Soviet Ideology, Cultural Policy, and Propaganda
Marxism-Leninism ideology and its connection to Soviet cultural policies is a topic of frequent exploration, however this paper will take that common investigation a step further by considering the role of Soviet propaganda and its relationship to the shifting ideologies of the Soviet Union and its official cultural policies. The research will be carried out by identifying the nature of Soviet ideology as well as what it entails. Furthermore, Stalin-era Soviet cultural policy will be explored as it pertains to the aforementioned ideology as well as the contrary characteristics of socialist realism. After defining propaganda, the themes and characteristics of Soviet propaganda will then be analyzed in regards to Soviet ideology and cultural policy, as well as an interpretation of the political tool’s role will be made paying considerable attention to the unfixed notions of Soviet ideology. While the Soviet practice of propaganda may not coincide entirely with the notions of their ideology and the cultural policy, in practice, the propaganda was more relevant than the ideology and policy it served due to the fact that it clearly represented the ambitions and state-of-mind of the ruling Soviet Communist Party and can furthermore claim that the policies and ideology in fact operated for the propaganda apparatus. This paper will argue that Soviet propaganda apparatus became more important than the Soviet ideology itself.
Ideology of the Soviet Union: The power of ideas to shape or determine reality
Established in 1922, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a specifically centralized single-party state governed by the Vladimir Lenin-founded Communist Party. Politically recognized a...
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...volution. The ruling Communist Party would then put the Marxism-Leninism ideology in motion through its ever-narrowing cultural policy as it attempted to put the Marxist ideas into practice with intent to create a new Soviet nation. One such method of achieving this nation was through the use of propaganda. However in the case of the Soviet Union, due to the fact that the ideology and policy's was inconsistent nature and was prone to changes, the propaganda apparatus within the Soviet Union took a much different role than historically traditional practices of propaganda. This role would see the ideology and cultural policy being used as the tool of the propaganda rather than vice-versa. Therefore the new relationship between soviet ideology and propaganda supports the claim that the practice of propaganda was in fact bigger than the ideology itself in Soviet Russia.
This was, of course, only a humorous exaggeration, a case of political satire. Yet beneath the humor, there lies a very profound testament to the belief that Russia's political culture has been inherited from its czarist days and manifested throughout its subsequent development. The traditions from the pre-Revolution and pre-1921 Russia, it seems, had left its brand on the 70-years of Communist rule. The Soviet communism system was at once a foreign import from Germany and a Russian creation: "on the one hand it is international and a world phenomenon; on the other hand it is national and Russian…it was Russian history which determined its limits and shaped its character." (Berdyaev, "Origin")
Both the superpowers have made use of the propaganda to fight the Cold War. Propaganda is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause of point of view. Especially, the USSR or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics efficiently manipulated the prop...
“The Sources of Soviet Conduct” Foreign Affairs, 1947, explains the difficulty of summarizing Soviet ideology. For more than 50 years, the Soviet concept held the Russian nations hypnotized, discontented, unhappy, and despondent confined to a very limited Czarist political order. Hence, the rebel support of a bloody Revolution, as a means to “social betterment” (Kennan, 567). Bolshevism was conceptualized as “ideological and moral, not geopolitical or strategic”. Hoover declares that… “five or six great social philosophies were struggling for ascendancy” (Leffler, The Specter of Communism, 20).
Words and images were silent weapons used by all governments involved during World War II. Wars are generally fought between soldiers, but the different ideologies often meet on the battlefield as well. The support of the people is crucial during these times since it general knowledge that strength relies on numbers. Propaganda targets people’s emotions and feelings and changes people’s perception about a particular idea, people or situation. Propaganda goes hand in hand with the art of persuasion and convincing; these tools can control and manipulate the collective minds of massive amount of its audience. During World War II, for instance, the elements of war were taken from the location of the military fights and brought to the households of millions of families. Advertising has the power to sell ideas, to give or take away hope, and to boosts people´s morale; the ideas that were presented to the public through propaganda are immortal, they linger in the nation’s memory. Images often displayed in posters and pamphlets during war time, were an essential factor to gain peoples support and trust, images attract people’s attention with more efficiency than word. It is an effective mean to attract attention; it I said that images speak louder than words and this case is not the exception. Media, during World War II, was the catalyst which increased the magnitude of the issue that was being confronted. This event left a mark in our history since its objective was to generate hatred between ethnics. It is in our nature, the human nature, to take our own culture as a point of reference to judge others, this is a phenomenon called ethnocentrism and it is fuelled bye prejudice and stereotyping. Throughout history whenever technologically...
Ideology is created by the double-movement of idealization and desire. The model, the idealized Capitalist figure for the self, creates its own ideological structure as a means to selfing, as an objectified desired on the official apparatus of the communication and creation of Capitalist ideology, the television screen:
Part II of this chapter mainly focuses on how the Bolsheviks moved forward, obtained and revolutionised the way in which the world was in the times of revolution. For some the times of revolution was a time of grave concern, however the Bolsheviks had not this issue. As proven by Hobsbawm, stating that the Bolsheviks ‘grew from a small troop of a few thousand in March 1917 to a quarter of a million members by the early summer of that year’ (Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 61). The way they thrived in such a time was that they were not only efficient at recognising what the people wanted, but they were convincing in how they would give it to them, this is a main reason tha...
