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Allied and satellite states
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Eastern Bloc media and propaganda was controlled directly by each country'scommunist party, which controlled thestate media,censorship andpropaganda 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 ofEastern Bloc leaderships viewing even marginal groups ofopposition intellectuals as a potential threat to the bases underlying communist power therein.
Circumvention of dissemination controls occurred to some degree throughsamizdat 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 travelers from the domestic population.
Bolsheviks took power following theRussian Revolution of 1917. During theRussian Civil War that followed, coinciding with theRed Army's entry intoMinsk in 1919, Belarus was declared theSocialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia. After more conflict, theByelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was declared in 1920. With the defeat ofUkraine in thePolish–Ukrainian War, after the March 1921Peace of Riga following thePolish–Soviet War, central and eastern Ukraine were annexed into theSoviet Union as theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1922, theRussian SFSR,Ukraine SSR,Byelorussian SSR andTranscaucasian SFSR wereofficially merged as republics creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union).[citation needed]
At the end ofWorld 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 theEastern Bloc by occupying several countries asSoviet Socialist Republics that were originally effectively ceded to it by Nazi Germany in theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact. These included easternPoland (incorporated intotwo different SSRs),[2]Latvia (becameLatvia SSR),[3][4]Estonia (becameEstonian SSR),[3][4]Lithuania (becameLithuania SSR),[3][4] part of easternFinland (becameKarelo-Finnish SSR)[5] and northeasternRomania (became theMoldavian SSR).[6][7]
By 1945, these additional annexed countries totaled approximately 180,000 further square miles (465,000 km2), or slightly more than the area of West Germany, East Germany and Austria combined.[8] Other nations were converted intoSoviet satellite states, such as thePeople's Republic of Poland, thePeople's Republic of Hungary,[9] theSocialist Republic of Czechoslovakia,[10] thePeople's Republic of Romania, thePeople's Republic of Albania,[11] and laterEast Germany from theSoviet zone of German occupation.[12] TheFederal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was also wrongfully considered part of the Bloc[13][14] in spite of theTito–Stalin Split that occurred in 1948,[15] followed by the formation of theNon-Aligned Movement.[citation needed]
Throughout the Eastern Bloc, both in the USSR and elsewhere, Russia was given prominence, and referred to as thenaibolee vıdayuşayasya naciya (the most prominent nation) and therukovodyaşy 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 ofmarket 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 andetatization of private property.[18]
The Soviet-style "replica regimes" that arose in the Bloc not only reproduced the Sovietcommand economy, but also adopted the methods employed byJoseph 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]
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In theEastern 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 ofSoviet TV andRadio 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 compilingfive-year plans during theindustrialisation of the 1950s.
Strict censorship existed in the Eastern Bloc, though it was at times circumvented by those engaging insamizdat.[28] Censorship institutions in the countries of the Bloc were organized differently.[23] For example, censorship inPoland was clearly identified whereas it was loosely structured, but no less efficient, inHungary.[23] Strict censorship was introduced in thePeople's Republic of Albania andFederal People's Republic of Yugoslavia as early as 1944, though it was somewhat relaxed in Yugoslavia after theTito–Stalin split of 1948.[29] Unlike the rest of the Eastern Bloc, relative freedom existed for three years inCzechoslovakia until Soviet-style censorship was fully applied in 1948,[29] along with theCzechoslovak Revolution.
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 onMay Day.[31] UnderNicolae Ceauşescu inRomania, 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 party exercised hierarchical control of the censorship system.[29] Each communist party maintained a department of itscentral 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 governingdenazification,[34] censorship became one of the most overt instruments used to manipulate 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, theHead office for publishing companies and bookselling trade (Hauptverwaltung Verlage und Buchhandel, HV), and theBureau 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 theMinisterium für Volksbildung (MfV), the rulingSED 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 andWestern TV was available across most of the GDR. Technical and diplomatic considerations meant attempts atjamming Western Stations were (unlike in other Eastern bloc countries) soon abandoned.
In the Soviet Union, in accordance with the official ideology and politics of theCommunist Party,Goskomizdat censored all printed matter,Goskino supervised allcinema,Gosteleradio controlled radio and television broadcasting and theFirst 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 theKGB. TheSoviet Union also censored images, included removing repressed persons from texts, posters, paintings and photographs.
