Eastern Bloc media and propaganda

Eastern Bloc media and propaganda was controlled directly by each country's Communist party, which controlled the state media, censorship and propaganda organs. State and party ownership of print, television and radio media served as an important manner in which to control information and society in light of Eastern Bloc leaderships viewing even marginal groups of opposition intellectuals as a potential threat to the bases underlying Communist power therein.

Circumvention of dissemination controls occurred to some degree through samizdat and limited reception of western radio and television broadcasts. In addition, some regimes heavily restricted the flow of information from their countries to outside of the Eastern Bloc by heavily regulating the travel of foreigners and segregating approved travellers from the domestic population.

Background

Creation

Map of the Eastern Bloc

Bolsheviks took power following the Russian Revolution of 1917. During the Russian Civil War that followed, coinciding with the Red Army's entry into Minsk in 1919, Belarus was declared the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia. After more conflict, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was declared in 1920. With the defeat of the Ukraine in the Polish-Ukrainian War, after the March 1921 Peace of Riga following the Polish-Soviet War, central and eastern Ukraine were annexed into the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1922, the Russian SFSR, Ukraine SSR, Byelorussian SSR and Transcaucasian SFSR were officially merged as republics creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union).

At the end of World War II, all eastern and central European capitals were controlled by the Soviet Union.^[1] During the final stages of the war, the Soviet Union began the creation of the Eastern Bloc by occupying several countries as Soviet Socialist Republics that were originally effectively ceded to it by Nazi Germany in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. These included eastern Poland (incorporated into two different SSRs),^[2] Latvia (became Latvia SSR),^[3][4] Estonia (became Estonian SSR),^[3][4] Lithuania (became Lithuania SSR),^[3][4] part of eastern Finland (became Karelo-Finnish SSR)^[5] and northeastern Romania (became the Moldavian SSR).^[6][7]

By 1945, these additional annexed countries totaled approximately 180,000 further square miles, or slightly more than the area of West Germany, East Germany and Austria combined.^[8] Other nations were converted into Soviet Satellite states, such as the People's Republic of Poland, the People's Republic of Hungary,^[9] the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic,^[10] the People's Republic of Romania, the People's Republic of Albania,^[11] and later East Germany from the Soviet zone of German occupation.^[12] The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was also wrongfully considered part of the Bloc,^[13][14] though a Tito-Stalin split occurred in 1948^[15] followed by the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Conditions

Berlin Wall 1975

Throughout the Eastern Bloc, both in the Soviet Socialist Republic and elsewhere, Russia was given prominence, and referred to as the naibolee vıdayuşayasya naciya (the most prominent nation) and the rukovodyaşy narod (the leading people).^[8] The Soviets encouraged the admiration of everything Russian and the reproduction of their own Communist structural hierarchies in each of the Bloc states.^[8]

The defining characteristic of Communism as implemented in the Eastern Bloc was the unique symbiosis of the state with society and the economy, resulting in politics and economics losing their distinctive features as autonomous and distinguishable spheres.^[16] Initially, Stalin directed systems that rejected Western institutional characteristics of market economies, multi-party governance (dubbed "bourgeois democracy" in Soviet parlance) and the rule of law subduing discretional intervention by the state.^[17] The Soviets mandated expropriation and etatization of private property.^[18]

The Soviet-style "replica regimes" that arose in the Bloc not only reproduced Soviet command economies, but also adopted the methods employed by Joseph Stalin and Soviet secret police to suppress real and potential opposition.^[18] Communist regimes in the Eastern Bloc saw even marginal groups of opposition intellectuals as a potential threat because of the basis underlying Communist power.^[19] The suppression of dissidence and opposition was a central prerequisite for the security of Communist power within the Eastern Bloc, though the degree of opposition and dissident suppression varied by country and period.^[19]

While over 15 million Eastern Bloc residents migrated westward from 1945 to 1949,^[20] emigration was effectively halted in the early 1950s, with the Soviet approach to controlling national movement emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc.^[21] Furthermore, the Eastern Bloc experienced economic mis-development by central planners resulting in those countries following a path of extensive rather than intensive development, and thus lagging far behind their western European counterparts in per capita Gross Domestic Product.^[22]

Media and information restrictions

Trybuna Ludu December 13, 1981 reports Martial law in Poland

Media and information control

In the Eastern Bloc, the state owned and operated the means of mass communication.^[23] The ruling authorities viewed media as a propaganda tool, and widely practiced censorship to exercise almost full control over the information dissemination.^[23] The press in Communist countries was an organ of, and completely reliant on, the state.^[24] Until the late 1980s, all Eastern Bloc radio and television organizations were state-owned (and tightly controlled), while print media was usually owned by political organizations, mostly by the local Communist party.^[25]

Youth newspapers and magazines were owned by youth organizations affiliated with the communist party.^[25] The governing body in the Soviet Union was "USSR State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting", or USSR Gosteleradio (Государственный комитет по телевидению и радиовещанию СССР, Гостелерадио СССР), which was in charge both of Soviet TV and Radio in the Soviet Union.

