Examples Of How Did Stalin Use Propaganda

This investigation will contend to answer the question “ How did Stalin use propaganda to help him gain power?”. This topic will focus on how he used arts and media and how that helped him gain power.I chosen this topic because I’m interested on how he used propaganda to build himself up in the eyes of people. It’s was amazing on how Stalin managed to brainwash the people into thinking he was the defender of the people and even though he was the one that placed them in concentration camps they still came back to him for help. Also how Stalin wanted to reshape the thinking and behavior of the soviet people by forming a Soviet Union of Writer which convinced all it’s members need to have social realism in their work.

Propaganda helped stalin gain power. Stalin believed that literature was a very powerful political tool and he was willing to get rid of writers who didn’t follow what he said.All of the Soviet writers had to change the thinking of
the soviet people and that’s when the Soviet Union of Writers was formed in 1934 which persuaded all the members of the need to respond to socialist realism in their works.“Each writer had to make sure that their work was written in a way that workers would be able to understand and contained characters that the leader recognized as an example of class enemies or as socialist role models.All the rules had to be followed by writers,novelists, poets, and filmmakers.
If he said any criticism to a writer it would destroy them” as quoted in Propaganda state in crisis by David Brandenberger.Theatre and film was used to support his regime and hatred his enemies.More than 68 films were produced in reply to the social realism. Also 10 plays were made to withdraw. In 1937, 60 plays were stopped from performing and 10 theatres closed in Leningrad and another 10 in Moscow and the reason why all this happened is because they didn’t respond to his social realism.Painting and sculptures duty was to
conform to social realism and to honor their great leader. An art magazine article symbolized him as the soviet people’s importance. Posters were an effective way for stalinist authorities to spread their propaganda which is shown in the posters in figure A, B, and C.Posters would say under the leadership of the great stalin, forward to communism people couldn’t say anything against him because everyone feared him and those who went against him were eliminated. In Figure B you would see him standing in front of everyone else. He promotes an image as a god and hes above everyone else.He created fear within the people which helped him because no one was able to speak up and no opposition group would able to go against him.
Anyone who would say anything against him was either imprisoned or killed.Even though Stalin is the one manipulating the people, the people are blinded by him and they’re still running to him for help and that’s because of the way he used propaganda.Propaganda helped him promote a good image of himself and people saw as a different person. He was prompted as the hero who cares for the people and the father for all the children and you would see posters of him with children into thinking he’s this innocent guy who cares about the people.Fear and propaganda was the main weapon he used, he rewarded those who were loyal to him and did as he said and the people who didn’t follow what he said were punished.He used the great purge to eliminate the people and that’s what caused so many fear within the people. He destroyed families and whoever were considered a threat to him were immediately wiped out.Propaganda was used in the spread of atheism in education and Russian cultural and eliminating the clergy and slander their lack of loyalty to him. He was shown as the savior of the nation.

In reference to the origin, this book is written by an associate professor of history at University of Richmond. He written about Stalin era propaganda and ideology. This book purpose is to inform the reader about Stalin’s exposed of failure within the first world propaganda state and explains how the use of propaganda influenced Stalin to brainwash the people of Russia.
The value of this book is that it shows clear understanding of all the party study circles , all the union press, middlebrow literature, theater,and films, and museum exhibitions to establish Stalin era ideology. Looking at this book, it can be observed that the value of the book indicate that the author is well educated on the topic.He expresses each particle used in stalin’s propaganda as if he was there. He also describes the effects it had on the people and how it damaged the trust later on. This book seems to cover all the periods within stalin’s life.These are pictures are what influenced the people into believing his propaganda. In figure A as you can see Stalin is holding a child high which showed him as the father figure. The purpose behind this was to get attention from the people and draw them away from the church and toward him instead. He also used the relationship between him and Lenin to help him better his image. In Figure B as you can see he is standing in front of the people which showed him as the most important person and idolized by all the people. In Figure C as you can see it looks like he's driving a ship but the purpose of this poster is to show himself as the captain of the ship he decided the way the ship goes and keeps everyone safe.You would see a lot of these images everywhere and a lot of movies were made of him showing how great of a leader he was.

Stalin used propaganda to control the people. The method of using propaganda consisted of posters hanging around towns and villages, Commercials and films were used to portray inaccurate messages to lead the people in believing in Stalin’s work as you can see in figure B.Also plays and artworks were produced using the socialist realism style. These types of ideas were a way to make people feel like Stalin would be their perfect leader. Due to Stalin’s propaganda, millions of people wanted to help in Stalin’s projects such as construction and agricultural projects.

Also many others wanted to be part of plans that involved free health care, programs that provided education and programs for female emancipation. In order to insure a successful propaganda, Stalin used rewards to reward people who followed him for their loyalty. He did that by increasing their wages, giving them better living environments, bettering the hospital systems, bettering the schools and educations, and also making sure his followers received better goods and services than the citizens that did not follow him. One of the ways that influenced many people to follow Stalin was the excessive pictures, artworks, and time he spent with children. Stalin used youth groups to plant the idea of communism in children’s heads
. Having many photos and artworks with children created the idea that Stalin must be trustworthy which kept on drawing people into Stalin’s propaganda. Using the followers he gained by falsely portraying himself, Stalin gained so much power. With power Stalin was able to have allies on his side to get rid of Trotsky, a revolutionary and theorist, which made Stalin the main leader.
Stalin was then able to remove his allies, making it impossible for any of them to get rid of them. After finding out how Stalin wasn’t who he portrayed himself to be, his ex-allies moved to the opposition side in order to get rid of him. Overall, Stalin was a powerful man of words. His propaganda is the main reason he successes in obtaining power and creating fear into the people’s heads. Without propaganda, Stalin would have not been able to achieve power and would have not been able to destroy the lives he destroyed.

Stalin use of propaganda helped him gain power. He also used it to manipulate the people into thinking he’s loyal and fighting for the rights for the people. He controlled the media so that no one would say anything against him and any word of criticism would destroy a writer or anyone. .Through media he used it into promoting himself as the father figure which brought more attention to him as the innocent father of the children. He brainwashed the people that they went to him for help even though he’s the one causing all of the problems.He eliminated the people using the purge which eliminated any opposition groups. He killed anyone who he thought was a threat to him.Films, newspaper, theaters were all controlled by him. Many plays were withdrawn from playing for not following social realism.