Throughout the Eastern Bloc, artists or those attempting to disseminate dissenting views were repressed, with a few of the more prominent victims including:
| Country | Dissident | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | Gheorghe Ursu | 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 theRomanian Police, he was transported to theJilava jail hospital, where he died ofperitonitis later in the day.[42][43][44][45][46] |
| Ion Valentin Anestin | His work centered on denouncing Stalin and theSoviet Union, in a series titledMăcelarul din Piaţa Roşie ("TheRed Square Butcher") published by the magazineGluma.[47][48][49] Following the start ofSoviet occupation of Romania, Anestin was barred from publishing for a five-year period (1944–1949), and ultimately imprisoned.[47][48][49] He died soon after his release.[47][48] | |
| Vasile Voiculescu | 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. | |
| Lena Constante | During repeated interrogations by theSecuritate, Constante tried to fend off false accusations of "Titoism" and "treason", but, the victim of constant beatings and torture[50] (much of her hair was torn from the roots),[51] and confronted with Zilber's testimony — which implicated her — she eventually gave in and admitted to the charges.[52] | |
| Anton Durcovici | Catholic clergyman openly critical of the Communist regime, Durcovici was placed under surveillance in 1947, arrested by theSecuritate in 1949 during a congregation visit, died from torture and prison deprivation and was buried in an unmarked grave.[53][54] Communist authorities subsequently attempted to erase all evidence of his stay in prison, and most documents were destroyed.[53] | |
| – | Other artists, such asGeo 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 theSecuritate.[55] | |
| USSR | Night of the Murdered Poets | thirteen writers, poets, artists, musicians and actors were secretly executed on orders fromJoseph Stalin. |
| Nikolai Getman | aUkrainian artist arrested in 1946 for possessing a caricature of Joseph Stalin his friend had drawn on a cigarette box, Getman was sent to SiberianGulag camps. He is one of the few artists to record life in theGulag, where he survived by sketchingpropaganda for the authorities. | |
| Vasyl Stus | aUkrainian 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 theUkrainian Helsinki group, was sentenced to ten years more imprisonment and was subsequently beaten to death in a Soviet forced labor camp. | |
| Enn Tarto | Estonian dissident who was imprisoned from 1956 to 1960, 1962 to 1967, and again from 1983 to 1988 foranti-Soviet activity. | |
| Valeriy Marchenko | Ukrainian poet who was arrested in 1973 and charged withAnti-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 | Estonian businessman and former politician critical of Soviet rule who was executed by the Soviet Union in 1941. | |
| Mečislovas Reinys | 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) | Ukrainian arrested in 1949 for purported Ukrainian nationalist rhetoric and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in copper mines. | |
| Hungary | Imre Nagy | former Prime Minister who had supported Hungary's withdrawal from theWarsaw Pact during theHungarian Revolution of 1956, was later arrested by Soviet authorities after leaving theYugoslavian embassy, and then secretly tried, found guilty, sentenced to death and was executed by hanging in June 1958.[56] His trial and execution were made public only after the sentence was carried out. |
| József Dudás | political activist who spoke of a 25-point program ending Soviet repression inHungary to a crowd during theHungarian Revolution of 1956, and was executed the next year. | |
| East Germany | Arno Esch | political writer who was imprisoned by theSovietNKVD in 1949, sentenced to death for "counterrevolutionary activities" and executed at theLubyanka (KGB) prison in 1951. |
| Bulgaria | Georgi Markov | writer and journalist who defected to the West to work for the BBC and became an outspoken critic of Bulgarian Communism. He was assassinated on Waterloo Bridge in London in 1978. |
| Poland | Jerzy Popiełuszko | Roman Catholic priest. His sermons, in which he criticized communist system, were routinely broadcast byRadio Free Europe, and thus became famous throughout Poland for their uncompromising stance against the regime. He was brutally murdered in 1984 by agents ofSłużba Bezpieczeństwa (Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs). |
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The major newspapers were traditionally the daily official publications of the local 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.[57] In some countries, the press provided a significant source of income for the ruling communist parties.[57] Radio and television was controlled by the state.[58] TheTelegraph 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 theNKVD andGRU. TASS had affiliates in 14 Soviet republics, including the:Lithuanian SSR,Latvian SSR,Estonian SSR,Moldavian SSR,Ukrainian SSR andByelorussian SSR.
