“War has always been the guardian of sanity and, in terms of the ruling classes, probably the chief guardian. As long as the war could be won or lost, no ruling class had the right to behave completely irresponsibly."
George Orwell. 1984
It just so happened that people for many millennia preferred to solve their problems by force. If we turn to the Bible, it says that Cain rebelled against Abel and killed him out of envy, and it is not clear whether he strangled him, beat him to death with a cobblestone, a shepherd's staff, or pierced him with a knife for cutting meat. Whatever it was, but he killed him and it was from this act of his that all wars on Earth began!
"Cain kills Abel" is a mosaic in the archbishop's cathedral, located in Montreal, a suburb of Palermo.
But here's what is important: good PR makes war easier just like our whole life: it helps to facilitate its preparation, course, and even wins battles and wars, although at first glance PR seems to be such a trifle … However, it depends on how you look at it. In fact, the role of good PR in the war was appreciated in ancient times, and only then it was developed in such a way that we often do not even suspect that it surrounds us literally from all sides, and although we have eyes, this is absolutely do not see. Rather, we see, but we do not notice! Our brain notices, which is exactly what this PR is aimed at.
For example, already in the days of Ancient Egypt and Assyria, ancient sculptors, by the power of their art, did everything to inspire “ordinary people” that murder for the sake of the lofty goals of their state and the king is always good and commendable! On the walls of Egyptian temples, on slabs of limestone, granite, or even diabase, they captured various episodes of their ancient wars and … what do we see on them? And here's what: huge, disproportionately large in relation to all the rest of the figures of the pharaohs rushing in chariots, much smaller in size Egyptian military leaders and very small warriors, and not only strangers, but also their own! The first is for everyone to see and, at the subconscious level, feel the greatness of their pharaoh, and the second, so that the soldiers, again at the same level, would not think that they are superfluous! Let's look at the temple of Pharaoh Seti I in Abydos, dedicated to the god Osiris - one of the most remarkable temple buildings in Ancient Egypt. Pharaoh Ramses II ordered the completion of it for his deceased father. In the motives of wall painting and bas-reliefs, Seti I appears surrounded by gods or as a warrior fighting a battle with the Hittites. Moreover, in this bas-relief, his figure is simply huge. And although there are quite a few Hittite chariots on it, all of them are very small in comparison with the figure of the pharaoh. Ramses II himself did the same, except that the figures of his Syrian enemies on the bas-relief with his image, respectively, are even smaller.
Seti I, holding out incense to Osiris and Horus. Pharaoh and Horus are big - the people below are small. Bas-relief from the Temple of Seti I at Abydos.
However, the PR of the ancient Egyptians in military affairs is not only about this. It was they who invented the first orders for those who distinguished themselves in the war (however, they were awarded mainly to nobles) - "Gold of Courage" in the form of three golden flies hanging on a string, and "Gold of Valor" in the form of a golden lion!
Here it is - "Gold of Courage" in the form of golden flies. A still from the film "Pharaoh" (1966). For some reason, not colored …
The Egyptian army set out on a campaign, having before itself numerous standard-bearers with various kinds of sacred symbols and, above all, images of the gods. Moreover, each large unit bore the name of a certain deity: "Amon's Squad", "Ptah's Squad", "Sutekh's Squad". The Egyptians also had the patron goddess of warriors and war - the lion-headed Sokhmet! That is, to shout "God like us is with us!" It was not our ancestors, the Slavs, who started the first, but the ancient Egyptians more than five thousand years ago!
The standards that were carried behind the pharaoh of Egypt. However, and in front of him too … Still from the movie "Pharaoh".