The Communist party exercised control over the media and was responsible for censorship.^[25] Media served as an important form of control over information and thus of society.^[26] Eastern Bloc authorities viewed the dissemination and portrayal of knowledge as vital to the survival of Communism and thus stifled alternative concepts and critiques.^[26] Several state Communist Party newspapers were published. Radio was initially the dominant medium, with television being considered low on the priority list when compiling Five-year plans during the industrialisation of the 1950s.

Censorship and squashing of dissent

Nikolai Yezhov, the young man strolling with Joseph Stalin to his right, was shot in 1940. He was edited out from a photo by Soviet censors.^[27] Such retouching was a common occurrence during Stalin's reign.

Strict censorship existed in the Eastern Bloc, though it was at times circumvented by those engaging in samizdat.^[28] Censorship institutions in the countries of the Bloc were organized differently.^[23] For example, censorship in Poland was clearly identified whereas it was loosely structured, but no less efficient, in Hungary.^[23] Strict censorship was introduced in the People's Republic of Albania and Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia as early as 1944, though it was somewhat relaxed in Yugoslavia after the Tito-Stalin split of 1948.^[29] Unlike the rest of the Eastern Bloc, relative freedom existed for three years in Czechoslovakia until Soviet-style censorship was fully applied in 1948,^[29] along with the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948.

Throughout the Bloc, the various ministries of culture held a tight rein on writers.^[30] Cultural products reflected the propaganda needs of the state^[30] and Party-approved censors exercised strict control in the early years.^[31] During the Stalinist period, even the weather forecasts were changed if they would have otherwise suggested that the sun might not shine on May Day.^[31] Under Nicolae Ceauşescu in Romania, weather reports were doctored so that the temperatures were not seen to rise above or fall below the levels which dictated that work must stop.^[31]

In each country, leading bodies of the ruling Communist Part exercised hierarchical control of the censorship system.^[29] Each Communist Party maintained a department of its Central Committee apparatus to supervise media.^[29] Censors employed auxiliary tools such as: the power to launch or close down any newspaper, radio or television station, licensing of journalists through unions and the power of appointment.^[29] Party bureaucrats held all leading editorial positions.^[29] One or two representatives of censorship agencies modeled on the Soviet GLAVLIT (Main Administration for the Protection of Official and Military Secrets) worked directly in all editorial offices.^[29] No story could be printed or broadcast without their explicit approval.^[29]

Initially, East Germany presented unique issues because of rules for the occupying powers in the divided Germany (e.g. regarding media control) that prevented the outright seizure of all media outlets.^[32] The Soviet occupation administration (SVAG) directed propaganda and censorship policies to East German censorship organs through its "sector for propaganda and censorship".^[33] While the initial SVAG policies did not appear to differ greatly from those in the western occupation zones governing denazification,^[34] censorship became one of the most overt instruments used to manipulated political, intellectual and cultural developments in East Germany.^[33] Art societies and associations that had existed prior to World War II were dissolved and all new theatres and art societies had to register with SVAG.^[35] Art exhibits were put under a blanket ban unless censorship organs approved them in advance.^[35]

After East Germany's official establishment, while the original constitution^[36] provided that "censorship of the media is not to occur", both official and unofficial censorship occurred, although to a lesser extent during its later years. Thereafter, official East German censorship was supervised and carried out by two governmental organizations, the Head office for publishing companies and bookselling trade (Hauptverwaltung Verlage und Buchhandel, HV), and the Bureau for Copyright (Büro für Urheberrechte). The HV determined the degree of censorship and the method of publishing and marketing works. The Bureau for Copyright appraised the work, then decided if it or another publication was permitted to be published in East Germany or in foreign country. For theatres, a "repertory commission" was created that consisted of the Ministerium für Volksbildung (MfV), the ruling SED party, the applicable theatre union and the East German office for theatrical affairs.^[37]

After a long visa procurement process, western visitors driving over the West German border to East Germany had their car strip-searched for prohibited Western "propaganda material."^[38] Nevertheless, the East German authorities found it extremely difficult to prevent their citizens listening to Western radio stations and Western TV was available across most of the GDR. Technical and diplomatic considerations meant attempts at jamming Western Stations were (unlike in other Eastern bloc countries) soon abandoned.

In the Soviet Union, in accordance with the official ideology and politics of the Communist Party, Goskomizdat censored all printed matter, Goskino supervised all cinema, Gosteleradio controlled radio and television broadcasting and the First Department in many agencies and institutions, such as the State Statistical Committee (Goskomstat), was responsible for assuring that state secrets and other sensitive information only reached authorized hands. The Soviets destroyed pre-revolutionary and foreign material from libraries, leaving only "special collections" (spetskhran), accessible by special permit from the KGB. The Soviet Union also censored images, included removing repressed persons from texts, posters, paintings and photographs.

