbladet, Dalpilen, Kalmar Tidning and Norrskensflamman. Quantitative methodology was used on the source material. This method consisted of a reviewing of newspaper articles in searching of news reports from Ukraine or articles which had something to do with the events in Ukraine. Every newspaper was searched day after day. The crawled material was presented in two chapters representing different periods. The first chapter of the results presented the results from 1917, and more precisely from March to December 1917. The second chapter presented the results from 1918, but also from December 1917, that is, the result from December 1917 through June 1918. The whole result was then discussed in a separate chapter where the qualitative analysis was also discussed. The result of the quantitative analysis showed that it has been written relatively sparcely about Ukraine's independence although the volume of articles increased from December 1917 and even more in 1918. Sometimes there were articles on the first page. But for the most part, the articles with Ukraine issues were placed among other foreign articles. It was also found in the survey that it was the first World War that drew attention to the newspapers, even though the events in Petrograd and then in Ukraine took more space. This survey also showed that what was written about Ukraine's independence was also what appears in the reference literature. The news reports reported how Ukraine proclaimed independence in March 1917 and later on proclaimed an independent republic in November 1917 when the Bolsheviks conducted their coup d'état in Petrograd. The newspapers also wrote how the Russian Communists sent a declaration of war to Ukraine in December 1917 and about the war that followed. The articles also tell us how negotiations on Ukraine Peace went on in Brest-Litovsk, and how they ended up with alliance between Germany and Ukraine with the campaign against the communists. It was told how the German army marched into Ukraine to free it from the bolsheviks. Until May 1918 there were battles between the German-Ukrainian Army and the Communists. In June 1918 the peace agreement was signed and this survey’s investigation ended. The survey showed that it was written about Ukraine's independence in all newspapers. Dagens Nyheter had the most news articles linked to the survey. Although the number of articles was not subject for analysis in this survey. The qualitative analysis was based on using Höjelid's theoretical concepts "positive sound" and "negative sound" on the quantitative analysis material. The qualitative analysis’ result showed that it was almost impossible to see the differences between the newspapers because the articles were traded between the newspapers, i.e. the content was copied straight away. It should be noted that not all content was the subject of copying between the newspapers. Copying occurred to a greater extent, but there were still original articles derived from the respective newspaper. Most of the articles were also direct telegrams that were communicated abroad to the newspaper's editors. A lot of these telegrammic articles were sent with a purpose to mislead society. These angled articles were published without further examination in Swedish press. There were articles from, for example, Dagens Nyheter whose editors noted the "strange Petrograd reports" and informed about it for the purpose of enlightening the public. However, as most newspapers were occupied with World War I, as was shown in the source material, the newspaper editorial office was less interested in other foreign events. Therefore, such angled articles could be found in Swedish press on a larger scale.