However, not only they became famous for their propensity to influence large masses of people through monumental sculpture and bas-reliefs. One of the most impressive monuments of this kind is the triumphal stele from Ancient Sumer in the Tigris-Euphrates interfluve, called by the researchers the "Stele of Kites" (c. 2500 BC, kept in the Louvre). Small in size (only 75 cm) stone slab, it is dedicated to the victory of the ruler of the city of Lagash Eanatum over the neighboring city of Ummah. The sculptor focused on showing the troops led by Eanatum. Here everything is subordinated to one task (here it is PR!) - to show his cohesion, victorious strength and power. The closed line of warriors with spears and shields in their hands merges into one continuous mass not by chance. This is intended to show that this is a force capable of crushing and trampling everyone! Well, the corpses of enemies lying at the feet of the victors only add to this impression. Moreover, all the faces on the stele are absolutely the same, in fact, they are not even faces, but one face, repeated many times, and this is precisely what is terrifying. And at the same time demonstrates the complete obedience of this entire armed force to the authority of its leader!
"Stele of Kites". Louvre.
However, this was just the beginning! Much more impressive examples of such creations were left to us by the ancient Assyrians, and wow, more than 80% of their creations are devoted specifically to military affairs! For example, among the reliefs of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II (884 - 859 BC) in Kalhu on the Nimrud Hill, endless rows of galloping horse warriors with tightly drawn bows in their hands are depicted. Just imagine what a strong impression they made on the simple souls of the people of that time ?! After all, it was they, the Assyrians, who led in their army detachments of horse archers and horsemen in shells of bronze plates, and they were also very cruel. Scenes of impaling, pulling out the tongue from prisoners and ripping off their skin in the presence of the king - all this is conveyed here, with minute details and without the slightest shadow of pity. Woe to the vanquished, say the Assyrian bas-reliefs and … at the same time glory to our king - the lord! By the way, it is worth taking a closer look at what muscles on the arms and legs of the Assyrian kings depict these bas-reliefs. Huge, iron, heavy …
Detail of the relief depicting the figures of the kings from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II from the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. Pay attention to the accentuated relief of the musculature.
Don't you think they remind us of something very familiar? Well, of course, these are the figures of the memorial complex on the Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd. Moreover, if the figure of "Motherland-Mother" standing on its top with a sword in his hands still looks quite realistic, then … this cannot be said about all the other male figures. Firstly, they are all deliberately nude to emphasize their purely Assyrian bulging muscles. Secondly, they have disproportionately small heads, and why so is, again, quite understandable. Because why does a soldier need a big head? His business is not to think, because the party thinks for him, but boldly and courageously, with a naked torso and a machine gun, and grenades in hand, as shown on the statues of this complex, to rush at the enemy and under the tanks. And although there is hardly anything to object to the idea of defending the Motherland, PR in this case is simply obvious. And his goal is to create a very specific mood - everything is exactly the same as in the ancient Assyrian palaces!
Lion hunting. Bas-relief from Nimrud. British museum. London.
In the same place, a similar scene.
It is interesting that in exactly the same tradition of depicting the Egyptian pharaohs and Assyrian kings, the monument to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, erected on Lenin Square in the very center of Penza, was also resolved. As you know, in the Soviet Union of Lenin monuments there were not nearly in every place, even in a small town. But if, for example, in the same Anapa or Zelenogradsk of the Kaliningrad region, monuments to the leader of the proletariat depict him, in general, quite realistically, then the monument in Penza depicts the most perfect microcephalus, but a real man under two meters in height and with shoulders, like Arnold Schwarzenegger! And although the author of the monument was the People's Artist of the USSR, winner of the Lenin and State Prizes, sculptor E. V. Vuchetich, as it is written even on the site of the sights of the Penza region, he “did not manage to avoid a number of annoying miscalculations. So, the following shortcomings cause bewilderment: a violation of proportions, noticeable to the eye and unjustified, plastically expressed in the fact that in relation to the entire body weight, his head is clearly small, but his chest is excessively enlarged."
Here it is - a monument to Ilyich against the background of the former CPSU OK. In this photo, the imbalances in his figure are especially clearly visible.
Close-up of the same sculpture.
But … they wrote about this only relatively recently, and until 1991 people looked at him, but even if they noticed this absurdity about themselves, they were still silent! So all this became disadvantages only very recently, and in Soviet times, quite the opposite, as in ancient Assyria, was most likely perceived as a virtue!
