Propaganda Apparatus Research Articles

Islamic Propaganda by the French During the Occupation of Egypt (1798-1801)

This article examines the propaganda put forth by the French during their invasion of Egypt between 1798 and 1801. The French occupation and control of Egypt was realized through two important elements, invasion/war (military control/hard power) and propaganda (textual control/soft power). Military and textual strategies should be viewed as not only complementary but also integral parts of each other. The French constantly and persistently issued proclamations from the first day of the invasion to the last moment. They primarily sought to set the stage for what they aimed with forthcoming propaganda. Their propaganda had political and religious aspects. The political propaganda was seemingly created in the context of the French rivalry with the Mamluks. The religious propaganda, on the other hand, was based on the claim that the French were the best friends of Egyptian Muslims, whom the French insistently tried to persuade. Their friendship with Muslims gradually developed to a point that some Frenchmen appeared to have converted to Islam. The propaganda apparatus in terms of its practice had visual and textual aspects that the French applied simultaneously. Opposite to what had been claimed, this paper asserts that their propaganda had absolutely nothing to do with the Enlightenment or the ideas of the French Revolution. This research also argues the primary impetus of the invasion to have been the global capitalist rivalry between the British and the French.

Information and propaganda work as a component of the anti-Nazi resistance of the OUN and the UPA during World War II

The article examines the evolution of information and propaganda activities conducted by the OUN and UPA during the Second World War on the territory of Ukraine. The purpose of research is to analyze the transition of the OUN from cooperation with the Nazis to active opposition to the occupiers precisely because of the change in means and methods of information and propaganda work. The source base of the article was archival and published documents of Ukrainian nationalists and German Nazis. The analysis of the sources made it possible to consider the modification of the forms of propaganda influence of the propaganda structures of the OUN and UPA on the population in the occupied territories of Ukraine in 1941-1944 and the attitude of the occupation authorities to the work of Ukrainian nationalists’ propaganda apparatus. The author has come to the conclusion that analytical work was one of the main factors in determining strategic tasks and choosing tactical methods of informational and propaganda activities of the OUN and UPA. Constantly changing conditions of counter-propaganda by Ukrainian nationalists in their opposition to the Nazis during hostilities on the territory of Ukraine gave rise to specific means and methods of this activity. It has been considered how the main varieties of oral (political speech, political conversation, report, discussion) and printed (postcards, periodicals, books, illustrative materials) propaganda were used in the conditions of the struggle against the Nazi occupation regime. The analysis of methods of simultaneous use of oral and printed forms of anti-Nazi propaganda has made it possible to demonstrate the effectiveness of the functioning of the OUN and UPA propaganda network and its role in strengthening support for national and patriotic forces among Ukrainians.

«Белая» печать Перми о большевистском режиме и лидерах большевиков

The periodicals are the important sources on the history of the Civil war seriously supplementing the information from the archives. The article analyses the descriptions of the Bolshevik regime and the Bolshevik leaders in the “White” press. The newspapers published in Perm were typical for the Anti-Bolshevik Russia and practically did not differ from the other Ural and Siberian ones. The articles and notes were often republished. The newspapers were the most widespread and popular sources of information in the Civil war and the effective instrument of the Information warfare between the “Reds” and “Whites” (All the Anti-Bolshevik governments are designated as White here, though using such a term in relation to the Komuch, Provisionsl Government of Siberia,and Provisional Government of the Ural Region, which existed during the period of the “Democratic Counterrevolution” does not seem absolutely correct). The press of the “Whites” described the inner life of the “Sovdepia” in negative terms and overestimated the scale of hunger and terror. The attention of the newspaper was concentrated on the situation in Moscow and Petrograd. In order to be more convincing in their descriptions of the horrors of the Bolshevism, the newspapers made references to the news agencies, including the foreign ones, and personal evidences. The “White” press tried to form the most negative attitude to the Bolshevik regime, to win the wide masses, because it might determine the outcome of the fratricidal civil war. The characteristics of the Bolshevik leaders, especially of Lenin and Trotsky, served the same goal. The newspapers stressed permanently the contradictions and conflicts between them. In their characteristics of the Bolshevik leaders the authors of the publications sometimes draw impartial and correct pictures, which might be seen as a valuable addition to the portraits of the prominent Bolshevik leaders. First of all it refers to the image of Trotsky. In spite of the active propaganda campaign in the press, the “Whites” lost the information war. In the country with the illiterate majority, the Bolshevik propaganda apparatus and methods of the information warfare turned to be more effective, than those of their opponents.