Denna avhandling är en kvantitativ studie med inslag av kvalitativ analys. Syftet med denna kvantitativa studien var att undersöka VAD som skrevs om Ukrajinas självständighet 1917 i svensk press 1917–1918. Den kvalitativa delen av undersökningen ämnade att besvara frågan om tidningens politiska hållningen påverkade nyhetsrapporteringen under den valda perioden. Den exakta periodiseringen fastställdes att vara mellan den 1 mars 1917 och den 30 juni 1918. Denna periodisering valdes på grund av marsrevolutionen 1917 som utlöste självständighets-förklaringar i en rad länder som var förtryckta av Moskovitien och som nu såg sin chans till frihet. Juni 1918 blev slutpunkten i undersökningen därför att det var just då som fredsavtalet mellan Ukrajina och Sovjet undertecknades. Källmaterialet har valts att representera en mångfald ideologiska inriktningar. Det var liberal, moderat, konservativ, frisinnad samt vänstersocial inriktningar. Källmaterialet bestod av tidningsartiklar från följande tidningar: Dagens Nyheter, Aftonbladet, Göteborgs Aftonblad, Svenska Dagbladet, Dalpilen, Kalmar tidning och Norrskensflamman. Det användes kvantitativ metod på källmaterialet som bestod i en genomsökning av tidningsartiklarna efter nyhetsrapporter från Ukrajina eller som hade något med händelserna i Ukrajina att göra. Varje tidning genomsöktes dag för dag. Det genomsökta materialet presenterades i två kapitel som representerade olika perioder. Det första resultatkapitlet presenterade resultatet från år 1917, och mer exakt från mars till december 1917. Det andra kapitlet presenterade resultatet från år 1918, men även från december 1917, det vill säga resultatet från och med december 1917 till och med juni 1918. Det hela resultatet diskuterades sedan i ett eget kapitel där även den kvalitativa analysen diskuterades. Resultatet från den kvantitativa analysen visade att det har skrivits relativt sparsmakat om Ukrajinas självständighet även om artikelmängden ökade från december 1917 och ännu mer under 1918. Ibland förekom det artiklar på första sidan. Men för det mesta placerades artiklarna med Ukrajina-frågor bland andra utlandsartiklar. Det framgick också i undersökningen att det var mest första världskriget som upptog tidningarnas uppmärksamhet, även om händelserna i Petrograd och sedan i Ukrajina tog allt mer plats allt eftersom. Denna undersökning visade också att det som skrevs om Ukrajinas självständighet var också det som förekommer i referenslitteraturen. Nyhetsrapporterna berättade hur Ukrajina utropat sin självständighet i mars 1917 tills landet proklamerat en oberoende republik i november 1917 när bolsjevikerna genomförde sin statskupp i Petrograd. Tidningarna skrev också hur de ryska kommunisterna skickade krigsförklaring till Ukrajina i december 1917 och om det kriget som följde efter det. Artiklarna berättar även om hur förhandlingarna för Ukrajinafreden gick till i Brest-Litovsk samt hur dessa avslutades med att Tyskland allierade sig med Ukrajina i kampen mot kommunisterna. Det berättades hur den tyska armén marscherade in i Ukrajina för att befria det från bolsjevikerna. Fram till maj 1918 pågick det strider mellan tysk-ukrajinska armén och kommunisterna. I juni 1918 undertecknades fredsavtalet och där slutade undersökningen.  Undersökningen visade att det skrevs om Ukrajinas självständighet i samtliga tidningar. Dagens Nyheter hade flest nyhetsartiklar kopplade till undersökningen. Även om antalet artiklar ej var i syfte att analysera i denna undersökning. Den kvalitativa analysen gick ut på att använda Höjelids teoretiska begrepp ”positiv klang” och ”negativ klang” på den kvantitativa analysens resultatmaterial. Det kvalitativa resultatet visade att det var nästintill omöjligt att se skillnad mellan de olika tidningarna eftersom artiklarna traderades mellan tidningarna, det vill säga innehållet kopierades rakt av. Det bör påpekas att inte allt innehåll var ämne för kopiering mellan tidningarna. Kopieringen förekom i större utsträckning men det fanns ändå originella artiklar som härstammade från respektive tidning. De flesta av artiklarna var dessutom direkta telegram som kommunicerades i utlandet till tidningens redaktioner. En hel del av dessa telegraferade artiklar skickades med ett givet syfte att vilseleda samhällsopinionen. Dessa vinklade artiklar publicerades utan vidare granskning i svensk press. Det förekom artiklar från exempelvis Dagens Nyheter vars redaktion uppmärksammat de ”märkliga Petrogradrapporter” och informerat om det i möjligt syfte att upplysa allmänheten. Men eftersom de flesta tidningarna var upptagna med första världskriget, som det visades i källmaterialet, var tidningsredaktionerna mindre intresserade av andra utländska händelser. Därför kunde sådana vinklade artiklar förekomma i svensk press i en större omfattning.

