“Therefore, brethren, be zealous to prophesy, but do not forbid speaking in tongues; only everything should be decent and decorous"
(First Corinthians 14:40)
Optimism in articles about life in the USSR reached its peak in the pre-war 1940, when the word “successes” became the main word in all materials on the development of both agriculture and industry in the USSR. After the annexation of the Baltic states to the USSR, the citizens of these countries, like all the others, were seized by "great joy", and everywhere in these already Soviet republics "people's celebrations" are held on the occasion of "their acceptance into the happy family of the peoples of the USSR", as "the people have waited real, not paper freedom."
The bombing of London from the Heinkel 111 bomber, photo taken from another German aircraft on September 7, 1940.
Moreover, when the life of ordinary people in the USSR was improving at an unprecedented rate, in Western countries the standard of living of ordinary people was decreasing at an equally high rate, and unemployment among workers was rising just as steadily, and the children of workers and peasants were starving everywhere, and strikes of disgruntled workers broke out everywhere. employees [1].
As in the publications of the early 1930s, capitalism was declared perishing everywhere [2. C.1]. The worst was the situation in Germany, where the “introduction of whale meat” [3. C.2] was taking place. It was reported that in 1937 there were 112 concentration camps, 1927 prisons, etc., and that 225,000 people were convicted there for political crimes in three years. Killed 4870 and imprisoned in the camps of more than 100 thousand anti-fascists. Judging by the publications in the press, the heavy share of the working people in Germany was so hopeless that the Germans committed suicide with their entire families. So, in the late 1930s, the Soviet press literally bombarded the population with articles about suicides in Germany, convincing Soviet citizens that the German government was on the verge of collapse in pursuing its anti-popular policy, because “the number of mass suicides in Nazi Germany is increasing every day … Over the past 2-3 days, a large number of stalemate suicides have been recorded in Berlin alone. " At the same time, in their materials, Soviet newspapers cited the following statistical data, for example: "In 57 large cities of Germany in 1936, 6280 suicides were recorded" [4. C.5.]. It should be noted here that the source of these newspaper statistics is unknown, since according to the data of the German Bundesarchive, the total number of suicides in Germany in 1936 was 13,443 cases [5], and no accounting for data on the social origin of people who decided to commit suicide, German statistics are not led. The only thing that was indicated was the method of suicide. But the quality of life of the population in Germany itself in those years can be concluded by referring all to the same report. So, in 1936, 28,796 people died due to old age in Germany, of which 16535 were aged 80 or more, and 187 people aged 60 to 65 [6].
Moreover, it is understandable why, for example, the newspapers so often reported about the famine in Germany. For people who had just survived the famines of 1921-1922 and the early 30s, such messages had a particularly strong effect, and they were happy to know that somewhere the situation could be even worse.
When the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was held in Moscow in March 1939, Stalin declared at it that "a new economic crisis began, which seized first of all the United States, and after them England, France and a number of other countries." He described these countries as "non-aggressive democratic states", and called Japan, Germany and Italy "aggressor states" who unleashed a new war. V. M. Molotov in his opening speech at the congress, as well as many of its deputies.
The press immediately published the articles "Managing the German Fascists in Klaipeda", "Germany's Military Preparations on the Polish Border", "German Aggressive Plans against Danzig", etc. Soviet press throughout the 1920s and 1930s.
But everything changed instantly after the conclusion of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact on August 23, 1939. The tone of materials about Germany's actions in Europe suddenly changed from critical to neutral, and then frankly pro-German [7]. Disappeared articles describing the horrors of the Gestapo [8. C.2]. But criticism of Great Britain, France and the United States began, and articles appeared about the bitter lot of ordinary Finns "under the yoke of the Finnish plutocracy."
In 1940, anti-German articles disappeared completely in central and regional newspapers, and the print media seemed to have completely forgotten that until recently they published articles on anti-fascist topics. Now everything is different. With reference to the German media, the Soviet press began to publish materials from which it was clear that the main instigators of the new war were not at all the "aggressor states" - Germany, Italy, Japan (named as such in March), but England and France, then named the same non-aggressive. On the pages of Pravda, a memorandum of the German government was printed, in which it was reported that "the rulers of London and Paris declared war on the German people." In addition, "the German government has unconditional grounds to believe that Britain and France intend to unexpectedly occupy the territory of the northern states in the coming days." In this regard, "the German government undertakes to protect the Kingdom of Norway during the war," moreover, "it is fully determined to defend peace in the North by all means and to ensure it finally against any intrigues of England and France."
