Propaganda

• Nich II:

  • Used portraits, pamphlets, photographs, and national events to increase his popularity, especially after 1905
• Lenin: 

  • Used slogans to communicate their messages to the population, such as ‘Peace, Bread, Land’ and ‘All Power to the Soviets’
  • Similarly to the Tsars, they also used pamphlets, newspapers, photographs and posters
  • Lenin promoted a cult of personality. Imagery of him was displayed (even after his death) and Petrograd was renamed Leningrad
• Stalin:

  • Like Lenin, he created a cult of personality. Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad, the slogan ‘Stalin is the Lenin of Today’ was created and there were various posters, photographs and statues depicting Stalin as a man of the people
  • Stalin used propaganda, including cinema, to promote the Five Year Plans
  • Stakhanovite movement - used to raise productivity levels (very similar to Nazi KdF)
• Synthesis:

  • Most frequently used under Communist rule
  • Stalin and Lenin both created a Cult of Personality (however this was removed under Khrushchev’s destalinisation)