The diploma thesis is devoted to the analysis of anti-religious propaganda conducted by the Bolshevik government in the 1920s and 1930s on the example of materials published in the Bezbozhnik magazine. The work outlines the historical context of the Soviet anti-religious policy of the interwar period, and describes the activities of the main anti-religious organization, the League of Militant Atheists and its leader Yemelyan Yaroslavsky. Furthermore, the publishing activities of the League of Militant Atheists and the network of periodicals published by it are described. In its core the work focuses on the analysis of the main anti-religious periodical, which was the newspaper and later the magazine Bezbožnik. The basic methods of propaganda used by this periodical are described in connection with the propagandistic character of contemporary Soviet art. Special attention is paid to the illustrative material in the magazine, especially the anti-religious cartoon and its sources. The work is a contribution to understanding the functioning of communist totalitarian ideology and its influence in the media space.

Defence date: 15 December 2017
Examining Board: Prof. Stephen Anthony Smith, Oxford University (Supervisor); Prof. Michel Offerlé, Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm) (Co-supervisor); Prof. Alexander Etkind, European University Institute; Prof. David Priestland, Oxford University
The Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) was founded after the Soviet victory at Stalingrad in 1943 with the mission of training a new generation of flag bearers of Communist ideals and Soviet State interests on the international scene, the so-called meždunarodniki. Often cited as the alma mater of most of the leading figures involved in the conduct of the Soviet diplomacy during Cold War, the MGIMO has received paradoxically little attention from scholars. Most researchers who have mentioned it present the Institute either as a crucible of social reproduction in the 1970s Soviet Union or as a subversive place, whose ‘net thinking’ paved the way to Gorbachev’s perestroika. For their part, numerous meždunarodniki describe the MGIMO as a Soviet Tsarskoye Selo or a Communist Lyceum: they surprisingly refer to their experience at the Institute in terms redolent of Russian imperial history, stressing the fact that they were much more than experts in foreign affairs and that they occupied a distinct place within the Soviet elite. Ranging from the end of World War II to the collapse of the USSR, this research aims at analyzing the making of a hybrid social category, what I describe as Party nobility in the Soviet Union, the identity of which shaped and was shaped by the Cold War. How did an institution and its alumni form a distinct social group that sat at the very core of the Cold War enterprise? How did MGIMO become the place where a specific praxis of foreign affairs was inculcated, based on the hybridisation of aristocratic manners and communist ethics during the Khrushchev and the Brezhnev era? Why was the loyalty of both the institution and the social group put into question during perestroika as early as 1985? These are some of the main questions this research will answer.

Group songs with direct political messages rose to enormous popularity during the interwar period (1918-1939), particularly in recently-defeated Germany and in the newly-established Soviet Union. This dissertation explores the musical relationship between these two troubled countries and aims to explain the similarities and differences in their approaches to collective singing. The discussion of the very complex and problematic relationship between the German left and the Soviet government sets the framework for the analysis of music. Beginning in late 1920s, as a result of Stalin's abandonment of the international revolutionary cause, the divergences between the policies of the Soviet government and utopian aims of the German communist party can be traced in the musical propaganda of both countries.

There currently exists no scholarly literature providing a wide-ranging view of the German and Soviet musical exchange during the 1920s and 30s. The paucity of comprehensive studies is especially apparent in the English-language scholarship on German and Russian mass music, also known as "music for the people." Even though scholars have produced works devoted to the Soviet and Weimar mass music movements in isolation, they rarely explore the musical connections between the two countries. The lack of scholarship exploring the musical exchanges between the Soviet Union and Germany suggests that scholars have not yet fully examined the influences that the Soviet and German mass songs and their proponents had on each other during the 1920s and 1930s. Exposing these musical influences provides a valuable perspective on the broader differences and similarities between the Soviet and German communist parties. The connections between Soviet and German songs went beyond straightforward translations of propaganda texts from one language to another; the musical and textual transformations--such as word changes, differences in the instrumental arrangements, and distinct approaches to performance--allow for a more nuanced comparison of the philosophical, ideological, and political aspects of Soviet and the German communist movements. In my dissertation, I consider the musical roots of collective singing in Germany as opposed to Russia, evaluate the musical exchanges and borrowings between the early Soviet communists and their counterparts in the Weimar Republic, and explore the effects of musical propaganda on the working classes of both countries. I see my research as a mediation of existing Soviet and Weimar music scholarship.

