Military Propaganda Research Articles

Political Activities of Major-General P. F. Ryabikov in Japan and China, 1920—1922

The historical-biographical sketch explores several episodes in the life and activities of a prominent Russian military leader, one of the founders of the intelligence service in the pre-revolutionary Russian army, Major General P. F. Ryabikov (1875-1932). Serving in the White Movement as the 2nd Chief of Staff Quartermaster of A. V. Kolchak’s staff, General P. F. Ryabikov acquired competencies as a curator of military propaganda and organizer of periodical publications, which he later successfully utilized as a leader in these areas of military-political activity within the White emigration in Japan and China. From July 1920 to September 1921, P. F. Ryabikov served in the mission of the Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces of the Russian Far Eastern Territory, Ataman G. M. Semenov, in Yokohama, where he was involved in establishing a network of correspondent-informants for this mission in European countries and the United States, receiving reports and messages about the state of these countries, as well as informing representatives of foreign states in line with the ideology of the Semenovites and publishing anti-Bolshevik literature. In October 1921, at the request of Ataman G. M. Semenov, P. F. Ryabikov transferred his activities to Shanghai, where he continued his assigned work with agent-informants and cooperation in the Russian emigrant press. Having no material and organizational support from G. M. Semenov, Ryabikov severed ties with him in February 1922 and embarked on a path of independent political and journalistic activities.

Jihadist sniper culture: propagandising the ‘caliphate’ through the crosshair

ABSTRACT Snipers have gained increasing prominence in modern warfare and insurgencies, both in actual combat and in military propaganda. Research on snipers, however, has remained largely limited to their strategic role in Western professional armed forces. This article provides the first in-depth analysis of the strategic and cultural dimensions of sniper propaganda of non-state armed groups. Focusing on the prominent case of the Islamic State (IS), this study draws from military and cultural-historical research and a wide range of primary sources to examine how IS used the figure of the sniper in its audiovisual propaganda. The findings indicate that snipers, as represented by IS, combined the roles of heroic mujahidin, authentically Islamic warriors, and appealing game heroes. As such, they embodied some of IS’s core beliefs and values and served as a strategic propaganda asset during the period of the group’s decline in Syria and Iraq (2015–2017). The article concludes that through the figure of the sniper, IS attempted to present itself as an enduring power in a potentially enticing and empowering manner. These findings complement existing research on sniping and IS, while opening new avenues for investigating insurgency warfare and propaganda representations more broadly.

LIMBAJUL PROPAGANDEI ÎN PRESA RUSĂ DIN ZILELE NOASTRE

This paper is an analysis of the language used by Russian journalists to describe the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, specifically the ongoing full-scale invasion started in February of 2022. In this article we rely on the 1928 study Propaganda, written by the American theorist Edward Bernays, which allows us to reveal a great number of similarities between current uses of propaganda and the way it was instrumentalized in the 20th century. Using the techniques, methods and principles of military propaganda as a basis, we analyzed several articles from a well-known Russian newspaper. The aim of this paper is to help develop an effective methodology to analyze and filter media information.

‘Banned wherever truth is banned’: allied airborne propaganda, cultural information warfare, and targeting Nazi Germany with ‘news’ from the sky (1944-1945)

This article explores notions of ‘truth’ and ‘factuality’ in war news, transnational aerial propaganda campaigns, and the persuasive techniques used by U.S. military propaganda troops during World War II. By drawing on underutilized archival materials, this study shows how Allied propagandists used airborne leaflet propaganda as tools of cultural information warfare after D-Day to reach, influence, and lower people’s morale on the German home front, and to demoralize combatant soldiers by pressuring them to surrender. Analysis of propaganda leaflets and newspapers reveals iconographic and ideological representation of Allied perceptions of ‘truth’, overt sexist portrayals of women as a propaganda weapon, and how these materials crossed national borders and bypassed physical censorship. The findings rest on a historical analysis of primary records, including more than one thousand propaganda leaflets, airborne newspapers, unpublished correspondence from military officials, U.S. public opinion questionaries, and other materials disseminated over wartime Germany.

