Hi!
After finishing all the drafts necessary for writing the letter (choosing and translating headlines and excerpts, selecting photos of the articles and diving deeper into the year 1930), I started asking myself questions like:
- Why do you think it might be interesting? It would be best if you researched more. Quit it. Quit it. You won't do it properly.
And I saw the phrase. Someone said: Curiosity is what makes my life rich and exciting. No matter what I start doing... I do everything with curiosity, asking myself: “What if...”. My inner interest is always more important to me than external success, which may or may not happen.
So, here we are, in the letter about Soviet propaganda.
Some time ago (two weeks or so), I was reading a book about the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine. I told you about it in my previous letter. The author researched the Union that never existed and was invented by the Soviets to start eliminating Ukranian intelligentsia. As the trial of the Union was widely 'advertised' in the Soviet media, the author mentioned many headlines from that period.
It was then that I decided to go to the library and take a look at these headlines. I was also curious about other things they were writing about.
In this letter, you will see the photos from the newspapers from March 1930 I took in the library.
There were two influential Soviet newspapers then: Pravda (translated as Truth) and Izvestia (translated as News). Above, you can see Pravda's front page.
Pravda is a newspaper that was long the daily central organ of the Bolshevik Party and the most influential Soviet periodical - the country's leading newspaper. The first issue was published on May 5, 1912.
Izvestia is a Soviet and russian socio-political and business daily newspaper founded in March 1917. It was extremely popular in Soviet times.
These newspapers are still published in russia. Are you interested in what they write about now? Pravda website and Izvestia website (you can use your browser's automatic translation feature).
Okay, now I will take you to 1930. The Great Depression, a severe global economic downturn that affected many countries worldwide, was in the air. In the Soviet Union, Stalin started collectivization, under which the peasants were forced to give up their individual farms and join large collective farms. He fought against capitalism and couldn't stand any form of private equity. Church was considered an ally of capitalism and a threat to the Soviet's power. Stalin was heading the USSR to socialism, in a 'bright future' which ended up like a nightmare for millions.
The newspapers played a crucial role in convincing people that the Soviet Union was making progress while depicting the West, along with a church and wealthy peasants (kulaks), as hindering this progress.
Let's take a look at some headlines and excerpts from the newspapers of March 1930.
Workers' response to the anti-Soviet campaign of the churchmen.
Today, meetings were held at a number of enterprises, at which the workers unanimously decided: in response to the new provocation of the world capitalists against the USSR and the 'crusade' announced by the pope (it was written in a small letter), to increase the inflow of the best proletariat forces and the ranks of the Communist Party and to strengthen the defence of our country in every possible way…The cherished dream of the capitalist 'sharks' is to disrupt our victorious socialist construction, to hinder the great creative work of the Soviet Union. Under the howls of popes of all stripes, under the toothless curse of the pope of rome, a new campaign is being prepared against us.
….
Signature: Scientific workers in Leningrad - and labour intellectuals around the world.
The campaign of church and capitalism against the USSR. The class enemy seeks to disrupt the victorious construction of socialism.
Let's protect the land of the Soviets.
The anti-Soviet whistleblowing is intensifying. New ridiculous fabrications - Irresponsible statements by responsible figures. The Reichstag deputies who introduced the interpellation 'on religious persecution in the USSR' apparently consider it a manifestation of special political wisdom to imitate hard-headed members of the British Parliament or arrogant Polish senators.
The newspapers often featured how bad life was in the West.
Continuously rising unemployment is a clear indicator of the general crisis of capitalism.
A general picture of unemployment in capitalist countries. In the United States, there is a curious dispute - Labor Secretary Davis and Hoover talk about a 'favourable turn', and the director of the New York Bureau of Statistics, Perkins, indignantly asks what data they have to justify their optimism. According to Perkins' calculations, unemployment is climbing ever higher, and the number of unemployed cannot be less than 5 million (actually over 6 million)...In America, unemployment benefits are not given out except by charitable societies handing out 'free soup'. Demonstrations of unprecedented power are taking place all over the country.
In England, the situation is hopeless. Since the Labor government came to power, the number of unemployed people has increased by 408,475.
In Germany, unemployment is increasing at an accelerating rate. In one week, from February 17 to 23, the number of unemployed increased by 50,000.
According to official figures in Italy, 408,000 people were unemployed by December 31 last year. But this figure should be doubled, as can be seen from the recent statement of the English Minister Thomas, who consoled his countrymen by saying that the number of unemployed had reached 1 million in Italy.
Germany's army of unemployed is growing unstoppably. Together with their families, 15 million people are doomed to starvation.
Demonstrations in Denmark. As reported from Copenhagen, after a Communist Party verified meeting there, unemployed people in the number of 1000 organised a demonstration and made demands of the burgomaster (a Social Democrat), who mockingly stated that it was allegedly a film staging.
The newspapers used loud headlines and articles to portray kulaks (rich peasants who owned property) as a threat to socialism. Recently, I wrote about the kulaks and how the Soviets eliminated them.
For strong Bolshevik management of the campaign! Kulaks are trying to disorganise the spring sowing by counterattacks.
To organize around the combat tasks of the sowing campaign, the broadest masses of the peasantry and the poor people, in close alliance with the middle class, to overturn the pest manoeuvres of the class enemy.The poor peasants attack the kulaks, disorganizing the crops. Kulak agents sing songs calling not to join the collective farms, not to sow the fields!
On the paths of total collectivization. On the liquidation of kulaks as a class. The remaking of the peasant.
The sowing campaign is the decisive arena of the struggle against the class enemy. Eliminate the kulaks and give a crushing response to the kulak’s attempts to get back on its feet.
This letter provides just a few examples. The Soviets widely used propaganda in their communication, changing reality. The language of headlines and articles was often brutal and commanding. The texts were long, tedious and frequently hard to read and understand. On the front pages, there were usually articles on how great life in the Soviet Union was or how people should work hard to make it great, and these articles were always accompanied by ones on how bad life in the Western countries was.
To persuade, humiliate, frighten, make proud, and raise a person without their own opinion... These were the goals of these headlines.
Please let me know what you think of such letters. I am going to continue my library visits, and my next goal is to see what the Soviet newspapers wrote during Holodomor (a famine that killed millions of Ukrainians). Would you be interested in reading the headlines and excerpts?
If you find what I do important, you can buy me a warcoffee or choose a regular (monthly support). It will help me to continue and do more. Thank you a lot if you are already supporting me.
Sincerely,
Yaroslava