Prominent individuals

Throughout the Eastern Bloc, artists or those attempting to disseminate dissenting views were repressed, with a few of the more prominent victims including:

• Gheorghe Ursu - a Romanian poet who grew disillusioned with Romanian communist doctrine after 1949,^[39] and was repeatedly sanctioned for disobedience^[40][41] In 1985, after being beaten for weeks on end by the Romanian Police, he was transported to the Jilava jail hospital, where he died of peritonitis later in the day.^{[42][43][44][45][46]}
• Night of the Murdered Poets - thirteen writers, poets, artists, musicians and actors were secretly executed on orders from Joseph Stalin.
• Imre Nagy - former Hungarian Prime Minister who had supported Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, was later arrested by Soviet authorities after leaving the Yugoslavian embassy, and then secretly tried, found guilty, sentenced to death and was executed by hanging in June, 1958.^[47] His trial and execution were made public only after the sentence was carried out.^[48]
• Ion Valentin Anestin - His work centered on denouncing Stalin and the Soviet Union, in a series titled Măcelarul din Piaţa Roşie ("The Red Square Butcher") published by the magazine Gluma.^[49][50][51] Following the start of Soviet occupation of Romania, Anestin was barred from publishing for a five-year period (1944–1949), and ultimately imprisoned.^[49][50][51] He died soon after his release.^[49][50]
• Nikolai Getman - a Ukrainian artist arrested in 1946 for possessing a caricature of Joseph Stalin his friend had drawn on a cigarette box, Getman was sent to Siberian Gulag camps. He is one of the few artists to record life in the Gulag, where he survived by sketching propaganda for the authorities.
• Vasyl Stus - a Ukrainian author and journalist who wrote a book that was rejected for discrepancies with Soviet ideology, was arrested in 1972, spent five years in prison, arrested again in 1980 for defending members of the Ukrainian Helsinki group, was sentenced to ten years more imprisonment and was subsequently beaten to death in a Soviet forced labor camp.
• Vasile Voiculescu - A Romanian poet who was imprisoned in 1958, at the age of 74, spending four years in prison, where he became ill, and died of cancer a few months after his release.
• Arno Esch - An East German political writer who was imprisoned by the Soviet NKVD in 1949, sentenced to death for "counterrevolutionary activities" and executed at the Lubyanka (KGB) prison in 1951.
• Lena Constante - During repeated interrogations by the Securitate, Constante tried to fend off false accusations of "Titoism" and "treason", but, the victim of constant beatings and torture^[52] (much of her hair was torn from the roots),^[53] and confronted with Zilber's testimony — which implicated her —, she eventually gave in and admitted to the charges.^[54]
• József Dudás - A Hungarian political activist who spoke of a 25-point program ending Soviet repression in Hungary to a crowd during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and was executed the next year.
• Enn Tarto - An Estonian dissident who was imprisoned from 1956 to 1960, 1962 to 1967, and again from 1983 to 1988 for anti-Soviet activity.
• Anton Durcovici - A Romania clergyman openly critical of the Communist regime, Durcovici was placed under surveillance in 1947, arrested by the Securitate in 1949 during a congregation visit, died from torture and prison deprivation and was buried in an unmarked grave.^[55][56] Communist authorities subsequently attempted to erase all evidence of his stay in prison, and most documents were destroyed.^[55]
• Valeriy Marchenko - a Ukrainian poet who was arrested in 1973 and charged with Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, jailed for six years with two years exile, jailed again in 1983 for violating Article 62 of the Soviet penal code, Anti-Soviet Agitation and Propaganda and sentenced to ten years imprisonment and five years of exile, after which he became ill, was moved to a hospital after international pressure, where he died.
• Jüri Jaakson - An Estonian businessman and former politician critical of Soviet rule who was executed by the Soviet Union in 1941.
• Mečislovas Reinys - A Lithuanian archbishop critical of Bolshveism who was arrested in 1947 and sentenced to eight years in a Soviet prison, where he died in 1953.
• Metropolitan Ioann (Vasiliy Bodnarchuk) - A Ukrainian arrested in 1949 for purported Ukrainian nationalist rhetoric and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in copper mines.

Other artists, such as Geo Bogza, used subtle imagery or allegories within their works to criticize regimes. This did not prevent state scrutiny, as with the case of Bogza coming under the scrutiny of the Securitate.^[57]

Media entities

^[23]

The major newspapers were traditionally the daily official publications of the Communist Party.^[23] Newspapers served as the main party organs of record and provided official political roadmaps for officials and other readers who needed to be informed.^[58] In some countries, the press provided a significant source of income for the ruling Communist parties.^[58] Radio and television was controlled by the state.^[59] The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) was the central agency for collection and distribution of internal and international news for all Soviet newspapers, radio and television stations. TASS monopolized the supply of political news.^[29] It was frequently infiltrated by Soviet intelligence and security agencies, such as the NKVD and GRU. TASS had affiliates in 14 Soviet republics, including the Lithuanian SSR, Latvian SSR, Estonian SSR, Moldavian SSR. Ukrainian SSR and Byelorussian SSR.