제2차 세계대전 기간 미국의 핀업 걸에 나타난 애국주의

During World War II, Pin-Ups played a big role in military propaganda. At the time, Pin-Ups weren’t just about comforting soldiers on the battlefield. Therein lay a uniquely American patriotism. In a liberal country like the United States, it is difficult to ask citizens to defend the country, so American politicians had to appeal to private obligations, first and foremost the moral obligations that exist between men and women. Pin-Ups were a useful tool to arouse men’s patriotism by conveying the message that they should defend their wives and girlfriends on the mainland.
 Meanwhile, American women were able to find their own new sexual identity through Pin-Ups. The conventions that confined women to the roles of wife and mother were broken during the war. New attributes of independence and assertiveness were spreading among American women. The Pin-Up Girl, an icon of the active and desirable woman, was a useful model for American women to create a new self.
 With the end of World War II and the return of men from overseas, the social climate for women returned to the past. A country that had actively supported women’s mobilization into the workforce during the war now began to tell women that it was their patriotic duty to return home. Women lost their place in the workplace and men-only magazines like Playboy became popular. However, the sense of liberation that American women experienced during the war, and the experience of living as full members of society, would later lead to the American women’s movement of the 1960s.

(Re)Constructing the Bengali: Propaganda and Resistance in Immediate Post-1971 Pakistani Fiction

During the war of 1971 and for a considerable amount of time afterward, manipulation of media reports and military propaganda in Pakistan contributed to cultural stereotypes of Bengalis as ‘others’. This paper analyses two immediate Pakistani fictional responses to the war published in 1973: “Bingo” by Tariq Rahman and “Hearth and Home” by Parveen Sarwar. It considers the relationship between literature as a medium and the rigid structure of religious nationalist loyalties and state propaganda, probing the dynamics between imaginative fiction and the top-down approach of statist historiography. It draws attention to the heterogeneity of literary strategies employed by authors and their divergent engagements with formulaic images of the Bengali ‘other’, which in turn shape the construction of national identity in the narratives. Along with focusing on the role of literature in ‘shattering the silence’, it aims to foreground the role played by fiction in maintaining stereotypical, archetypal, and antagonistic inter-ethnic relations.

Military Propaganda of the White Movement by Means of Information Posters in the Russian Civil War

Military Propaganda of the White Movement by Means of Information Posters in the Russian Civil War

The Elements of Military Propaganda and Myth-Making in the Synopsis of the Sarapul – Tchaikovsky Boat Tour

The Elements of Military Propaganda and Myth-Making in the Synopsis of the Sarapul – Tchaikovsky Boat Tour

The Elements of Military Propaganda in Soviet New Year's Newspapers during the Civil War

The Elements of Military Propaganda in Soviet New Year's Newspapers during the Civil War

Military Propaganda and Disinformation: How Issah Mobila’s Murder was Spun in the Media

Purpose: The study investigates the use of propaganda in the media by Ghana’s military in the media coverage of the murder of Issah Mobila in military custody in Ghana’s northern town of Tamale. Mobila was murdered in 2004 by the military after his arrest by the civil police with an allegation of possession of arms that he intended to use to cause post-election violence in Tamale. Even though the military earlier denied the murder, an autopsy report confirmed that the deceased was murdered in military custody. A military inquiry report indicted some seven soldiers, two of whom were later jailed by a Fast Track High Court in Accra.
 Methodology: The study employed qualitative research design to generate data through interviews. Internet sources and published works on military brutalities of civilians in Africa were also used. Local media coverage of the event was extensive and radio phone-in programmes witnessed condemnation and anger from the people regarding the manner Mobila was tortured and killed in military custody.
 Findings: The study found that the military command in Tamale deployed propaganda techniques in order to evade responsibility for the death of Mobila in its custody. It also found that local media coverage of the event was biased and did not conform with the tenets of objectivity.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The study which is the first on propaganda and military murder of a civilian in military custody in Ghana recommended the training of journalists in detecting propaganda frames in reporting so as to obviate biased reportage in conflict situations.

