German Propaganda System in the General District of Belarus: Structure, Content and Principles of Activity

Abstract

 The article is devoted to the problem of the organization and functioning of the German propaganda system in the occupied Soviet territory (on the example of the General District of Belarus). The purpose of the study: to determine the order of organization, forms, methods and content, principles and effectiveness of the activities of propaganda bodies. The author comes to the conclusion that the propaganda activities of the German authorities on the Belarusian land had a number of distinctive features. Firstly, the ideological impact on the local population had the character of a well-organized work, which was built by analogy with the propaganda system of Nazi Germany. Both visual and auditory means of influence were widely used. Secondly, the propaganda was conducted taking into account the psychological and cultural-historical characteristics of the local population. Thirdly, the civil German administration of the district, headed by V. Кubе, assigned propaganda the role of a preventive tool in ensuring a calm rear and in fulfilling the economic and political tasks of the German Reich in the occupied territories. Fourth, the content of propaganda combined both outright lies and demagoguery, as well as criticism of the real shortcomings of the Soviet economic and political system. Fifthly, the long period of occupation of the territory of Soviet Belarus forced the German authorities of the district to constantly improve the forms and methods of ideological and political influence on the mass consciousness of Belarusians, as well as to resort to the use of local collaborators in propaganda activities. Sixth, the low effectiveness of German propaganda on the territory of the district was due to a number of factors: the presence of a mass partisan movement and Soviet counter-propaganda, the extremely brutal occupation regime, the «scorched earth» policy.