Let Confucianism and Islam work together: bargaining for a distinct Muslim identity in local propaganda literature

ABSTRACT In recent years, propaganda authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China have orchestrated the production of posters, banners, books, news reports, and literary magazines calling for the Sinicisation of Islam. What role is played by local Hui (Chinese Muslim) writers in the production of this propaganda? This article is based on a close reading of propaganda literature from a local county between 2010 and 2017. I show that Hui writers bargain for the preservation Hui ideological and cultural particularities. While contributing to the propaganda apparatus, they bargain to find a balance between the national call for the Sinicisation of religion and their own goal of the preservation of a Hui identity distinct from Han-Chinese culture. They argue that Sinicisation in the sense of value integration benefits the propaganda goals of the Chinese Party-State in a way that is not possible with Sinicisation in the sense of cultural and ideological assimilation.

Grassroots, Astroturf, or Something in Between? Semi-Official WeChat Accounts as Covert Vectors of Party-State Influence in Contemporary China

This article explores a facet of the Chinese propaganda apparatus that has yet to receive sufficient academic attention: the murky ecosystem of “semi-official” party-state presences on Chinese social media. With a particular focus on WeChat public accounts, this investigation responds to two critical research questions: first, what differentiates official party-state social media presences from semi-official presences, and second, what unique role do semi-official WeChat accounts play in the contemporary Chinese propaganda apparatus? This article samples content published by five dyads of official and semi-official WeChat public accounts during the first fifteen days of June 2019. The results of this comparative, case-study-based discourse analysis support two conclusions. First, semi-official WeChat accounts posture as independent from the party-state in order to attract large followings and gain credibility. Second, semi-official WeChat public accounts operate as “astroturfed influencers,” enabling the Chinese propaganda apparatus to covertly manipulate online discourse with extraordinary efficiency.

The Romanian National Television and the Romanian Communist Party during the 1970s: A complicated relationship

To legitimize its actions and to control the population, the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) worked constantly to impose its vision, with the propaganda apparatus acting intensely during both the period of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, as well as during the reign of his successor, Nicolae Ceaușescu. From its establishment in 1956, the Romanian National Television (TVR) had been one of the instruments through which the voice of the communist authorities had been heard, both literally and figuratively. In this study I investigate the evolution of TVR as a propaganda tool of the communist regime during the 1970s, with a focus on the evolution of the propaganda programmes and on the main requirements of the Party. For this purpose, I used sources from the Romanian National Archives and the Archives of the Romanian Broadcasting Society, and I analysed the measures that PCR took in relation to TVR so that the latter meets the ideological expectations of the communist regime. Keywords: Romania, communism, Romanian Communist Party (PCR), Romanian National Television (TVR), propaganda, ideology, media studies

Периодическая печать как источник по истории информационного противоборства красных и белых в Гражданской войне на Востоке России (1917–1920 гг.)

The article investigates the informational confrontation between the Reds and Whites during the Civil War in eastern Russia based on the materials of a number of Ural newspapers. The periodicals were the most massive and popular means of information and an important weapon in the information war. The authors note that the Bolsheviks had a well-established agitation and propaganda apparatus and large circulation of newspapers, but their opponents had to start all over again. In whole, the structure of «red» and «white» newspapers repeats the publications of the pre-Soviet period, therefore the logical composition of the issues and many types of publications and headings were the same in all editions. The article analyzes general and specific features in the information confrontation, differences in the approaches of state, party and independent publications. The images of power, built with the help of publications in newspapers, overlapped and influenced each other at a certain time interval. The authors make a conclusion about factors that influenced the victory of the Reds in the information war. The manner of presentation of material and language of Kolchak's newspapers is largely designed for the intelligent reader. However, the Bolsheviks presented material in their newspapers in a simpler and more accessible manner. Already during the years of the Civil War, the Soviet government paid great attention to the elimination of illiteracy, especially in the Red Army. The Bolsheviks made wide use of oral agitation and organized meetings, lectures. The themes and problems of lectures of «white» professors were completely different and not very clear for the broad masses.