ОБРАЗ ВІЙНИ В АМЕРИЦІ ТА ОБРАЗ АМЕРИКИ У ВІЙНІ: СТРАТЕГІЇ ВІЗУАЛЬНОЇ ПРОПАГАНДИ США У 1939-1945 РОКАХ

The article explores the strategy of American visual propaganda during World War II. The author demonstrates how the methods and forms of propaganda reflected the general trends in the socio-political life of the United States from 1939 to 1945. The strategies adopted by the state were aimed at shaping the image of the war within the country, which was geographically distant from the theaters of war, as well as creating practices for representing the image of America in the global conflict. This approach was driven by the fact that the issue of relations between the United States and the outside world, particularly with European countries, was traditionally associated with the problem of self-identification of Americans, who were born as a nation in the struggle against the former metropole. It has been established that the success of military propaganda was ensured, in particular, by the infrastructure of social relations in the field of art created by the New Deal reforms, namely, the Federal Art Project (FAP) program. Collaborating with the state in the 1930s, artists emphasised the «American» and democratic nature of US art, which allowed it to be successfully instrumentalised during the war to serve ideological needs. According to the author, one of the most demonstrative examples is the interpretation of the concept of «Four Freedoms» by F. D. Roosevelt in the paintings of N. Rockwell, who «translated» the president's abstract statements into a visual language understandable to the people. Several projects organized by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, which were supported by US ministries, are also indicative. These include the 1941 war poster competition and the exhibition project «Airways to Peace. An Exhibition of Geography for the Future,» featuring politician W. Willkie. Due to the predominant use of radio and cinema in the dissemination of propaganda, the work of MoMA during World War II acquired special significance: both the artist and the viewer were endowed with an important social function of participating in the defense of the country's freedom and independence. The article shows how the direct involvement of the population in the process of propagating (re)production contributed to the rapid acceptance by Americans of the political goals of the United States during the war and in the post-war world.

War Propaganda: Ottoman Military Propaganda in Neutral European Countries in the First World War

Bilindiği gibi Birinci Dünya Savaşı, beraberinde topyekûn harp kavramı da getirmiştir. Topyekûn harp ile birlikte, muharip devletler yalnızca askeri kaynakların başarılı olmaya yetmediğini anlayınca sivillerin desteğine de ihtiyaç duymuşlardır. Devletler, sivillerin ellerindeki kaynaklara ve bizzat sivillerin kendisine ulaşmak için de onların düşüncelerini ve dolayısıyla davranışlarını değiştirecek girişimlerde bulunmuşlardır. Bundan dolayı sivillerin nezdinde etkili olacak “propaganda” faaliyetlerine başlanmıştır. Muharip devletler, sadece kendi vatandaşlarına değil, düşmanlarının veya tarafsız ülkelerin halklarına karşı da propaganda faaliyetleri yürütmüşlerdir. Dünyada yaşanan bu değişimden Osmanlı Devleti de tabii olarak etkilenmiştir. İşte bu çalışmada Osmanlı Devleti’nin propaganda anlayışları ve profesyonel propaganda çağındaki faaliyetleri incelenecek, bu faaliyetler için oluşturulan kurumlar mercek altına alınacaktır. Ayrıca çalışmada, Osmanlı Devleti’nin özellikle tarafsız Avrupa ülkelerindeki propaganda faaliyetleri ele alınacaktır. Bunun yanında, düşman ülkelerin topraklarında yapılmak istenilen propagandalar hakkında bilgi verilecek ve bu faaliyetler esnasında ortaya çıkan sorunlar açıklanacaktır. Yine propaganda faaliyetleri kapsamında, Osmanlı Devleti’nin savaştaki müttefikleriyle olan ilişkileri de incelenecektir. Böylece Osmanlı Devleti’nin son derece etkisiz olduğu düşünülen coğrafyalardaki propaganda faaliyetlerinin özü anlaşılmaya çalışılacaktır.