Despite outward similarities in press policy, large differences existed in the roles and functions of the mass media in Eastern Bloc countries.[59] Where the press was allowed more freedom, such as in Poland, Hungary, and Yugoslavia, a national subtext and a significant element of entertainment flourished.[59] 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.[59]
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.[59] At the same time, some press in the Eastern Bloc became more open in the 1980s in countries such as Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.[59] In Yugoslavia, the press after Tito's reign turned increasingly nationalistic.[59] Only in Romania and Albania did the press remain under tight dictatorial control right up until the end of the Eastern Bloc.[59]
InEast 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.[60] Those agencies also provided the top publishing priorities and would apportion paper used for printing to the various publications in accordance with those priorities.[60] The SVAG initially licensed some private publishers which required the employment of a greater number of censors.[61]
| Media | Country | Logo[1] | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pravda |  Russian SFSR / USSR |  | Official newspaper of theCentral Committee of theCommunist Party |
| Trud |  | Mouthpiece for theSoviet Labor Unions | |
| APN | Press agency under theSoviet Information Bureau | ||
| Radianska Ukraina |  Ukrainian SSR |  | Official newspaper of theCommunist Party of Ukraine |
| Zvyazda |  Byelorussian SSR |  | Official newspaper of theCommunist Party of Belarus |
| Sovetskaya Belorussiya | .svg) | Official Russian language newspaper of theCommunist Party of Belarus | |
| Moldova Socialistă |  Moldavian SSR |  | Official newspaper of theCommunist Party of Moldova |
| Rahva Hääl |  Estonian SSR |  | Official newspaper of theCommunist Party of Estonia |
| Sovetskaya Estonia |  | Official Russian language newspaper of theCommunist Party of Estonia | |
| Cīņa |  Latvian SSR |  | Official newspaper of theCommunist Party of Latvia |
| Sovetskaya Latviya |  | Official Russian language newspaper of the Communist Party of Latvia | |
| Tiesa |  Lithuanian SSR |  | Official newspaper of theCommunist Party of Lithuania |
| Kauno Tiesa |  | Lithuanian SSR newspaper, printed in Kaunas | |
| Czerwony Sztandar [pl] |  | Polish language newspaper toSovietizedTerritories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union | |
| Sovetskaya Litva | Official Russian language newspaper ofCommunist Party of Lithuania | ||
| Totuus |  Karelo-Finnish SSR |  | |
| Komunisti |  Georgian SSR |  | Official newspaper of theCommunist Party of Georgia |
| Sovetakan Hayastan |  Armenian SSR |  | Official newspaper of theCommunist Party of Armenia |
| Kommunist | Official Russian language newspaper of the Communist Party of Armenia | ||
| Kommunist |  Azerbaijani SSR |  | Official newspaper of theAzerbaijan Communist Party |
| Bakinskiy Rabochiy | Official Russian language newspaper of the Azerbaijan Communist Party | ||
| Sotsialistık Qazaqstan |  Kazakh SSR |  | Official newspaper of theCommunist Party of Kazakhstan |
| Kazakhstanskaya Pravda |  | Official Russian language newspaper of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan | |
| Kyrgyz Tuusu |  Kyrgyz SSR |  | Official newspaper of theCommunist Party of Kirghizia |
| Kommunist Tadzhikistana |  Tajik SSR | Official newspaper of theCommunist Party of Tajikistan |
| Media | Purpose | Country | Logo[2] | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Krasnaya Zvezda | military | Russian SFSR /USSR |  | Official organ of the Ministry of Defence |
| Vo Slavu Rodiny | Byelorussian SSR |  | - |
| Media | Type | Country | Logo[3] | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radio Moscow | Radio | Russian SFSR | Official international radio station of the USSR | |
| Soviet Central Television | TV | State-owned television broadcaster in the USSR | ||
| Programme One | Programme Five | First and main television channel | ||
| All Union Programme | Second television channel served nationally in the USSR | |||
| Moscow Programme | Third television channel discussing events in Moscow | |||
| Fourth Programme | Fourth television channel | |||
| Gosteleradio | TV/radio | Supervising television & radio broadcasting in the USSR | ||
| Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union | wire service | Soviet Union | Press agency of the USSR | |
| Belarusian Telegraph Agency | Byelorussian SSR | Affiliated withTASS | ||
| ELTA | Lithuanian SSR |
| Media | Type | Country | Logo[5] | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berliner Rundfunk | radio |  East Germany | State-owned radio station by the GDR, broadcasting events in East Berlin | |
| Deutschlandsender (later Stimme der DDR) | Radio station aimed primarily to the West German audience | |||
| Radio DDR 1 |  | First and official radio station of the GDR | ||
| Radio DDR 2 | Second radio station of the GDR | |||
| DT64 | East German radio station broadcasting only on FM | |||