Organization of Oral Advertising and Agitation in the Years of the Great Patriotic War (On Materials of North Ossetia)

This author examines the activities of Soviet party-state bodies in the field of propaganda among the population in the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (North Ossetia) during the Great Patriotic War. Propaganda is effective when its message is deeply rooted in the consciousness of the population group to which it is addressed. For this reason the media and the organizations of oral propaganda of North Ossetia sought to get the most accurate information on the particular group that was called upon to fulfill wartime tasks. The author used various types of sources, including documents from the Central State Archive of the Republic of North Ossetia that are here first introduced into scientific circulation. The paper identifies the directions of party-state bodies in organizing propaganda on the territory of the republic in 1941-1945, and it assesses the degree of their effectiveness. While the outbreak of the war led to an expansion of propaganda, there was an acute shortage of specialists in various fields of life, including in propaganda work among the civilian population. The paper reveals the main methods of forming the image of the enemy by propaganda bodies and the media. The author concludes that the activities of the propaganda apparatus in the republic during the War had a direct impact on public consciousness and contributed to the consolidation of the region's population in the fight against the enemy, and to overcoming the difficulties of the War years.

Dacici Maximi. The «Barracks Emperors» and the conflicts with the Barbarians near the frontiers of Dacia

The main goal of this study is to establish the historical context of the introduction of the title Dacicus Maximus in 3rd-century inscriptions for emperors like Maximinus Thrax, Traianus Decius, Gallienus, and Aurelianus. Maximinus Thrax officially adopted the title, while for Decius, Gallienus and Aurelianus such a cognomen devictarum gentium is accidentally found on inscriptions and milliaria from distant provinces, such as Hispania, Gallia, and the North-African provinces. To this scarce epigraphic data one can add the sculptural reliefs of the so-called battle sarcophagi from Rome that depict barbarians wearing Dacian costume and Dacian weapons. The main conclusion is that, in this confused era, the imperial propaganda apparatus identified as Dacians certain new, emergent barbarians inhabiting the area of the former Dacia Magna.

Illuminating terror: content analysis of official ISIS English-language videos from 2014 to 2017

ABSTRACT This paper sheds light upon ISIS global-level media operations based on an empirical analysis of 79 official English-language videos using the Braddock and Horgan’s analytical guideline for content analysis. This study results in a quantifiable assessment of videos based on their release dates, language, media centres, duration, musical arrangement, and many other production characteristics, and concludes that ISIS has created a highly sophisticated propaganda apparatus and media operation system with a strong ability to cope with the circumstances and various real-world events that ISIS faces on the ground. Additionally, ISIS’s message contains argumentative moves, and without the knowledge of what these moves are and how they respond to existing dialogues, our understanding of the group’s message in certain dimensions remains partial and incomplete.

(Re)cycling the Collective Memory of the Great Patriotic War

ABSTRACT The cult of the ‘Great Patriotic War’ regularly cycled through all Soviet administrations after it was initially crafted under Stalin and became further entrenched in everyday life under Leonid Brezhnev. The popularity and appeal of the cult rested on the fact that it was created by a combination of efforts that included the state’s propaganda apparatus, as well as the editors and correspondents of leading newspapers, the latter of which consisted of some of the most talented authors in the Soviet Union. Stalin’s censorship ensured that the reading public was regularly exposed to only sanitized versions of the war that rarely dealt in nuance, but offered much in the form of heroic self-sacrifice by Red Army men and women with Stalin acting as the cornerstone of the Soviet war effort. Nikita Khrushchev’s Thaw saw a flood of literature on the war, but most continued to retain Stalin’s narrative, which Brezhnev’s regime reinforced with public commemorations and memorials. While Boris Yeltsin was able to move away from the cult after the fall of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin has repurposed it and put it to work for his administration, appealing to the public with Stalin era rhetoric recycled for present day needs.

Stosunek społeczeństwa polskiego i mniejszości narodowych do obowiązku służby wojskowej w czasie wojny z Rosją bolszewicką (luty 1919 – listopad 1920)

The article is devoted to the protection of the combat capability of the Polish Army front troops from negative phenomena lowering their morale and discipline during the war with Bolshevik Russia in 1919–1921, and the attitudes of the Polish society and national minorities towards fulfilling their military service. After regaining independence, the war for independence and eastern borders had to be fought with a traditionally aggressive neighbor, Bolshevik Russia, which wanted to take advantage of the limited capabilities of a country ruined by wars, the enormous internal difficulties of a state united from three partitioned districts, the apparent attractiveness of the Bolshevik ideology and the multi-ethnicity of the society, which to some extent became susceptible to the populist slogans of the invader. During this war, the Polish Army was troubled by desertion of soldiers from the battle line and by mass evasion of military duty by men with a national minority background. Units fighting at the front were agitated by the propaganda apparatus of the Red Army, whose intention was a moral decay of the Polish Army.

