The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929

by Peter Kenez

• ISBN13: 9780521313988
• ISBN10: 0521313988
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1985-11-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In this first comprehensive study of the early development of the Soviet propaganda system, Peter Kenez describes how the Bolshevik Party went about reaching the Russian people. Throughout he is more concerned with the experience of the Soviet people than with high-level politics. The book is both a major contribution to our understanding of the genius of the Soviet state, and of the nature of propaganda in the modem world.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations

Preface

Introduction: the Soviet concept of propaganda

Part I. The Civil War: 1. The press

2. The struggle for the peasants

3. Liquidating illiteracy in revolutionary Russia

4. The Komsomol in the Civil War

5. The political use of books, films, and posters

Part II. The New Economic Policies: 6. Political education

7. The literacy campaign

8. The Komsomol in the 1920s

9. The golden age of the Soviet cinema

10. The press and book publishing in the 1920s

COnclusion and epilogue

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index.