After reading such reports, newspaper readers could come to the conclusion that, in modern terms, the main peacemaker in Europe in 1940 was … systems . And, of course, none of the Soviet newspapers called Hitler a cannibal anymore …
Moreover, already in 1940, Soviet newspapers began to publish materials that justified the cruelty of German troops towards the civilian population of other states, and questioned the objectivity of publications in the press of Germany's opponents. In articles under the heading “German denial” one could, for example, learn that once again “the German information bureau categorically denies the reports spread from London that a German submarine allegedly sank a steamer carrying children evacuated from England to America. The British did not even give the name and location of the "torpedoed" steamer. In Berlin, they notice that even if a steamer with children was actually sunk, it was probably because it ran into one of those mines that the British were hinting at, wishing to absolve themselves of any responsibility for this evacuation. " In general, the material was presented in such a way that the Soviet people got the impression that reports that German planes received instructions "to mercilessly bomb the civilian population of enemy countries are sheer fictions of the British, who are trying to incite the civilian population … against German prisoners of war and wounded soldiers." …On the contrary, it was the French and British military personnel who were credited with unjustified brutality against the civilian population of Germany, since "as according to official data, British and French planes make air raids on German cities every night." Moreover, "enemy planes fly in so unexpectedly that an air raid siren is given after the anti-aircraft artillery begins shelling the planes." As a result, this leads to “unnecessary casualties among the civilian population from fragments of anti-aircraft artillery shells” and “there is a large number of civilian casualties and wounded” [9. C.4]. As can be seen from the above example, this kind of essay was calculated on the complete ignorance of our citizens in matters of air defense.
On the pages of the central Soviet newspapers of that time, one could read Hitler's speeches, in which he declared that "for many centuries Germany and Russia lived in friendship and peace", and "every attempt by the British or French plutocracy to provoke us into a clash is doomed to failure”[10. C.2] The Soviet press again did not comment on the pact concluded between Germany, Italy and Japan, citing foreign sources, which stated that “the agreement of the three powers does not in any way concern the present and future relations between the three states and the Soviet Union ". This policy of informing about events abroad was supported by the report on the foreign policy of the government of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V. M. Molotov at a meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on March 29, 1940, published in all central and regional newspapers. In it, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs stated that "the governments of England and France proclaimed the defeat and dismemberment of Germany as their goals in this war." And in relations between the USSR and Germany there was a "sharp turn for the better", which "was reflected in the non-aggression pact signed in August last year." Moreover, “these new, good Soviet-German relations have been tested by experience in connection with the events in former Poland and have sufficiently shown their strength”, and “the trade turnover between Germany and the USSR began to increase on the basis of mutual economic benefit and there are grounds for further development. ".
Further comrade. Molotov sharply criticized the actions of the French and British press, since "the leading newspaper of the British imperialists, The Times, as well as the leading newspaper of the French imperialists, Tan … in recent months have openly called for intervention against the Soviet Union." And then as evidence V. M. Molotov gave an example of, so to speak, 20 years of exposure, probably without finding more recent materials: “As early as April 17, 1919, the English Times wrote:“If we look at the map, we will find that the best approach to Petrograd is the Baltic and that the shortest and easiest route to it lies through Finland, whose borders are only 30 miles from the capital of Russia. Finland is the key to Petrograd, and Petrograd is the key to Moscow. " Judging by the publications of the Soviet media, the foreign press erupted in a series of positive reviews about the speech of Comrade. Molotov.
At the same time, not only ordinary citizens of the USSR, but also representatives of the country's political ruling elite, and in particular the same Molotov, who was Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars since 1930, and since 1939 - the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, had vague ideas about the realities of life in the West. For example, in the spring of 1940, the German ambassador von Schulenburg reported to Berlin that "Molotov, who has never been abroad yet, is experiencing great difficulties in communicating with foreigners" [11].
Moreover, the press of the USSR published both knowingly false messages from Spain that had nothing to do with the real state of affairs. It is clear that messages of a military nature must be censored so that their content is not used by the enemy. However, one should at least generally adhere to the real state of affairs. In our press, a kind of cliché has become established: "All enemy attacks were repulsed with great losses for him", "The Republicans heroically repelled all attacks", but … "The superior forces of the enemy occupied …". That is, it turned out that the Republicans are acting successfully, but in the end they suffer one defeat after another! It was reported that “the rebels“left a lot of corpses”,“that the position of the besieged garrison of Fort Santa is hopeless,”but in the end, for some reason, it was the Republicans who had to retreat, and not the rebels!
That is, from all this it becomes clear that the country's authorities and its party apparatus apparently believed that truthful messages were useless to our people, since they are clearly unprofitable for the party. That is, they acted in exactly the same way as the authorities of the notorious Oceania in the novel by J. Orwell "1984". Nevertheless, since the result of all the "victories" of the Republicans was a crushing defeat, this could not fail to make at least some representatives of the USSR population think about the relationship between truth and falsehood in the printed propaganda offered by them. And it is just as obvious that the falsity of the Soviet press should have already caught people's eyes, and this had as its consequence undermining the credibility of propaganda in the country as a whole. Well, and the fact that the "world revolution" for some reason does not start in any way, was seen by almost everyone! That is, both journalists and those who lead them should always leave for themselves some kind of "information loophole" and not absolutize neither victories, nor defeats, nor successes, nor failures, let alone friends and enemies, because today's friend can tomorrow become an enemy and vice versa. They did not understand this, or they simply did not want to understand, or could not understand due to their own mentality, we most likely will never get an answer to this question, and we can only guess about the reasons for such an unprofessional approach to the dissemination of information.