Dissertation

La chute de l’URSS en 1991 a permis un renouvellement de l’historiographie occidentale sur l’histoire de ce pays durant la Guerre froide : avec l’accès à de nouvelles archives, les dimensions sociales et culturelles sont désormais prisées et la production culturelle soviétique est examinée avec un regard plus apaisé. À partir de 1967, un magazine à grand tirage soviétique fait son apparition dans plusieurs villes occidentales : le Spoutnik Digest. Son titre évoque à la fois le satellite soviétique, qui a fasciné la planète dix ans plus tôt, et le Reader’s Digest, le magazine américain agrégateur de contenu le plus vendu et le plus lu dans le monde à l’époque. La revue mensuelle, quoique similaire à son homologue américain au premier regard, contient des textes exclusivement issus d’Union soviétique et de ses journaux officiels. Comme le Reader’s Digest, le Spoutnik Digest est un objet de propagande, mais la revue offre un regard différent sur l’URSS durant la Guerre froide et sur les tensions mondiales de l’époque : dans le Spoutnik Digest, l’URSS est un pays pacifique, culturellement riche et où il fait bon vivre, la revue priorisant la valorisation du monde communiste plutôt que la critique du capitalisme et des États-Unis en particulier. En ce sens, le Spoutnik Digest se distingue clairement du Reader’s Digest, dont l’anticommunisme est agressif et omniprésent. Ce mémoire étudie le Spoutnik Digest en tant qu’objet historique et culturel entre les années 1968 et 1988. L’analyse de sa forme et de son contenu porte sur les origines de cette revue, son lectorat cible et les thèmes les plus couverts, révélant au final le message soviétique de paix et de bonne volonté politique que le magazine tentait de transmettre dans le monde durant la Guerre froide.
The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 allowed the Cold War historiography to renew itself: social and cultural dimensions are acknowledged and the outlook on the cultural material emanating from USSR can be analyzed with more scientific objectivity and an appeased perspective. In 1967, a new magazine appeared in many Western cities: the Sputnik Digest. Its name referred both to the Soviet satellite that fascinated the world ten years earlier and the Reader’s Digest, the famous American magazine specialized in content aggregating, the most read and sold internationally at the time. The Sputnik Digest, published on a monthly basis, even though looking similar to its American counterpart at first sight, contained texts directly extracted from official Soviet newspapers in USSR. Without doubt a propaganda tool, like its American counterpart, the magazine however offered a fresh insight of the USSR during the Cold War: from the Sputnik Digest point of view, the Soviet Union was a peaceful country, culturally rich and a great place to live in. The magazine prioritized the valorisation of the USSR as opposed to criticizing the capitalist Western powers and the United States. From that standpoint it radically diverged from the aggressive ideological tone of the Reader’s Digest. This master’s thesis, through this new perspective, will study the Sputnik Digest as a historical and cultural object between the years 1968 and 1988. By looking both at its format and content, it will examine the origins of this monthly journal, its targeted readership and the most covered themes, revealing the message of Soviet peace and goodwill that the magazine tried to spread worldwide during the Cold War.

This diploma thesis focuses on the appropriate and effective use of film and serial adaptations of topics falling into the period of communist totalitarianism in Czechoslovakia (that is between 1948 and 1989, with emphasis on the period 1948-1969). The thesis is divided into four chapters, whereas the main part, which is didactic, is described in the third and fourth chapter. The first chapter describes the basic historical context of the communist government in Czechoslovakia between 1948 and 1989. It also shows and explains the origin of the idea of communism, the further development of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia during the First Republic, and the postwar Third Republic. This chapter was put together using found edited sources and secondary literature. The second chapter deals with individual film and serial processing of topics related to the period. It presents specific films and series which were produced in the most recent years (or the post-revolutionary period), but also materials produced during the totalitarianism before 1989. In this chapter some works are discussed in greater detail, others are presented as selected alternative options for interaction for educational purposes. The third chapter summarizes the didactic and historical potential of the discussed topic, it also...