Propaganda: The Art of Persuasion

As an admittedly uninformed appreciator of art, works of propaganda have long held a particular appeal  for me as a result of their stark & meaningful imagery (and, of course, their historical value). Varying according to their national and temporal origins, these highly politicized pieces of art exhibit numerous styles and, in my opinion, are just plain cool. Some pieces have an understated character, while others are about as subtle as Miley Cyrus's trailer-park-Lady Gaga act. Either way, these works tend to be exceptionally compelling. 

Freedom isn't Free.

Democratic or Autocratic, Capitalist or Socialist, Badass or Blah; every type of regime has taken to the art of propaganda in order to promote their own distinctive policies, ideologies, and causes. From Uncle Sam to Guerrillero Heroico, these iconic images have resonated in the hearts and minds of countless people across time and space. The following examples exhibit just a few of the ways in which propaganda has been used to mobilize public opinion and action.

United Kingdom (ca. 1915)

 Oh, what a jolly, quaint affair that first World War must have been! Recruitment posters such as this 1915 piece aided in the mobilization of over 65 million soldiers worldwide, 9 million of which came from the United Kingdom alone ("WWI Casualty and Death Tables"). In just four years, 37 million "lads," a staggering 57.5% of the war's combatants, were killed, injured, or went missing as a result of a fatal combination of advanced military technology, flawed military doctrine, and unwavering political ideology.

United States (ca. 1942)

As World War II ravaged Europe for the second time in three decades, Salvador Dalí retreated to the United States- where he spent the next eight years of his life ("Salvador Dalí Biography"). During that time, the surrealist visionary produced this work for the US Military's campaign against Venereal Diseases. Among many works warning United States troops against the dangers of sexual relations with unfamiliar women in unfamiliar lands, this painting stands out for its depth & hidden imagery (Spoiler Alert: The women form a skull). 


France (ca. 1911)

An especially cynical & French take on socioeconomic organization, "Pyramid of Capitalist System" is an iconic piece of propaganda. Illustrating the exploitative relationship between the working class, the bourgeoisie, the armed forces, the clergy, and the government, this poster can be seen as a source of inspiration for the Wu Tang Clan's 1993 social commentary, C.R.E.A.M. ("Cash Rules Everything Around Me"). It can also be reasonably assumed that this poster inspired more than a few strongly-worded letters to French Representatives- out to keep the man down while they fatted themselves on baguettes & éclairs. Sacré Bleu!


United States (ca. 1938)

Though the "Red Scare" may seem irrational in retrospect, you better believe you would've had some sleepless nights waiting for OctoStalin to pop out from underneath your bed & convert your political allegiances. Published before the outbreak of WWII, this "pam-phlet"foreshadowed the impending rivalry between the US & USSR, whose utilitarian wartime alliance would last just four years.


Soviet Union (ca. 1941)

On June 22, 1941, Germany launched "Operation Barbarossa," its fateful invasion of the Soviet Union that opened a second front in WWII & ultimately devastated the Third Reich's ability to wage a successful war effort. The Soviet resistance was exceptionally fierce, partially due to the menacing racial ideology of Nazi Germany- which called for the enslavement of all Slavic peoples. The insanity of the Hitler's racial policies are mocked in these Soviet political cartoons portraying Reichstag President Hermann Goering & Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.

Iraq (ca. 1980-88)

Now this is some effective propaganda! Surely this gentleman could be counted on to keep his people out of harm's way- just look how safe that girl looks. This Iraqi mural portraying Saddam "Rambo" Hussein dates to the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980's. In an era of training montages & mustaches, this piece is the truest form of art you could possibly imagine. The man is wearing Ray-Bans & a beret into battle for goodness' sake.

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"Salvador Dalí Biography." Salvador-Dali.org. Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2013. <http://www.salvador-dali.org/dali/en_biografia.html>.

"WWI Casualty and Death Tables." PBS.org. PBS. Web. 09 Oct. 2013 <http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/resources/casdeath_pop.html>.

The Dissolution of the Soviet Union

The collapse of the Soviet Union is one of those exceedingly complex events that seems to lie beyond the realm of basic understanding. Despite being one of the most momentous historical developments in the modern era, it is commonly explained in a pseudo-historical fashion, full of half-truths and outright misconceptions (Sorry, true American patriots, but Ronald Reagan didn’t single-handedly bring about the demise of the “Evil Empire.”)