| Radio Berlin International |  | Official international radio station of the GDR (final broadcast bitter about "takeover") | ||
| Radio Tirana |  People's Republic of Albania | Official radio station in Albania | ||
| Radio Sofia |  People's Republic of Bulgaria | Official international radio station in Bulgaria | ||
| First Programme | Official radio station in Bulgaria | |||
| Kossuth Rádió |  People's Republic of Hungary | Official radio station in Hungary | ||
| Radio Polonia |  People's Republic of Poland | Official international broadcasting station in Poland | ||
| Program 1 Polskiego Radia | Official radio station in Poland | |||
| Radio București-România (Radio România Actualități) |  People's Republic of Romania | Official radio station in Romania | ||
| Radio București Programul 2 (Radio România Cultural) | Started byRomanian Radio Broadcasting Company in 1952 | |||
| Radio București Programul 3 (Radio3Net) | Started byRomanian Radio Broadcasting Company in 1963 and rebranded in 1973 | |||
| ČST1 | TV |  Czechoslovak Socialist Republic |  | First and main television station in Czechoslovakia |
| ČST2 |  | Second television station in Czechoslovakia | ||
| DFF | East Germany |  | First and main television station of the GDR | |
| DFF2 |  | Second television station of the GDR | ||
| Televizioni Shqiptar | People's Republic of Albania |  | Main television station in Albania | |
| BNT 1 | People's Republic of Bulgaria |  | First and main television station in Bulgaria | |
| BNT 2 | Second television station in Bulgaria | |||
| MTV 1 | People's Republic of Hungary |  | First and official television station in Hungary | |
| MTV 2 | Second television station in Hungary | |||
| TVP1 | People's Republic of Poland |  | First Polish TV channel (since 1952) byTelewizja Polska | |
| TVP2 |  | Second Polish TV channel (since 1970) byTelewizja Polska | ||
| TVR1 | People's Republic of Romania | First and official television station in Romania | ||
| TVR2 | Second television station in Romania | |||
| Radio i Telewizja Polska | TV/radio | People's Republic of Poland | Supervising TV and radio broadcasts in Poland |
| Media | Country | Logo[6] | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Komsomolskaya Pravda | Russian SFSR /USSR |  | Official organ of the Central Committee of theKomsomol |
| Pionerskaya Pravda |  | Official organ of theVladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization | |
| Pioner Kanch’ | Armenian SSR |  | ArmenianPioneer daily |
| Noorte Hääl | Estonian SSR |  | Estonian Komsomol daily |
| Sovetskaya Molodëz | Latvian SSR |  | Latvian Komsomol daily |
| Komjaunimo Tiesa | Lithuanian SSR |  | Lithuanian Komsomol daily |
| Mladá fronta | Czechoslovak Socialist Republic |  | of theSocialist Union of Youth |
| Scînteia Tineretului | People's Republic of Romania |  | RomanianUnion of Communist Youth newspaper |
| Junge Welt | German Democratic Republic |  | GermanFree German Youth newspaper |
Beginning in 1935,Joseph Stalin effectively sealed off outside access to theSoviet 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.[62] 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.[62] Dissenters who approached such foreigners were arrested.[63] For many years after World War II, even the best informed foreigners did not know the number of arrested or executed Soviet citizens, or how poorly the Soviet economy had performed.[63]
Similarly, the regimes inRomania carefully controlled foreign visitors in order to restrict the flow of information coming out of (and into) Romania.[64] Accordingly, activities in Romania remained, until the late 1960s, largely unknown to the outside world.[64] As a result, until 1990, very little information regarding labour camps and prisons in Romania appeared in the West.[64] When such information appeared, it was usually in Romanian émigré publications.[64] Romania'sSecuritate secret police were able to suppress information leaking to the west about resistance to the regime.[65] StalinistAlbania, which had become increasingly paranoid and isolated afterde-Stalinization and the death ofMao Zedong,[66] restricted visitors to 6,000 per year, and segregated those few that traveled to Albania.[67]
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:[68]
Communist Party documents reveal a more detailed classification of specific targets (workers, peasants, youth, women, etc.).[68]
Because the communist party was portrayed underMarxist-Leninist theory as the protagonist of history pushing toward the inevitable 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.[69] Propaganda often worked itself beyondagit prop plays into traditional productions, such as inHungary after theTito–Stalin split, where the director of the National Theatre produced a version ofMacbeth in which the villainous king was revealed as none other than Yugoslavian leaderJosip Broz Tito, who by then was widely hated inside the Eastern Bloc.[70] 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".[71]
Communist theoreticianNikolai Bukharin in hisThe ABC of Communism wrote:[72]
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.