In the most destructive war in the history, propaganda became a new way of attempt to influence in a huge manner a notable percent of public opinion by using media or any alternative via of communication. Somehow, in World War II the known term ‘’propaganda’’ started to present negative connotations. In Germany this new way to express information among the population was invented by the Nazi’s which name given was ´´negative propaganda.’’ The Völkischer Beobachter, that means, ``People´s observer´´, serves as an example of Nazi´s ideology to disturb human’s minds in order to make them do something they did not felt comfortable doing. Perhaps newspapers were established in many territories that were conquered during the war, Nazi’s journalist made negative propaganda tending to persuade. Hitler, in contrast, was a great speaker. His oratory was his major and most powerful weapon, a factor in his rise.
Cassier, M. (1999) The Shattered Horizon, How Ideology Mattered to Soviet Politics. Studies in European Thought, 51(1). 35-59.
The domination of political control must be all encompassing and commands authority from the public and private lives of citizens to the functions of social and economic institutions in order to be distinguished as a totalitarian state. Through the study of Juan Linz, Hannah Arendt and other political philosophers, we are able to define the Soviet Union under Stalin’s control as a true totalitarian regime. The simultaneous components of the center of power surrounding Stalin and his Central Committee, a Stalinist ideology manipulated from Marxist and Leninist philosophy, and the mobilization of the population to participate in collectivization and the Five-Year Plans are parallel to Linz’s three basic characteristics a totalitarian system: a monistic centre of power, an ruling ideology and an active participation of citizens for social tasks. The terror legitimized by this ideology, the propaganda surrounding Stalin’s “personality cult”, the millions of citizens purged in the 1930’s and the constant fear of internal enemies and surveillance by both the secret police and friends and neighbours defines totalitarianism as Arendt’s “novel form of government.” A totalitarian movement reaches deep into every aspect of society with a monopolized power that attempts to control every citizen's thoughts and actions. It spawns from the myth of total unity or as Stalin describes, unity of a “living organism.” The vision of the party members and citizens must completely align with those of the great leader as they are working towards a collective future and while total immersion is expected, surveillance and terror will promise to oust any hidden dissidents. Stalin as a leader functioned ruthlessly and efficiently to develop the Soviet Union ...
The soviet communist party, or the Bolsheviks, always new that strong propaganda was essential to increase the consciousness of the masses. As stated in the Encyclopedia of Propaganda, " propaganda was central to Marxist-Leninist ideology long before the Bolshevik revolution of 1917."(675) The power of persuasion and coercion were exercised with great force by Soviet leaders. The two leaders whom utilized propaganda to influence public opinion in the USSR were Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. Both men used many different facets of the media to spread their propaganda. They also used the troubled social climate along with the ignorance of the masses to custom tailor a regime that lasted for over seven decades.
ABSTRACT: Both domestic and foreign policies of each state presuppose a certain ideology as a foundation. In a broad sense, an ideology may be regarded as a certain 'system of coordinates,' an interpretational model of the world (Weltanschauung) including both empirico-theoretical (realizing a nation's place in regional and global contexts, with a clear understanding of national interests, goals and resources) and metatheoretical (comprehending a nation in the context of human history and culture) levels. Some of the main issues on the agenda in Russia are the clear understanding and definition of national goals and interests, the formulation of a strategy of development in economic, -social, political, etc., arenas, and the establishment of both domestic and foreign policy. I suggest that Russia currently does not have an ideology or a system of values able to unite the society. In short, I argue that Russia needs a new strategy of development, a new national idea which can replace (or fill the vacuum left by the collapse of) the old communist ideology.
The general perspective of the Soviet Union was that the country was a dictatorship, specifically, an oppressive, brutal, top-down autocracy that guided all aspects of life of its people. From grocery stores having set quantities of goods, only purchasable by ration card, to strict, set times of work and off-duty hours, to censored press, The Soviet Union was indeed a dictatorial state. However, the people of the Soviet Union did not simply fall into line with the established rules of society- They had diaries, they wrote down their opinions about the government or their job, they wrote detailed memoirs of their life within the USSR. The people of the Soviet Union had some freedom, and it was even codified in the Constitution of 1936. Yet, scholars and most people in general still widely accept the notion that the Soviet Union was a totalitarian dictatorship. The question then arises: Why did the Soviet people have freedom, otherwise known as sociological ‘agency,’ to denounce others or write down their views about society, if the country was perhaps one of the most totalitarian and dictatorial countries to exist in human history? By analyzing Totalitarianism as scholars perceive it, as well as the Soviet system, along with examples from the people of the USSR, one will be able to realize that totalitarianism set the rules for society within the Soviet Union and provided its people with a distribution of power, which was used by those that understood the system and could act within the framework of the system.
Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation aimed at serving an agenda. At its root, propaganda is to propagate (spread around) a certain position or point of view, rather than just reporting the facts. Most propaganda is associated with politics or war time. It is used to help unite countries, especially the U.S. in the past. [Pg. 1, sec. 1]
... a change in this image to a realization that Stalin’s suppression of dissidents and opposition had real effects on soviet society and can not be justified by Marxist and Leninist Ideology instead they were just Stalin looking to maintain his autocracy.
After reviewing this I concluded that it is a good source because of its use of historical principles about communism and excerpts from Marx who is known for his studies and ideas that made communism what it is. This article also brings an established definition of communism with various established contributors to develop an educated definition. The article delivers very clean and clear information about communism and the history of communism.