Daggumit.

So how does a global superpower with a nuclear arsenal large enough to blow up the world many times over simply dissolve? Well, the explanation is multi-faceted, but can be explained through three main points:

• "Cultural Thaw"
• Protracted Economic & Political Stagnation
• Destabilizing Reform

"Cultural Thaw"

If Joseph Stalin ruled with an iron fist, Nikita Khrushchev ruled with a leather shoe. 

In his effort to bring about "socialism with a human face," Khrushchev temporarily relaxed state-imposed censorship during his reign as General Secretary of the Communist Party in the 1950's and '60's. His principle objective in doing so was to push forward the "De-Stalinization Campaign," which denounced the Great Purges, Industrialization, and other inhumane aspects of the Stalinist regime. More than doing that, Khrushchev's unprecedented openness proved that the Soviet system could be safely challenged, at a time when reform-minded Soviet youths, including future General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, were coming of age.

Protracted Political & Economic Stagnation

The state's growth vegetated under Brezhnev, who suffered multiple strokes while in office.

Khrushchev wasn't without his critics, and after a series of unsuccessful reforms, he was removed from power by the Communist Party Secretariat in 1964. Under Leonid Brezhnev (see: Great Moments in Mustaches) and a series of gerontocrats (read: Geezers), Soviet political and economic life had quietly ground to a halt by the 1980's.

• As much as 30% of the GDP was committed to military expenditure, causing the consumer & technology sectors of the Soviet economy to remain in infancy. 
• The "advanced" industrial sector was inefficient & obsolete. Factories built during Stalin's First Five Year Plan (1928-32) continued to operate, and did so according to quotas based on the weight of their products, not on their profits.
• From 1973-85, a lopsided 80% of Soviet earnings relied upon energy exports- which were sustained by the discovery of vast oil reserves in Siberia during the 1960's (Kotkin 15).

The Soviet economy failed to keep pace with those its capitalist contemporaries in the West, which had undergone unprecedented economic growth following World War II. The tenets of socialism held that it was a fundamentally superior system to capitalism, yet the stagnation of the Soviet economy suggested that system required change.

Destabilizing Reform

An idealist reformer, Gorbachev unwittingly sowed the seeds of inevitability.

Mikhail Gorbachev came into power in 1985 with the aim of initiating radical economic & political reforms to make socialism live up to the ideals of the October Revolution. Those sweeping liberal reforms came to be known as Glasnost and Perestroika, and had disastrous implications for the Soviet Union.

• Glasnost, or "openness," eased censorship once again. It discredited not only Stalin, but the entirety of Soviet socialism by revealing the political & economic inefficiencies of the Soviet Bureaucracy to the general public.
• Perestroika relaxed the planned economy, but without first introducing the market mechanisms needed to compete with advanced capitalist economies. The most advanced sectors of the economy (defense & heavy industry) were downsized, and Soviet industrial output plummeted.
• To make matters worse, global oil prices sharply declined in the 1980's, submerging the oil-dependent Russian economy into an outright recession. Faced with crippling shortages, the USSR became reliant on foreign loans for importing goods that it could not afford.

Worse than the economic aspect of Perestroika, though, was the bureaucratic reform that it introduced:

• Ever since the Russian Civil War, which immediately followed the October Revolution of 1917, a dual administrative structure existed within the USSR. The bureaucracy of the party grew alongside that of the state, acting as a central control mechanism for maintaining the unitary structure of the Soviet Union.
• In 1989, Gorbachev disbanded the Communist Party Secretariat- replacing the unitary structure with a federalized one, which emphasized the state powers of the constituent republics of the Union.
• With the socialist ideology of the Soviet Union discredited by Glasnost, the planned economy disrupted by Perestroika, and no central control mechanism in place, the Union Republics began to act as independent states.

Amazingly, the Soviet elite willingly disassembled the very institutional mechanisms that held the state together. Over the course of the next two years, the Soviet regime in Eastern Europe crumbled in a remarkably peaceful manner. The republics declared independence in a piecemeal fashion, the Berlin Wall fell, and the Soviet Union formally dissolved on December 26, 1991.

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Kotkin, Stephen. Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.