Quaestio Rossica - Scholars Investigate 20th Century State Propaganda and Politics

16:23, June 29, 2020

In its newest issue, Quaestio Rossica scientific journal presents articles on Soviet foreign policy, military conflicts and propaganda

How foreign political strategies and propaganda attitudes influenced people, by what methods mass beliefs were formed, how ideology influenced decision-making by political elites of the USSR — these and other aspects of politics and propaganda in the 20th century are presented in the latest issue of Quaestio Rossica. The authors revealed such aspects of the history of foreign policy as diplomatic relations, migration issues, military conflicts, the phenomenon of propaganda, Leninism as a way of legitimizing power, and the opposition of Soviet orientation in Europe. For example, the memoirs of the historian and diplomat Sir Rodric Braithwaite (Buckingham University, UK) are published in the issue.

“This article is a unique source on the history of Soviet foreign policy. Based on his experience, the author, who during the years of perestroika was the British ambassador to the USSR, creates a three-dimensional panorama of the Cold War era, speaks about the role of intelligence and the specifics of relations between Russia and the West, says Yulia Zaparii, a member of the editorial board of Quaestio Rossica. - The information presented in the memoirs is not limited to the framework of the second half of the 1980s. Of great interest, in particular, are the author’s recollections of his meetings in Vienna in the early 1950s with defectors from behind the Iron Curtain.”

Based on the materials of the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia, Vasily Khristoforov (Russian State Humanitarian University, Moscow) and Yulia Guseva (Samara branch of Moscow State Pedagogical University) tell how political elites made decisions in the Afghan war.

“The authors of the article analyze the strategic settings and tactics of actions of a limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. They conclude that the Soviet military strategy in Afghanistan at the first stage was 'focused on blitzkrieg' and set limited goals, and its long-term consequences at the time of the decision to send troops were largely ignored,”explains the journal's executive secretary Prof. Alexey Antoshin.

Conflict topics are also covered by articles by Alexander Nikitin and Yulia Nikitina, and Irina Bolgova (MGIMO, Moscow), Andrey Lyamzin (UrFU).

One of the central themes of the issue is the phenomenon of propaganda. Studies by specialists in the theory of political communication show that it was the period of the First World War that became the time when the warring parties began to actively use the methods of information warfare. So, Vladislav Aksenov (IRI RAS, Moscow) argues that mythologization and demonization of the image of Lenin took place in the anti-Bolshevik press, but this did not bring the desired effect. Opponents failed to form a single negative image of the Bolshevik leader.

“As Timofei Rakov from TSU shows, the image of Lenin, becoming a part of ideological discourse, was actively used in political debate in the 1920s. Leninism quite quickly turned into a way of legitimizing politics in the USSR. At the same time, he was not a kind of ideological or empty ritual imposed from above. As the author shows, ordinary communists took him literally as a means of combating 'deviations',” explains Yulia Zaparii.

About Quaestio Rossica

Quaestio Rossica is a peer-reviewed journal of UrFU. It publishes research in the field of culture, art, history, archeology, linguistics and literature of Russia. The objective of the journal is to expand the understanding of Russian humanitarian discourse in the space of world science. The full-text version of the magazine is freely available on the journal's website.