Some propaganda would "retell" the western news, such as theEast German television programDer schwarze Kanal ("The Black Channel"), which containedbowdlerized programs fromWest Germany with addedcommunist commentary.[73] 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 dividedGermany meant that West German television signals (particularlyARD) could be received in most of East Germany, except in parts of EasternSaxony around Dresden, which consequently earned the latter the nickname "valley of the clueless"[74] (despite the fact that some Western radio was still available there).
Eastern Bloc leaders, including evenJoseph Stalin, could become personally involved in dissemination. For example, in January 1948, theU.S. State Department published a collection of documents titledNazi-Soviet Relations, 1939–1941: Documents from the Archives of The German Foreign Office, which contained documents recovered from the Foreign Office ofNazi Germany[75][76] revealing Soviet conversations with Germany regarding theMolotov-Ribbentrop Pact, including its secret protocol dividing eastern Europe,[77][78] the1939 German-Soviet Commercial Agreement,[77][79] anddiscussions of the Soviet Union potentially becoming the fourth Axis Power.[80]
In response, one month later, theSoviet Information Bureau publishedFalsifiers of History.[75][81] Stalin personally edited the book, rewriting entire chapters by hand.[81] 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.[75][77] 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 mentioningthe Soviet offers to join the Axis.[82] Historical studies, official accounts, memoirs and textbooks published in the Soviet Union used that depiction of eventsuntil the Soviet Union's dissolution.[82]
The book referred to "the American falsifiers and their British and French associates",[83] 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",[84] blasted "the claptrap of the slanderers"[85] 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."[86]
InEast Germany, the Soviet SVAG and DVV initially controlled all publication priorities.[60] In the initial months of 1946, the Soviets were unsure how to merge propaganda and censorship efforts in East Germany.[60] 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.[60]
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Samizdat was the clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature or other media inEastern 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.[87] The practice was fraught with danger as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copyingcensored materials. Former Soviet dissidentVladimir Bukovsky defined it as follows: "I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and [may] get imprisoned for it."[88] One of the longest-running and well-known samizdat publications was the information bulletin "Хроника текущих событий" (Khronika Tekushchikh Sobitiy;Chronicle of Current Events),[89] which contained anonymously published pieces dedicated to the defense ofhuman rights in the USSR. Several people were arrested in connection with theChronicle, includingNatalya 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 audiotape 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 the control of the state. "Tamizdat" refers to literature published abroad (там, tam, meaning "there"), often from smuggled manuscripts.
Western countries invested heavily in powerful transmitters which enabled broadcasters to be heard in the Eastern Bloc, despite attempts by authorities tojam such signals. In 1947, VOA started broadcasting inRussian with the intent to counter Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies, and disseminate pro-Western propaganda directed against Soviet leaders and policies.[90] These includedRadio Free Europe (RFE), the American-backedRIAS in Berlin, theVoice of America (VOA),Deutsche Welle,Radio France International and theBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).[58] The Soviet Union responded by attempting aggressive, electronicjamming of VOA, along with some other Western broadcasts, in 1949.[90] TheBBC World Service similarly broadcast language-specific programming to countries behind theIron Curtain.
RFE was developed out of a belief that the Cold War would eventually be fought by political rather than military means.[91] In January 1950, it obtained a transmitter base atLampertheim,West Germany and on July 4 of the same year, RFE completed its first broadcast aimed atCzechoslovakia[92] Broadcasts were often banned in Eastern Europe and communist authorities used sophisticatedjamming techniques in an attempt to prevent citizens from listening to them.[93] 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.[94] While RFE was cleared of charges that it gave Hungarian listeners false hope during theHungarian Revolution of 1956, its Broadcast Analysis Division was established to ensure that broadcasts were accurate and professional while maintaining the journalists' formerautonomy.[95]
A 1960 study concluded that RFE possessed considerably more listeners than the BBC or VOA.[96] 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 theHungarian Revolution of 1956, focusing instead on world news, American culture and jazz.[96]
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