Control of the People
- Created by: cjjl
- Created on: 16-02-17 11:59
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- Control of the people
- Propaganda
- Mass Media
- Newspapers
- Viewed as mouth pieces of he bourgeoisie
- Nov' 17 decree banned all non-socialist papers, early 20's all non-Bolshevik papers eliminated
- Printing press nationalised 'in the interests of the workers and the socialist order'
- Editors/Journalists all members of the gov and still all publications had to get approval from the censorship office.
- Press guaranteed to speak with one voice
- Voice shown to be united but in reality was suppressed
- Used as vehicles to highlight constant achievements of socialism and keep citizens in support of the gov
- prohibited topics- natural disasters/planecrashes/fires etc.
- Radio
- Recent development was good as the Bolsheviks didn't have to overcome the long tradition of independent activity
- Featured a lot of news and propaganda material, little emphasis on music
- Loud speakers installed in Public places ensured that the 65% illiterate got the message and a collective response - everyone listened to the same opinion
- Became integral part of control during WW2 fast comm
- Support didn't waver during the war as radio effective in reassuring that not all was lost
- Magazines
- Guaranteed to carry political news praising the gov on the front page
- People's leisure time could now also be controlled to an extent. No publications on interests that weren't encouraged
- Impossible for the soviet people to remain ignorant to gov's actions (the way these were published also helped to create the cults)
- Television
- Only introduced in the 50's
- Mass production of cheap TVs so gov could convey visual message to keep control
- Films conveyed capitalism as life rife with crime/violence etc.
- Newspapers
- Personality Cults
- The adoration of an individual through the use of art and popular culture. Used as a method of enhancing the status of an individual leader.
- Gave a human face to socialism(gave the soviet people something to believe in as socialism an abstract concept could relate a figure head to the state instead) and the heroic nature of the leader prevented questions being asked.
- Filled gaps like restrictions on religious worship in peoples lives
- Lenin
- Hailed as Hero of the Revolution after death
- Statues still standing today and his body embalmed in Red Square on display
- All in aid of motivating the people to initiate Lenin's commitment to the revolution.
- His cult used by successive leaders as their claim to be legitimate heirs of Lenin
- Stalin
- So big sometimes seen as going against the socialist emphasis on the collective
- Represented as Lenin's closest colleague and worthy defender of his work although he wasnt
- 1925 - Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad
- Portrayed in images as all present/all knowing/benefactor/inspirational leader
- Often pictured with children and peasants/workers.
- Official poems etc. written but less history than hagiography
- All in effort of making the people hold their leader in such high esteem they were completely submissive
- Cult differed considerably from Stalin himself but worked in the sense that even those who didn't like him respected him as a leader
- The adoration of an individual through the use of art and popular culture. Used as a method of enhancing the status of an individual leader.
- Arts & Culture
- In order to embed the idea of communism into the population the government used artists and writers to create a new culture and way of thinking
- Called the creation of the 'Soviet Man' which would wiped out the old bourgeois culture
- Artists and Writers were supposed to endorse the idealised life under the Soviet union to immerse people in cultural propaganda
- Many left the Soviet regime after losing their right to be free to experiment as they had done traditionally
- Lenin like to keep artists on his side but didn't see them as important as class conflict etc.
- Commissariat of Enlightenment was welcomed as it flattered and raised their status
- Some suspicion of art some mistrust of sincerity
- Types of Art
- Prolekult
- Proletarian Culture - peoples art
- Completely untainted, new artists fresh start
- Said that art was not expression of individual artist but serves a political and social purpose
- Celebrated Bolshevik events
- Ironically began to ask difficult questions
- Designed to challenge high culture. Working masses could also achieve. inspired confidence in the new regime.
- Themes about heroic workers became dull and predictable
- Avant Guarde
- 'New Art' swept away the old and tried to convey new futuristic world in abstract ways
- Tuned in with what the communists were trying to achieve
- Russia a country with low literacy so posters wih idealistic slogans had big influence
- Failed as a method of propaganda due the the ordinary people being unable to understand the focused/culturally elitist art
- Later condemned by Stalin and artist accused of selfish individualism
- 'New Art' swept away the old and tried to convey new futuristic world in abstract ways
- Socialist Realism
- Art that presented idealised images of life under socialism to inspire the population towards its achievement
- Stalin saw writers and artist influence so great he called them engineers of the soul
- He set up Union of Soviet Writers they were police themselves frowning upon experimentation and rewarding those 'towing the party line'
- Abstract work rejected and all art had to reflect workers achievements as well as personality cults
- Prolekult
- In order to embed the idea of communism into the population the government used artists and writers to create a new culture and way of thinking
- The government had to rely on this to distract the people from the realities of socialism
- Mass Media
- Propaganda
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