Particularitățile includerii Basarabiei și a nordului Bucovinei în componența Uniunii Sovietice

"The author considers a set of military propaganda measures taken by Soviet troops to seize the territories of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Regular units of the USSR Armed Forces which were united in a specially created Southern Front, whose troops were concentrated on the border with Romania, were used to achieve this goal. On June 28, 1940, Soviet troops crossed the Dniester and entered Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Romanian units were ordered to withdraw in an organized manner. The Red Army exceeded the agreed rate of evacuation of Romanian troops, violated the line of demarcation, which led to local incidents. There were cases of disarmament of Romanian soldiers. There were armed clashes, a result of which were loses of both sides, including killed. In turn, the Red Army also felt hostility, encountering minefields, anti-tank barriers, trenches, mined or dismantled railways and bridges. Both Soviet and Romanian military units took certain military-administrative measures against the civilian population, which had different motives and forms of manifestation. The low level of morale of the retreating Romanian army led to the disintegration of entire military units, whose soldiers dropped their weapons and fled home. At the same time, there were serious violations of military discipline among the Red Army, for which the soldiers were punished, including the death penalty. Immediately after the Red Army entered Bessarabia and the Northern part of Bukovina, a huge Soviet propaganda machine began to operate. A large number of newspapers and special literature were distributed among the population and soldiers; and posters and slogans were hung in the streets and houses. Politicians of the Red Army organized rallies and demonstrations to awaken in the souls of the Bessarabians and Bukovinians “love for the liberators and a sense of confidence in the Soviet authority”. The annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina by the Soviet Union in June-July, 1940 can be considered a well-thought-out and carefully prepared political-diplomatic and military-propaganda campaign. These territories were occupied by the Red Army according to all the rules of military art (all components of the military operation were used: military force, local military pressure, military intelligence, propaganda and propaganda service), thanks to which the USSR achieved its goal. "

The fantasy of Greater East Asia: the racializing discourse of ‘peaceful construction’ and Japan’s occupation of Singapore

This article examines the Japanese wartime discourse on the construction of Greater East Asia as an instrument of racialization by looking at the writings of Ibuse Masuji, Jinbo Kōtarō, and Nakajima Kenzō; Japanese writers and literary critics who served with the military propaganda unit in Singapore under Japanese rule (1942–1945). The nonfiction writings on Japanese language education by Nakajima and Jinbo and the interethnic romance written by Ibuse each take part in multilayered modes of racialization – (in)visibilization, infantilization, re-ethnicization, and feminization. I argue that these different modes of racialization collectively provide the language and content for the narcissistic fantasy of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, thereby displacing the brutal reality of Japanese occupation.

An Analysis of the Principles of Military Propaganda Employed by the Soviet Union in January 1942 (based on Materials from the Krasnaya Zvezda Newspaper)

An Analysis of the Principles of Military Propaganda Employed by the Soviet Union in January 1942 (based on Materials from the Krasnaya Zvezda Newspaper)

Imagining an imminent Victory: an imagological analysis of the Ottoman caricature of the beginning of the First Balkan War

The article presents the results of the study of the images of the Ottoman caricature of the initial period of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) from the point of view of the efficiency and effectiveness of the work of the Ottoman military propaganda. Starting with the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878. The Ottoman Empire did not win a single war. In many ways, the reason for the defeats of the Ottoman Empire was its technological backwardness from other countries. By the time the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 began, propaganda had already been spread throughout Europe as a purposeful method of fighting against the enemy. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 1910s, the Ottoman Empire also had propaganda tools and knew how to use them. Methodologically, the article is based on the tools of imagology, the essence of which is to study the nature, character, purpose and meaning of the image. This approach makes it possible to decode caricature images of Ottoman magazines in more detail. The author examines the issue of efficiency and effectiveness of Ottoman propaganda in coverage through the caricature prism of the initial period of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913). The results of the analysis of the cartoons show to what extent the Ottoman propaganda was able to use the mechanisms available to it to mobilize the masses within the country. Special attention is paid to the cartoons of the Balkan Wars from the magazines "Cem" ("Cem") and "Black-eyed" ("Karagöz"), one of the most popular publications of the early 1910s. They allow us to see how the Ottoman visual propaganda was used in the period before the First World War (1914-1918), which remains little studied in Western and Russian Ottoman studies.