Despite outward similarities in press policy, large differences existed in the roles and functions of the mass media in Eastern Bloc countries.^[60] Where the press was allowed more freedom, such as in Poland, Hungary, and Yugoslavia, a national subtext and a significant element of entertainment flourished.^[60] In some cases, newspapers and magazines served as the most visible part of liberalizing forces, such as in Poland in 1956 and 1980–81, in Hungary in 1956, and in Czechoslovakia in 1968.^[60]

In many instances toward the end of the Eastern Bloc's existence, the ruling Communist parties' messages in the press increasingly diverged from reality, which contributed to the declining faith of the public in Communist rule.^[60] At the same time, some press in the Eastern Bloc became more open in the 1980s in countries such as Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.^[60] In Yugoslavia, the press after Tito's reign turned increasingly nationalistic.^[60] Only in Romania and Albania did the press remain under tight dictatorial control right up until the end of the Eastern Bloc.^[60]

In East Germany, where initial control could be less overt because of shared allied occupation rules, the Soviet SVG set up the Deutsche Verwaltung für Volksbildung (DVV) in the fall of 1945.^[33] The SVAG and DVV controlled and approved all publication licenses needed to publish newspapers, books, journals and other materials.^[61] Those agencies also provided the top publishing priorities and would apportion paper used for printing to the various publications in accordance with those priorities.^[61] The SVAG initially licensed some private publishers which required the employment of a greater number of censors.^[62]

Notable National Media in the Eastern Bloc

Media Type Country Notes Pravda newspaper Russian SFSR Official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Zvyazda newspaper Byelorussian SSR Official newspaper of the Communist Party of Belarus Rudé právo newspaper Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Official newspaper of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Pravda (Slovakia) newspaper Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Publication of the Communist Party of Slovakia Laiko Vima newspaper People's Republic of Albania Greek newspaper, organ of the Party of Labour of Albania Lidová Demokracie newspaper Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Published by the Czechoslovak People's Party Mladá fronta newspaper Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Newspaper of the Socialist Union of Youth Práce newspaper Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Published by the Revolutionary Trade Union Movement Svobodné Slovo newspaper Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Published by the Czechoslovak Socialist Party Neues Deutschland newspaper East Germany Official paper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) Rahva Hääl newspaper Estonian SSR Official newspaper of the Communist Party of Estonia Neuvosto-Karjala newspaper Karelo-Finnish SSR - Sovetskaya Latviya newspaper Latvian SSR Official publication of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia Sovetskaya Molodëz newspaper Latvian SSR Latvian Komsomol daily Czerwony Sztandar newspaper Lithuanian SSR Polish language newspaper to Sovietized Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union Kauno Tiesa newspaper Lithuanian SSR - Zëri i Popullit newspaper People's Republic of Albania Propaganda organ of the Party of Labour of Albania Rabotnichesko Delo newspaper People's Republic of Bulgaria Propaganda organ of the Bulgarian Communist Party Népszabadság newspaper People's Republic of Hungary Organ of the Hungarian Working People's Party Esti Budapest newspaper People's Republic of Hungary Organ of the Hungarian Working People's Party in Budapest Trybuna Ludu newspaper People's Republic of Poland Official media outlet of the Polish United Workers' Party Scînteia newspaper People's Republic of Romania Official voice of the Communist Party of Romania Scînteia Tineretului newspaper People's Republic of Romania Romanian Union of Communist Youth newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper Russian SFSR Official organ of the Central Committee of the Komsomol Pionerskaya Pravda newspaper Russian SFSR Official organ of the Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union Trud (newspaper) newspaper Russian SFSR Mouthpiece for the Soviet Labor Unions Borba (newspaper) newspaper Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Newspaper of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia Czechoslovak Press Agency press agency Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Controlled by the federal government through its Presidium APN press agency Russian SFSR Under the Soviet Information Bureau Radio Prague radio Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Official international broadcasting station of Czechoslovakia since 1936 Berliner Rundfunk radio East Germany Radio station by Rundfunk der DDR since 1946 Deutschlandsender radio East Germany Radio station by Rundfunk der DDR since 1926 Radio DDR 1 radio East Germany Radio station by Rundfunk der DDR since 1953 DT64 radio East Germany Radio station by Rundfunk der DDR since 1964 Radio Berlin International radio East Germany International broadcaster for East Germany since 1959 (final broadcast bitter about "takeover") Latvijas Radio 1 radio Latvian SSR Radio station by Latvijas Radio since 1925 Lietuvos radijas radio Lithuanian SSR Started by Lithuanian National Radio and Television In 1926 Radio Tirana radio People's Republic of Albania Started by Radiodifuzioni Shqiptar in 1938 Radio Bulgaria radio People's Republic of Bulgaria Official international broadcasting station of Bulgaria since 1930 Horizont (radio) radio People's Republic of Bulgaria Since 1930 by the Bulgarian National Radio Kossuth Rádió radio People's Republic of Hungary First radio station by Magyar Rádió in 1925 Radio Polonia radio People's Republic of Poland Official international broadcasting station of Poland since 1936 Program 1 Polskiego Radia radio People's Republic of Poland Easy listening by Polskie Radio since 1926 Radio Bucuresti-România Radio România Actualităţi radio People's Republic of Romania Started by Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company in 1928 Radio Bucuresti Programul 2 Radio România Cultural radio People's Republic of Romania Started by Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company in 1952 Radio Bucuresti Programul 3 Radio3Net radio People's Republic of Romania Started by Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company in 1963 and rebranded in 1973 Radio Belgrade radio Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia started in 1929 Radio Moscow radio Russian SFSR Official international broadcasting station of the Soviet Union TV-First (Belarus) TV Byelorussian SSR TV channel by National State Teleradiocompany (started in 1956 ČST1 TV Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Started by Československá televize in 1953 (color 1975) ČST2 TV Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Started by Československá televize in 1970 (color 1973) DFF TV East Germany By Fernsehen der DDR starting in 1956 DFF2 TV East Germany By Fernsehen der DDR starting in 1969 (in color) ETV 1 TV Estonian SSR First Estonian TV station (1955) by Eesti Televisioon LTV1 TV Latvian SSR Started in 1954 by Latvijas Televizija (color since 1974) Lietuvos Televizija TV Lithuanian SSR Started by Lithuanian National Radio and Television In 1957 Televizioni Shqiptar TV People's Republic of Albania Started by Radio Televizioni Shqiptar in 1960 (color 1981) Bulgarian Television TV People's Republic of Bulgaria Official Bulgarian TV since 1959 by the Bulgarian Communist Party Efir 2 TV People's Republic of Bulgaria Second Channel by Bulgarian National Television (1974 start) m1 (TV channel) TV People's Republic of Hungary First channel by Magyar Televízió in 1957 m2 (TV channel) TV People's Republic of Hungary Second channel by Magyar Televízió in 1971 TVP1 TV People's Republic of Poland First Polish TV channel (since 1952) by Telewizja Polska TVP2 TV People's Republic of Poland Second Polish TV channel (since 1970) by Telewizja Polska TVR1 TV People's Republic of Romania Started by Televiziunea Româna in 1956 TVR2 TV People's Republic of Romania Started by Televiziunea Româna in 1968 Soviet Central Television TV Russian SFSR Main Soviet Union TV channel Soviet TV Channel 1 TV Russian SFSR Main (of four) Soviet TV channel (1938) All Union Programme TV Russian SFSR Second (of four) Soviet TV Channel (1960) Moscow Programme TV Russian SFSR Third (of four) Soviet TV Channel Fourth Programme TV Russian SFSR Fourth (of four) Soviet TV Channel UT1 (Ukraine) TV Ukrainian SSR Started by National Television Company of Ukraine (1956–1965 start) TVB TV Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia first broadcast in 1958 in Belgrade; covered all of Serbia by 1971; started color in 1971 Gosteleradio TV/radio Russian SFSR The official TV and radio broadcaster of the Soviet Union Belarusian Telegraph Agency wire service Byelorussian SSR Affiliated with TASS ELTA wire service Lithuanian SSR Affiliated with TASS Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union wire service Russian SFSR Established by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union; Served 14 Soviet Socialist Republics Radio i Telewizja Polska TV/radio People's Republic of Poland Governed TV and radio broadcasts by Telewizja Polska Radio Television of Serbia TV/radio Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Governed TV and radio broadcasts