Theodor Vasilescu – The Dancer Who Took the Romanian Folklore all over the World

The main theme of the proposed paper concerns the professional training and artistic activity of Theodor Vasilescu, choreographer and dancer, specialized in folk dance, with a rich international activity during the communist regime. The analysis will focus on illustrating how the artist’s biography was influenced by a new trend in the satellite states of the U.R.S.S., namely that of transforming traditional dance into art with a political substratum. Also, the main thread of the article will consist in revealing the specific type of relationship between the artist and the regime, dominated by a permanent awareness of the mutual benefits of this partnership: for the dancer Theodor Vasilescu it was the chance to develop a successful career, which for the propaganda apparatus implied a strong image campaign for Romania, abroad. Regarding the temporal framework, the analyzed period will focus on the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu, 1965-1989, relevant in Theodor Vasilescu’s career path, as well as in the dissemination of his work results. There are three important aspects that will be analyzed in this article: first, the recovery of an important cultural trend in Romanian history, when, through the influence on the Soviet chain, folklore and traditional dance became an art form strongly subsumed to an ideology. This aspect led to the foundation of many Folk Ensembles with a specific type of artistic manifestations, including folk dance. At the same time, it will be illustrated how the regime was involved in financing and promoting this type of dance, by including it in the development of the most important national performances, by encouraging research in this field and creating professional opportunities through training and also by organizing an International Folklore Festival, “Romania 69”. This approach definitively changed the professional career of Theodor Vasilescu. The last aspect consists in presenting the international career of the choreographer, as a direct result of the increased interest that the communist regime had in promoting Romania’s image abroad. This made the Romanian folk dance very popular in countries such as Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Germany. Also, the frequent tournaments con-tributed to the increase of the Securitate’s interest in his daily activity. The main categories of sources for documentation will consist of: my personal archive which contains two interviews with Theodor Vasilescu, documents in the funds and collections of the National Archives of Romania (The Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, Propaganda and Agitation Section, Organizational Section), also those of the National Council for Studying the Securitate Archives.

Propaganda, Patriotism, and News: Printing Discovered and Intercepted Letters In England, 1571–1600

In this article I propose that the relatively few intercepted and discovered letters printed during the reign of Elizabeth I fall chiefly into three categories: they were published as propaganda, as patriotic statement, and as news reportage. Although Elizabeth and her ministers published intercepted and discovered letters on a strictly ad hoc and contingent basis, the pamphlets and books in which these letters appear, along with associated ideological and polemical material, reveals determined uses of intercepted and discovered letters in print. Catholics likewise printed intercepted letters as propaganda to confront Elizabeth’s anti-Catholic policies through their own propaganda apparatus on the continent. Intercepted letters were also printed less frequently to encourage religious and state patriotism, while other intercepted letters were printed solely as new reportage with no overt ideological intent. Because intercepted and discovered letters, as bearers of secret information, were understood to reveal sincere intention and genuine motivation, all of the publications assessed here demonstrate that such letters not only could be used as effective tools to shape cultural perceptions, but could also be cast as persuasive written testimony, as legal proof and as documentary authentication.

“Tugev Balti natsionalistlik keskus” ning Nõukogude välispropaganda teel sõjast rahuaega ja külma sõtta [Abstract: “The strong Baltic nationalistic centre” and Soviet foreign propaganda: from war to peace and toward the Cold War

“Tugev Balti natsionalistlik keskus” ning Nõukogude välispropaganda teel sõjast rahuaega ja külma sõtta [Abstract: “The strong Baltic nationalistic centre” and Soviet foreign propaganda: from war to peace and toward the Cold War

ЗАРОДЖЕННЯ АМЕРИКАНСЬКОГО ПРОПАГАНДИСТСЬКОГО АПАРАТУ НА ПОЧАТКУ «ХОЛОДНОЇ ВІЙНИ» (1945–1948 рр.)

