3-24
Military Propaganda of the White Movement by Means of Information Posters in the Russian Civil War
Authors: Anvar M. Mamadaliev
Number of views: 4
The manuscript is devoted to the problems of military propaganda. The chronological framework of the study is the end of the 1910s – the beginning of the 1920s of the XXth century. The source was such posters of the White Guards as: “My son! Go and save the Motherland!”, “As a sacrifice to the International”, “Your relatives and friends are groaning under the yoke of the Bolshevik commissars...”, “That's who torments Great Russia”, “Why aren't you in the army?”, “A happy worker in the Soviet Department”, “Here he is! The culprit of torture and death, the murderer of women and children!”and etc. A total of 25 campaign posters were examined.
There were used such methods of scientific research as historical-typological, historical-systemic, historical-genetic, as well as historiographic and synthesis methods.
In the process of the work, the following conclusions were drawn that the propaganda posters of the White Movement were focused on conservative feelings: love of the motherland – patriotism, monarchy, religion and were aimed at inciting feelings of hatred, including confessional and nationalist elements. The most popular method in the poster art of the White Guards is the method of demonizing the enemy.
The peculiarity of the political poster art of the White Guards is the depiction of portraits of the leaders of the White Movement (generals Denikin, Wrangel, Shkuro, etc.), since they considered the propaganda method of “infallibility of the leader” effective, indicating that talented generals lead the White Movement.
A comparative analysis of the propaganda poster art of the Bolsheviks and the White Guards shows that the White Movement lost to the Red in propaganda work. The Bolsheviks were able to clearly identify those universal principles for which they fought, and accurately reflect them in their propaganda work, these goals of the struggle were clear to the majority of the population – workers and peasants. The White Guards had a different target audience – the intelligentsia, the nobility and the clergy, large entrepreneurs and wealthy peasants, therefore they appealed more to values such as patriotism, Orthodoxy, autocracy, etc.; these values were not interesting to the bulk of the population at that time.