Control of information flow out of the Eastern Bloc

Beginning in 1935, Joseph Stalin effectively sealed off outside access to the Soviet Socialist Republics (and until his death), effectively permitting no foreign travel inside the Soviet Union such that outsiders did not know of the political processes that had taken place therein.^[63] During this period, and even for 25 years after Stalin's death, the few diplomats and foreign correspondents that were permitted inside the Soviet Union were usually restricted to within a few miles of Moscow, their phones were tapped, their residences were restricted to foreigner-only locations and they were constantly followed by Soviet authorities.^[63] Dissenters who approached such foreigners were arrested.^[64] For many years after World War II, even the best informed foreigners did not know the number of arrest or executed Soviet citizens, or how poorly the Soviet economy had performed.^[64]

Similarly, the regimes in Romania carefully controlled foreign visitors in order to restrict the flow of information coming out of (and into) Romania.^[65] Accordingly, activities in Romania remained, until the late 1960s, largely unknown to the outside world.^[65] As a result, until 1990, very little information regarding labour camps and prisons in Romania appeared in the West.^[65] When such information appeared, it was usually in Romanian émigré publications.^[65] Romania's Securitate secret police were able to suppress information leaking to the west about resistance to the regime.^[66] Stalinist Albania, which had become increasingly paranoid and isolated after de-Stalinization and the death of Mao Zedong,^[67] restricted visitors to 6,000 per year, and segregated those few that traveled to Albania.^[68]

Propaganda efforts

Communist leaders in the Eastern Bloc openly discussed the existence of propaganda efforts. Communist propaganda goals and techniques were tuned according to the target audience. The most broad classification of targets was:^[69]

• Domestic propaganda
• External propaganda
• Propaganda of Communist supporters outside the Communist states

Communist Party documents reveal a more detailed classification of specific targets (workers, peasants, youth, women, etc.).^[69]

