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Propaganda In Joseph Stalin

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Joseph Stalin’s control over Russia is equated to the gain and loss of different economic and humanity-related aspects in Russian society, however, one loss in particular that his reign signified was that freedom was one thing that the Soviet people would live without. Despite the Soviet people’s lack of freedom, they rallied around Stalin and the Bolshevik party, thus creating a seemingly unified nation. The Soviet people, without any outward opposition, obeyed the state and devoted themselves to the Revolution and ideology that Joseph Stalin worked endlessly to impart within each citizen. The people of Russia were limited in every aspect of life. They could only read what the state allowed, see what the state allowed, and listen to what the …show more content…
Propaganda provided Stalin with a better grasp on power that in turn allowed him to control the public by mass. Moreover, the employment of propaganda helped to establish Stalin’s dictatorship, strengthen and expand the reach of Soviet power, eliminate enemies of the state, create a feeling of unity as well as control any information in relation to the events of the war and the front. The state used posters covered with slogans to encourage the Soviet people to fight for the Motherland and support the Soviet Union’s campaign against the invading Germans. Pictures of a woman clad in red garments, otherwise known as Mother Russia, convinced the people to fight for the state, to buy into Stalin’s beliefs, and foster the image of the “the Great Soviet family” (“The Great Terror” 444). In other pictures, Stalin is seen in a large group of people taking center stage. In comparison to those around him, Stalin reflects a bright light giving him the image of something holy and god-like. During Stalin’s reign, all forms of media only presented him in a positive light. In Vasily Grossman’s Everything Flows, Ivan’s mother shares in one of Ivan’s dreams that “during meetings and special briefings, from films, books, articles, and radio broadcasts, from Stalin himself, [she] kept hearing one and the same thing: that kulaks are parasites… [She] too began to fall under [Stalin’s] spell” and believe what she heard (118). Stalin’s monopoly over the media allowed him to portray himself, anyone, and anything in any way he wished while luring in the Soviet people to buy into his

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