The main focus of this study was to identify the main stages of the American propaganda apparatus formation and development at the beginning of the Cold War. In this case, the historiographic works of contemporary American scholars had been analyzed and compared, concerning the activities of the President H. Truman administration on the transformation of existing and the creation of state propaganda new bodies. On the basis of the CIA 's open archival materials, was made an attempt to highlight the main steps taken by the US government to form a legal framework for confronting Soviet information and psychological activities outside the United States.

‘Pride and Joy’: Propaganda Wars, ‘Projections of America’ and the Dismantling of the Office of War Information at the Close of World War II

The OWI was the key agency for the distribution and dissemination of US film and propaganda during World War II. But it was the Overseas Branch of the OWI that dominated activity and the Motion Picture Unit (MPU) of the OB that helped shape documentary production through the portrayal of American values and society. The OWI’s winding up at war’s end has long been seen as part of a natural reversion to peacetime government policy. Yet, as this article argues, events within the MPU/OWI in the last year of the war throw up evidence that suggests the agency was being deliberately sidelined – even undermined – in preparation for a more rigorous and ideological post-war propaganda apparatus. This revised propaganda philosophy was set in train by a select number of individuals, principally historian Edward Lilly, newspaperman C.D. Jackson, and the army’s Brig Gen Robert McClure. Their scrutiny of the MPU/OWI – accessed via private correspondence and archival papers – is revealed for the first time in this article and is explained away as a self-conscious move away from civilian and towards military propaganda authority and control in the emergent Cold War era.

De ‘Poolse kwestie’ in Nederland in de jaren 1914–1918: De rol van Poolse persbureaus in de cultuur- en kennistransfer over Polen

With the outbreak of the Great War, there arose a new “space”, in which various events took place, parallel to the armed struggle. They led to the development of new relational networks between institutions and individuals. Not only in the warring and the occupied countries, but also in the neutral states, besides the armed fight, an ardent battle took place for the favours of public opinion, waged by means of propaganda activities. In addition to the press agencies of the fighting countries active in the Netherlands, which were intended to collect and distribute news in a conventional journalistic sense (but with hidden intentions), there were also press representatives from other countries, including Poland. They made sure that the Polish question was present in the Dutch press. The most important among those institutions were Sigismund Gargas’s Poolsch Persbureau (Polish Press Office) and the news agency under the auspices of the Naczelny Komitet Narodowy (Supreme National Committee). In part, they also played a role in the ‘psychological warfare’ of the German propaganda apparatus.

War Remembered, Revolution Forgotten: Recasting the Sino-North Korean Alliance in China's Post-Socialist Media State

From October 1950 to July 1953, the nascent Chinese state entered into a strategic alliance with North Korea; hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers shed blood on the Korean peninsula in defense of the socialist homeland and advancing Communist internationalism. But since the end of the Korean War, China has moved from revolutionary idealism and political radicalism in Mao's era to the current post-socialist pragmatism and materialism. As the ideological winds shift, China's contemporary propaganda apparatus must redefine the Korean War in order to reconcile the complexity of the war and wartime alliance with contemporary political concerns and popular views. By focusing on a documentary film, The Unforgettable Victory, produced by China's leading state-run film studio in 2013, this article explores the ways in which the official media of the post-socialist era presents the past revolutionary war. The new film celebrates the splendid valor of Chinese soldiers, civilians' heroic sacrifices, and the war's nationalist legacy; however, it purposefully forgets the revolutionary fervor and internationalist sentiments that once forged the Sino–North Korean alliance and empowered wartime mobilization. This article examines the process of remembering and forgetting, and reveals government propaganda's latest efforts to demobilize contemporary viewers while infusing the past revolutionary war with ideological clarity and political certainty in post-socialist China.

Authoritarianism Goes Global (II): China’s Foreign Propaganda Machine

Abstract: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has long suffered from a poor international image and weak “soft power.” The country’s negative image has hindered international acceptance of its rise as a global great power. Because the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wants China to “gain face” ( yao mianzi ) in the international arena, it has in recent years invested heavily in boosting the country’s international approval rating. Yet, to date, China’s considerable efforts to modernize its foreign propaganda apparatus have only been partly successful in shifting international public opinion. On the one hand, CCP efforts to raise global awareness of the country’s economic transformation have been very effective, as have its efforts to shape the discourse on Taiwan. On the other hand, as polls and other research show, CCP efforts to improve non-Chinese foreigners’ perceptions of China’s domestic politics and role on the international stage have so far largely failed to sway these audiences.