Because the Communist Party was portrayed under Marxist-Leninist theory as the protagonist of history pushing toward the inevitable end result of historical materialism as a "vanguard of the working class", Party leaders were claimed to be as infallible and inevitable as the purported historical end itself.^[70] Propaganda often worked itself beyond agit prop plays into traditional productions, such as in Hungary after the Tito-Stalin split, where the director of the National Theatre produced a version of Macbeth in which the villainous king was revealed as none other than hated (in the Eastern Bloc) Yugoslavian Leader Josip Broz Tito.^[71] Regarding economic woes, debilitating wage cuts following economic stagnation were referred to as "blows in the face of imperialism", while forced loans were called "voluntary contributions to the building of socialism".^[72]

Communist theoretician Nikolai Bukharin in his The ABC of Communism wrote:^[73]

The State propaganda of communism becomes in the long run a means for the eradication of the last traces of bourgeois propaganda dating from the old régime; and it is a powerful instrument for the creation of a new ideology, of new modes of thought, of a new outlook on the world.

Penetration of West German TV reception (grey) in East Germany for ARD (regional channels NDR, HR, BR and SFB) . Areas with no reception (black) were jokingly referred to as "Valley of the Clueless" (Tal der Ahnungslosen) while ARD was said to stand for "Außer (except) Rügen und Dresden" .

Some propaganda would "retell" the western news, such as the East German television program Der schwarze Kanal ("The Black Channel"), which contained bowdlerized programs from West Germany with added Communist commentary.^[74] The name "Black channel" was a play on words deriving from the term German plumbers used for a sewer. The program was meant to counter ideas received by some from West German television because the geography of the divided Germany meant that West German television signals (particularly ARD) could be received in most of East Germany, except in parts of Eastern Saxony around Dresden, which consequently earned the latter the nickname "valley of the clueless"^[75] (despite the fact that some Western radio was still available there).

Eastern Bloc leaders, including even Joseph Stalin, could become personally involved in dissemination. For example, in January 1948, the U.S. State Department published a collection of documents titled Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939–1941: Documents from the Archives of The German Foreign Office, which contained documents recovered from the Foreign Office of Nazi Germany^[76][77] revealing Soviet conversations with Germany regarding the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, including its secret protocol dividing eastern Europe,^[78][79] the 1939 German-Soviet Commercial Agreement,^[78][80] and discussions of the Soviet Union potentially becoming the fourth Axis Power.^[81]

In response, one month later, the Soviet Information Bureau published Falsifiers of History.^[76][82] Stalin personally edited the book, rewriting entire chapters by hand.^[82] The book claimed, for instance, that American bankers and industrialists provided capital for the growth of German war industries, while deliberately encouraging Hitler to expand eastward.^[76][78] The book also included the claim that, during the Pact's operation, Stalin rejected Hitler's offer to share in a division of the world, without mentioning the Soviet offers to join the Axis.^[83] Historical studies, official accounts, memoirs and textbooks published in the Soviet Union used that depiction of events until the Soviet Union's dissolution.^[83]

The book referred to "the American falsifiers and their British and French associates",^[84] claimed "[a]s far back as in 1937 it became perfectly clear that a big war was being hatched by Hitler with the direct connivance of Great Britain and France",^[85] blasted "the claptrap of the slanderers"^[86] and stated "[n]aturally, the falsifiers of history and slanderers are called falsifiers and slanderers precisely because they do not entertain any respect for facts. They prefer to gossip and slander."^[87]

In East Germany, the Soviet SVAG and DVV initially controlled all publication priorities.^[61] In the initial months of 1946, the Soviets were unsure how to merge propaganda and censorship efforts in East Germany.^[61] The SVAG engaged in a broad propaganda campaign that moved beyond customary political propaganda to engage in the practice at unions, women's organizations and youth organizations.^[61]

Bypassing censorship

Clandestine information passing

Samizdat was the clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature or other media in Eastern bloc countries. Copies were often made in small quantities of handwritten or typed documents, while recipients were expected to make additional copies. Samizdat traders used underground literature for self-analysis and self-expression under the heavy censorship of the Eastern Bloc.^[88] The practice was fraught with danger as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials. Former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky defined it as follows: "I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and [may] get imprisoned for it."^[89] One of the longest-running and well-known samizdat publications was the information bulletin "Хроника текущих событий" (Khronika Tekushchikh Sobitiy; Chronicle of Current Events),^[90] which contained anonymously published pieces dedicated to the defense of human rights in the USSR. Several people were arrested in connection with the Chronicle, including Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Yuri Shikhanovich, Pyotr Yakir, Victor Krasin, Sergei Kovalev, Alexander Lavut, Tatyana Velikanova, among others.

Magnitizdat (in Russian магнитиздат) is the process of re-copying and self distributing live audio tape recordings in the Soviet Union that were not available commercially. The process of magnitizdat was less risky than publishing literature via samizdat, since any person in the USSR was permitted to own a private reel-to-reel tape recorder, while paper duplication equipment was under control of the state. "Tamizdat" refers to literature published abroad (там, tam, meaning "there"), often from smuggled manuscripts.