The Theme of Military Propaganda during the First World War on the Pages of the “Propaganda in the World and Local Conflicts” Journal

The Theme of Military Propaganda during the First World War on the Pages of the “Propaganda in the World and Local Conflicts” Journal

Krokodil against Uncle Sam: the American Other in Soviet Cartoons at the Beginning of the Cold War (1947—1960)

The main focus of this article is political cartoons from Krokodil — the Soviet flagship satirical magazine. The author uses social constructivism as a lens to analyze U.S.-Soviet relations through political cartoons which serve as a peculiar, but valuable primary source. The article focuses primarily on the works of prominent Soviet artists, i.e., the Kukryniksy, Boris Efimov, Yury Ganf, Boris Leo, Ivan Semyonov, Vitaly Goryaev, and Mark Abramov, all of whom were mobilized by the Soviet propaganda in the Cold War of images with the USA. The author traces the role of political cartoon as a litmus test of the changing bilateral relations from the early Cold War to the first international Thaw at the end of the 1950-s, dissects a repertoire of images of the US, and identifies the constant and the variable in the equation of Soviet perception. Among the “constant,” unchanging communicative strategies, were dichotomies “internationalism vs. racism and imperialism,” “disarmament vs. arms race,” “peaceful intentions vs. military propaganda,” “prosperity for all vs. wealth for the elites,” “social guaranties vs. poverty and unemployment.” The variables, meaning characteristics that served as an indicator of transformation in U.S.-Soviet relations, included expanding the repertoire of images and contexts, as well as the decreasing number of anti-American cartoons almost to the point of non-existence. The mutual interest of American and Soviet cartoonists toward each other was also notable as they aspired to understand satire produced “on the other side” and learn to mock mutual stereotypes. All these trends remained later and marked the beginning of the détente as well as new tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.

ГЕНДЕРНЫЙ ФАКТОР ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ МОБИЛИЗАЦИИ В РОССИИ В УСЛОВИЯХ ПЕРВОЙ МИРОВОЙ ВОЙНЫ: МЕТОДОЛОГИЯ И ИСТОРИОГРАФИЯ

Gender approach popularity in modern historiography is marked by the development of a range of ideas that characterize the importance of the gender factor under the conditions of the new and modern time wars. The article analyzes the methodological foundations and historiographic practices of understanding the role of the First World War in the transformation of the gender order in Russia. It is shown that the methodology for studying the issue is interdisciplinary in nature and includes approaches and tools of the historicalanthropological gender research, gender political science and linguistics, theories of propaganda and mass communication. The author highlights achievements in the study of the “woman and war” issue, women’s daily life and activities at the front and in the rear, the significance of the First World War in the transformation of the social role of women in Russia. The article describes the results of the study in gender aspects of military propaganda, perception of events and behavioral practices of combatants and non-combatants. The author emphasizes the continuing relevance of studying the mechanisms and specifics of gender perception of propaganda, ways of male and female involvement in the information and political communication. The article notes the importance of creating a complex study of the gender factor for political mobilization in Russia, considered in a comparative way, compared with similar processes that took place in other countries participating in the conflict.

The Protestant Church and Military Mobilisation in Prussia during the Wars of Liberation in 1813

The author analyses the political sermons preached and published by Evangelical pastors during the War of Liberation against Napoleonic France in 1813. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the contribution made by Evangelical clergy to the modernisation of the Prussian military system at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The study is a case study as it analyses the interaction between religion and politics taking the Kingdom of Prussia as a specific example. An analysis of the sources shows that the idea of mass mobilisation in Prussia was disseminated by means of religious reasoning, with preaching being the key tool of military propaganda. Drawing on biblical quotations, Prussian pastors presented the campaign against Napoleon as just, fair, and holy, as it was being waged in the name of God for the sake of all mankind. German national and patriotic values were also declared sacred and worth dying for, although preachers clearly emphasised local religious and dynastic Prussian patriotism. Through sermons, Prussian pastors encouraged the willingness of the population to make material and immaterial sacrifices to save the Prussian/German Fatherland as well as all mankind from Napoleonic tyranny. Thus, the mass mobilisation in Prussia in 1813 went hand in hand with an increase in religiosity. The author concludes that both religion and the church could make a significant contribution to the modernisation of European states and societies in the early nineteenth century.