This is not at all the case - and this is very interesting and indicative, the situation is with military monuments in the same USA, especially dedicated to the Civil War of the North with the South of 1861-1865. As a rule, they are also found in almost every city in the northern states, but only they are very "not militant". Yes, they, like our military monuments, depict soldiers, but only in them you will not see any distorted proportions, or protruding breasts, or hands with pood fists. Their poses are also not at all warlike, but somewhat "tired", as if they were put here to rest after the battle. Neither pathos nor heroics - "it was" - that's all they say … And here PR is completely different - war is a duty, but there is nothing good in a civil war and cannot be by definition! Often, at different corners of the same square, you can see statues of generals who fought with each other during the American Civil War. Now they do not distinguish between them, because both have influenced the history of the country.
Monument to Ulysses Grant - American military and political leader, commander of the northerners during the American Civil War, the 18th President of the United States in Washington. No pathos for you, no hand with a saber raised up. "The farmer went to the rain graze cattle …"
In this case, for a PR person of any level, the idea will be as follows: watch Soviet feature films of the 30-40s of the last century and films made in the United States, such as Three Hundred Spartans (1962), The Beauty of Memphis (1990).), “We Were Soldiers” (2002) and at least a few episodes from the first episode of the TV series “Damn Service at Mash Hospital”. And after looking at all this, the PR person can again think about where and in what PR is good or is PR bad. But it is, so to speak, only a preparation for the most important. And the main thing for a PR man could be writing an article for one of the popular Russian tabloids about … well, say, the deadliest American soldier, special forces officer Dillard Johnson since Vietnam, who has reportedly killed 2,746 local soldiers and militants in Iraq since 2003. There is information about him on the Internet, but it's up to a PR specialist to speculate on this topic, compare with some other indicators and draw an interesting, socially significant conclusion. At the same time, this material should create a certain (which, it will be the author himself or the customer of this material who will choose this!) Mood, and this will be PR!
Still from the TV series "Devil's Service at the MES Hospital." By the way, all of his 251 episodes were watched by an amazing number of viewers - more they watched only the landing of a man on the moon. And … who can say that he did not have a very strong psychological impact on them?
And here is an interesting trick used by the publishing house "Interros", which specializes in the production of expensive books - gift editions. In 2006, it published a beautifully published, gold-edged book on the history of the Russian army "From a soldier to a general." Not only that, in addition to color historical illustrations, lithographs and engravings, the informative text in it was supplemented by many photographs of soldiers, and also a set with a tin figurine of a hussar cast by Igor Mitrofanov himself, a set of acrylic paints, two brushes and a brochure about the form of various hussar regiments 1812 of the year.
A figurine of a hussar I. Mitrofanov and a set of paints attached to it.
The choice of the uniform for the figurine was not accidental, since only in the hussar regiments of the war of 1812 there was such a bright and colorful uniform, moreover, in all 12 regiments it was the same in cut, but different in colors! Thus, this one figure could be painted under any of these 12 regiments. Well, the “gift” itself testifies to the manifestation of “care” about the consumer, which, of course, is always pleasant for the latter! And even if those “uncles”, for whom these books were used as gifts, are unlikely to ever collect and paint these figures themselves. First, they can give them to someone, while experiencing a sense of their own worth. And secondly, it is very possible that one of them will have a son of the appropriate age, who will just collect it and paint it! In any case, a gift book with a soldier figure is much better than without it, even if this makes it much more expensive at cost! But … "We can afford it, so we are cool!" And you can't argue with that, can you ?!
In any case, Interros liked the experience of publishing the first such book, and they also supplied their second book on the uniforms of our army of the “socialist era” with a figurine with a set of paints for coloring it! Only now he was already a Red Army soldier of the early 1920s, who, with his general khaki uniform, could have red trousers, as well as multi-colored "conversations" - stripes on the front of his tunic and the same flap on the sleeve. So from one figure it was possible to make a Chekist, and a red horseman, and a pilot, and an artilleryman, not to mention a fighter from the infantry, and all these differences in the uniform of the Red Army were described in detail in the attached instructions … Well, and a PR man, if he suddenly will have to organize something like that, he should remember firmly that for an ordinary person there is no more attractive information than that which, in general, he does not need at all!