Western role in propaganda war

Western countries invested heavily in powerful transmitters which enabled broadcasters to be heard in the Eastern Bloc, despite attempts by authorities to jam such signals. In 1947, VOA started broadcasting in Russian with the intent to counter Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies, and disseminate pro western propaganda directed against Soviet leaders and policies.^[91] These included Radio Free Europe (RFE)), RIAS (Berlin) the Voice of America (VOA), Deutsche Welle, Radio France International and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).^[59] The Soviet Union responded by attempting aggressive, electronic jamming of VOA (and some other Western) broadcasts in 1949.^[91] The BBC World Service similarly broadcast language-specific programming to countries behind the Iron Curtain.

RFE was developed out of a belief that the Cold War would eventually be fought by political rather than military means.^[92] In January 1950, it obtained a transmitter base at Lampertheim, West Germany and on July 4 of the same year, RFE completed its first broadcast aimed at Czechoslovakia^[93] Broadcasts were often banned in Eastern Europe and Communist authorities used sophisticated jamming techniques in an attempt to prevent citizens from listening to them.^[94] In late 1950, RFE began to assemble a full-fledged foreign broadcast staff, and became more than just a "mouthpiece for exiles" who had fled Eastern Bloc countries.^[95] While RFE was cleared of charges that it gave Hungarian listeners false hope during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, its Broadcast Analysis Division was established to ensure that broadcasts were accurate and professional while maintaining the journalists' former autonomy.^[96]

A 1960 study concluded that RFE possessed considerably more listeners than the BBC or VOA.^[97] The study concluded that the BBC was regarded as the most objective and the VOA had suffered a notable decline since it stopped critical broadcasts on the communist world after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, focusing instead on world news, American culture and jazz.^[97]

