Propaganda in the World and Local Conflicts

14-19

Authors: Volodymyr Pylypenko

In 1503, Muscovy acquired the Smolensk and the Chernigov and Severian lands from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) following the war. The substantial loss became for Vilna one of the factors that induced it to ally with Poland and form a union state – the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Even before the unification took place, there were vigorous debates among diplomats and intellectuals on what grounds their state should require to return the land. It was in this period when Muscovy’s seizure of the territories was conceptualized as a dishonest act in breach of international agreements. As a result, when Warsaw managed to reconquer the Smolensk and Chernigov-Severian lands, it began to define them as “rekuperowane” which meant “regained from the enemy”. The terminology became embedded both in political journalism and official documents of the state. For example, the term “ziemierekuperowane” was already used in the sejm constitutions (official documents of the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), although the lands were not yet officially integrated. To ensure a more effective incorporation of the new lands, Warsaw granted the Magdeburg rights to many cities in the region, and the document itself also emphasized that these cities and lands were successfully recovered from the hands of the adversary. Hence, at first political journalism and historical and geographical treatises of the Kingdom of Poland, and later those of the Commonwealth justified Krakow’s/Warsaw’s right to the Smolensk and Chernigov-Severian lands. When the lands – first de facto and then de jure – became part of the Polish-Lithuanian state, they were described using the term “ziemierekuperowane”.

24-28

Authors: Vadim A. Nesterenko

This paper explores the characteristics of German propaganda in occupied territories in the Soviet Union, more specifically in the town of Yeysk, Krasnodar Krai. The research reported in this work was conducted using a small body of documents from the State Archive of Krasnodar Krai (Krasnodar, Russian Federation). More specifically, these materials were retrieved from the R-498 archive holding for the Yeysk Town Council. The author’s conclusion is that German propaganda materials directed at the civil population in the town of Yeysk may be divided into the following two categories: (1) prevention of infractions of law and (2) organization of civil administration in a new climate. In other words, the German leadership was focused not only on keeping up the repressive pressure on the population but also on creating a large social base among the population that would be loyal to the new order. With this in mind, the Germans were taking account of errors on the part of the Soviet authorities at local level.