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Soviet Propaganda During World War II
Propaganda in the Soviet Union was the practice of state-directed communication to promote class conflict, internationalism, the goals of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the party itself. The main Soviet censorship body, Glavlit, was employed not only to eliminate any undesirable printed materials but also "to ensure that the correct ideological spin was put on every published item." Under Stalinism, deviation from the dictates of official propaganda was punished by execution and labor camps. Afterwards, such punitive measures were replaced by punitive psychiatry, prison, denial of work, and loss of citizenship. "Today a man only talks freely to his wife – at night, with the blankets pulled over his head," the writer Isaac Babel privately told a trusted friend.Robert Conquest ''Reflections on a Ravaged Century'' (2000) , pp. 101–111. Theory of propaganda According to historian Peter Kenez, "the Russian socialists have contributed nothing to the theoretical dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Komsomol
The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=no ()), a syllabic abbreviation of the Russian ), was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it was officially independent and referred to as "the helper and the reserve of the CPSU". The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban areas in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Young Communist League, or RKSM. During 1922, with the unification of the USSR, it was reformed into an all-union agency, the youth division of the All-Union Communist Party. It was the final stage of three youth organizations with members up to age 28, graduated at 14 from the Young Pioneer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Prisoners Of War In The Soviet Union
Approximately three million German prisoners of war were captured by the Soviet Union during World War II, most of them during the great advances of the Red Army in the last year of the war. The POWs were employed as forced labor in the Soviet wartime economy and post-war reconstruction. By 1950 almost all surviving POWs had been released, with the last prisoner returning from the USSR in 1956. According to Soviet records 381,067 German Wehrmacht POWs died in NKVD camps (356,700 German nationals and 24,367 from other nations).G. I. Krivosheev. ''Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses''. Greenhill 1997 Pages 276-278. A commission set up by the West German government found that 3,060,000 German military personnel were taken prisoner by the USSR and that 1,094,250 died in captivity (549,360 from 1941 to April 1945; 542,911 from May 1945 to June 1950 and 1,979 from July 1950 to 1955). According to German historian Rüdiger Overmans ca. 3,000,000 POWs were taken by the USSR; he put the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rationing In The Soviet Union
Rationing in the Soviet Union was introduced twice since its creation, both instances during periods of economical hardships. 1931–1935 In 1931, the Politburo introduced a unified rationing system for foodstuffs and basic commodities and norms of rationing applied throughout the entire USSR. Besides bread, rationing applied to other foodstuffs, including products like sugar, tea, oil, butter, meat, and eggs. The rationing existed up to 1935, ending in six main stages. Beginning in May 1931, most industrial consumer goods were removed from the rationing system. Then, between March and April 1932, some food items began being removed from the rationing system. From 1932 to 1934, ration prices of foodstuffs and consumer goods were increased. The state also began selling increasing amounts of these goods off the rations at higher prices. At the beginning of 1935, the rationing of bread was abolished, followed by the end of rationing of all foodstuffs in October 1935. Rationing official ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio Receiver
In radio communications, a radio receiver, also known as a receiver, a wireless, or simply a radio, is an electronic device that receives radio waves and converts the information carried by them to a usable form. It is used with an antenna. The antenna intercepts radio waves (electromagnetic waves of radio frequency) and converts them to tiny alternating currents which are applied to the receiver, and the receiver extracts the desired information. The receiver uses electronic filters to separate the desired radio frequency signal from all the other signals picked up by the antenna, an electronic amplifier to increase the power of the signal for further processing, and finally recovers the desired information through demodulation. Radio receivers are essential components of all systems that use radio. The information produced by the receiver may be in the form of sound, video (television), or digital data. A radio receiver may be a separate piece of electronic equipment, or an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Class Struggle
Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms of class conflict include direct violence such as wars for resources and cheap labor, assassinations or revolution; indirect violence such as deaths from poverty and starvation, illness and unsafe working conditions; and economic coercion such as the threat of unemployment or the withdrawal of investment capital (capital flight); or ideologically, by way of political literature. Additionally, political forms of class warfare include legal and illegal lobbying, and bribery of legislators. The social-class conflict can be direct, as in a dispute between labour and management such as an employer's industrial lockout of their employees in effort to weaken the bargaining power of the corresponding trade union; or indirect such as a workers' sl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marxist–Leninist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical perspective to view social transformation. It originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. As Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought, no single, definitive Marxist theory exists. In addition to the schools of thought which emphasize or modify elements of classical Marxism, various Marxian concepts have been incorporated and adapted into a diverse array of social theories leading to widely varying conclusions. Alongside Marx's critique of political economy, the defining characteristics of Marxism have often been described using the terms dialectical materialism and historical materialism, though these terms were coined after Marx's death and their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. Established in 1917 as NKVD of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the agency was originally tasked with conducting regular police work and overseeing the country's prisons and labor camps. It was disbanded in 1930, with its functions being dispersed among other agencies, only to be reinstated as an all-union commissariat in 1934. The functions of the OGPU (the secret police organization) were transferred to the NKVD around the year 1930, giving it a monopoly over law enforcement activities that lasted until the end of World War II. During this period, the NKVD included both ordinary public order activities, and secret police activities. The NKVD is known for its role in political repression and for carrying out the Great ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pavlik Morozov
Pavel Trofimovich Morozov (russian: link=no, Па́вел Трофи́мович Моро́зов; 14 November 1918 – 3 September 1932), better known by the diminutive Pavlik, was a Soviet youth praised by the Soviet press as a martyr. Evidence has emerged since the dissolution of the Soviet Union of the fabrication of the Pavlik Morozov legend, as well as what Soviet officials thought of him. His story, dated to 1932, is that of a 13-year-old boy who denounced his father to the authorities and was in turn killed by his family. His story was a subject of reading, songs, plays, a symphonic poem, a full-length opera, and six biographies. His politicized and mythologized story was used to encourage Soviet Bloc children to also inform on their parents.Orlando Figes ''The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia'', 2007, , pages 122–126. Morozov's story was the basis of ''Bezhin Meadow'', an unreleased film from 1937 that was directed by Sergei Eisenstein, as well as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Revolution
World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class. For theorists, these revolutions will not necessarily occur simultaneously, but where and when local conditions allow a revolutionary party to successfully replace bourgeois ownership and rule, and install a workers' state based on social ownership of the means of production. In most Marxist schools, such as Trotskyism and Communist Left, the essentially international character of the class struggle and the necessity of global scope are critical elements and a chief explanation of the failure of socialism in one country. The end goal of such internationally oriented revolutionary socialism is to achieve world socialism, and later, a communist society. Communist movements The October Revolution of 1917 in Russia sparked a revolutionary wave of socialist and communist uprisings across Europe, most notably the German R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government following two successive revolutions and a bloody civil war. The Russian Revolution can also be seen as the precursor for the other European revolutions that occurred during or in the aftermath of WWI, such as the German Revolution of 1918–1919, German Revolution of 1918. The Russian Revolution was inaugurated with the February Revolution in 1917. This first revolt focused in and around the then-capital Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg). After major military losses during the war, the Russian Army had begun to mutiny. Army leaders and high ranking officials were convinced that if Nicholas II of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, the domestic unrest would subside. Nicholas agreed and stepped down, usher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orlando Figes
Orlando Guy Figes () is a British historian and writer. Until his retirement, he was Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. Figes is known for his works on Russian history, such as ''A People's Tragedy'' (1996), ''Natasha's Dance'' (2002), '' The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia'' (2007), ''Crimea'' (2010) and ''Just Send Me Word'' (2012). ''A People's Tragedy'' is a study of the Russian Revolution, and combines social and political history with biographical details in a historical narrative. Figes has also constributed significantly on European history more broadly, notably with his book ''The Europeans'' (2019). He serves on the editorial board of the journal ''Russian History'', writes for the international press, broadcasts on television and radio, reviews for ''The New York Review of Books'', and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His books have been translated into over thirty languages Personal life and education B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