Notes

1. Wettig 2008, p. 69
2. Roberts 2006, p. 43
3. Wettig 2008, p. 21
4. Senn, Alfred Erich, Lithuania 1940 : revolution from above, Amsterdam, New York, Rodopi, 2007 ISBN 978-90-420-2225-6
5. Kennedy-Pipe, Caroline, Stalin's Cold War, New York: Manchester University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-7190-4201-1
6. Roberts 2006, p. 55
7. Shirer 1990, p. 794
8. Graubard 1991, p. 150
9. Granville, Johanna, The First Domino: International Decision Making during the Hungarian Crisis of 1956, Texas A&M University Press, 2004. ISBN 1-58544-298-4
10. Grenville 2005, pp. 370–71
11. Cook 2001, p. 17
12. Wettig 2008, pp. 96–100
13. Crampton 1997, pp. 216–7
14. Eastern bloc, The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
15. Wettig 2008, p. 156
16. Hardt & Kaufman 1995, p. 11
17. Hardt & Kaufman 1995, p. 12
18. Roht-Arriaza 1995, p. 83
19. Pollack & Wielgohs 2004, p. xiv
20. Böcker 1998, pp. 207–9
21. Dowty 1989, p. 114
22. Hardt & Kaufman 1995, pp. 15–17
23. Frucht 2003, p. 489
24. O'Neil 1997, p. 15
25. O'Neil 1997, p. 125
26. O'Neil 1997, p. 1
27. The Commissar vanishes (The Newseum)
28. Major & Mitter 2004, p. 6
29. Frucht 2003, p. 127
30. Major & Mitter 2004, p. 15
31. Crampton 1997, p. 247
32. Pike 1997, p. 219
33. Pike 1997, pp. 217–8
34. Pike 1997, pp. 220–1
35. Pike 1997, pp. 231–2
36. October 7, 1949 Constitution of East Germany, German Document Archive (German)
37. Pike 1997, p. 236
38. Philipsen 1993, p. 9
39. Ursu, Andrei. "Despărţire de Iordan Chimet". Revista 22, Nr. 849, June 2006 (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 16 October 2007.
40. (French) Gabriela Blebea Nicolae, "Les défis de l'identité: Étude sur la problématique de l'identité dans la période post-communiste en Roumanie", in Ethnologies, Vol. 25, Nr. 1/2003 (hosted by Érudit.org); retrieved November 19, 2007
41. Goşu, Armand (July 2006). "Cazul Gheorghe Ursu. SRI a ascuns crimele Securităţii". Revista 22, Nr. 852, (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 2006-07-18.
42. (Romanian) Mirela Corlăţan, "Istorii. 'Notele' către Securitate ale disidentului Gheorghe Ursu", in Cotidianul, July 10, 2007
43. Deletant 1995, p. 331
44. Olaru, p.41-42
45. (Romanian) George Tărâţă, "Torţionarul Stanică rămâne liber", in Ziua, November 9, 2006
46. Vladimir Tismăneanu, Fantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism, and Myth in Post-Communist Europe, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1998, p.138. ISBN 0-691-04826-6
47. Richard Solash, "Hungary: U.S. President To Honor 1956 Uprising", Radio Free Europe, June 20, 2006
48. The Counter-revolutionary Conspiracy of Imre Nagy and his Accomplices White Book, published by the Information Bureau of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People's Republic (No date).
49. (Romanian) Raluca Alexandrescu, "Mai multe începuturi de drum" ("Several Road Starts"), interview with Ioana Zlotescu, in Observator Cultural
50. (Romanian) Nicole Sima, "Cred în Moş Crăciun!" ("I Believe in Santa Claus!"), memoir hosted by LiterNet
51. Vida, Mariana (August 4, 2006). "Un caricaturist uitat: Ion Valentin Anestin ("A Forgotten Caricaturist: Ion Valentin Anestin"". Ziarul Financiar (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
52. (Romanian) Ruxandra Cesereanu, "Reprezentanţii represiunii: anchetatorul rafinat, torţionarul sadic şi bufonul balcanizat" ("The Representatives of Repression: The Refined Inquirer, the Sadistic Torturer and the Balkanized Buffoon"), at Memoria.ro
53. (Romanian) Sanda Golpenţia, "Introducere la Ultima carte de Anton Golpenţia (Anchetatorii)" ("Introduction to Anton Golpenţia's Ultima carte (The Inquisitors)"), at Memoria.ro
54. Tismăneanu, Vladimir "Memorie...", Stalinism..., p.294
55. (Italian) Antonio Borrelli, Servo di Dio Anton Durcovici. Vescovo e martire
56. (Romanian) Procesul Comunismului. Episcopii Romano-Catolici
57. Chiorean, Claudia Talaşman, "Promovarea mitului Erei Noi în perioada 1989–2000 prin România Literară", p.138-139
58. Frucht 2003, p. 639
59. Frucht 2003, p. 490
60. Frucht 2003, p. 640
61. Pike 1997, pp. 225–6
62. Pike 1997, pp. 227–8
63. Laqueur 1994, p. 22
64. Laqueur 1994, p. 23
65. Deletant 1995, p. ix
66. Deletant 1995, p. xiv
67. Olsen 2000, p. 19
68. Turnock 1997, p. 48
69. John C. Clews (1964) Communist Propaganda techniques, printed in the USA by Praeger and in Great Britain
70. David Satter. Age of Delirium: The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union, Yale University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-300-08705-5
71. Crampton 1997, p. 269
72. Crampton 1997, p. 273
73. Nikolai Bukharin, Yevgeny Preobrazhensky The ABC of Communism (1969 translation: ISBN 0-14-040005-2), Chapter 10: Communism and Education
74. Hancock, Dafydd (2001-01-01). "Fade to black". Intertel from Transdiffusion. Retrieved 2006-02-20.
75. Mitchener, Brandon (1994-11-09). "East Germany Struggles, 5 Years After Wall Fell". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
76. Henig 2005, p. 67
77. Department of State 1948, p. preface
78. Roberts 2002, p. 97
79. Department of State 1948, p. 78
80. Department of State 1948, pp. 32–77
81. Churchill 1953, pp. 512–524
82. Roberts 2002, p. 96
83. Nekrich, Ulam & Freeze 1997, pp. 202–205
84. Soviet Information Bureau 1948, p. 9
85. Soviet Information Bureau 1948, p. 19
86. Soviet Information Bureau 1948, p. 45
87. Soviet Information Bureau 1948, p. 65
88. (Russian) History of Dissident Movement in the USSR. The birth of Samizdat by Ludmila Alekseyeva. Vilnius, 1992
89. (Russian) "Самиздат: сам сочиняю, сам редактирую, сам цензурирую, сам издаю, сам распространяю, сам и отсиживаю за него." (autobiographical novel И возвращается ветер..., And the Wind returns... NY, Хроника, 1978, p.126) Also online at
90. (Russian) Chronicle of Current Events Archive at memo.ru
91. Cold War Propaganda by John B. Whitton, The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Jan., 1951), pp. 151–153
92. Puddington 2003, p. 7
93. Mickelson, Sig, "America's Other Voice: the Story of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty" (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1983): Mickelson 30.
94. Puddington 2003, p. 214
95. Puddington 2003, p. 37
96. Puddington 2003, p. 117
97. Puddington 2003, p. 131

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• Crampton, R. J. (1997), Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century and After, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-16422-2
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• Laqueur, Walter (1994), The dream that failed: reflections on the Soviet Union, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-510282-7
• Lipschitz, Leslie; McDonald, Donogh (1990), German unification: economic issues, International Monetary Fund, ISBN 1-55775-200-1
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External links

• "Research on the History of Television Programs of the GDR". Archived from the original on 8 December 2008.
• (English) Library of Congress—The U.S. Naval Academy Collection of Soviet & Russian TV
• (Russian) Russian Museum of Radio and TV website
• RFE Czechoslovak Unit Open Society Archives, Budapest
• Translations of propaganda materials from the GDR.
• Advice for East German propagandists on how to deal with the Solidarity movement
• "CNN Cold War Knowledge Bank". Archived from the original on 9 December 2008. - comparison of articles on Cold War topics in TIME Magazine and Pravda between 1945 and 1991
• Censorship in the Soviet Union and its Cultural and Professional Results for Arts and Art Libraries
• Radio Berlin International final English broadcast - Part 1
• Radio Berlin International final English broadcast - Part 2
• GDR Censporship regarding Literature
• "Literaturzensur in der DDR" (in German). Archived from the original on 9 February 2007.