The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine investigated analogies between the propaganda approaches of fascists in World War II and modern rashists in the war against Ukraine.
It turned out that putin is a longtime admirer and follower of the Reich Minister of Public Education and Propaganda of the Third Reich, Joseph Goebbels: “Goebbels said that the more incredible a lie is, the easier it will be believed. And he achieved his goal, he was a talented person.” Like Goebbels, putin established tight state control over the media and culture to manipulate public opinion.
Rashists change the consciousness of the crowd with simple, but large-scale and concentrated lies, according to the following principles of Goebbels:
• Propaganda must be large-scale and continuous from several different sources at the same time, since people only learn what is repeated thousands of times.
• Simplified messages of any kind are perceived even by primitive individuals.
• Maximum uniformity of clear, short and concise messages. The slogan must be repeated in every information message.
• Propaganda does not involve any differentiation and does not allow for fluctuations and different options or possibilities.
• Appeal to emotions with a minimum of rationality: you can weave ropes from an emotional crowd
• Shock and lies are the basis of perfect propaganda. Only shocking news spreads instantly. Rational, adequate reasoning goes unnoticed.
Find analogies on your own in Goebbels’ iconic quotes, which, from our perspective, are introduced in the russian information space:
• “Give me the media and I will turn any nation into a herd of pigs.”
• “The worst enemy of any propaganda is intellectualism.”
• “A significant person, for the sake of his desire, is able to use any means to achieve his goal.”
• “Do whatever you want without shame when it comes to the new Germany!”
• “We strive not for truth, but for effect.”
• “A dictator does not need to follow the will of the majority, but he must be able to use the will of the people.”
• “One people, one country, one leader!”
• “… the slogan that in the east we are fighting only with Bolshevism, and not with the russian people, will significantly facilitate our struggle there”
• “Do you want total war? Do you trust the Führer more than ever? … Now, people, rise up and let the storm break out!”
• “People should think about anything but peace”
The main narratives of Goebbelsian propaganda, which are used by the rashists in the war against the Ukrainian people, are provided without comments and analogies (sapienti sat):
• In October 1941, Goebbels forbade calling Soviet fighters soldiers so that ordinary Germans would not compare these “animals and monsters” with the soldiers of the Third Reich. He sought to make heroes of the German soldiers, and the soviet attacks were highlighted as “futile”.
• Against the background of Germany’s significant losses on the Eastern Front, Goebbels created an alternative picture of the world in the country. “These days, it is more important than ever to make news politics propaganda politics … everything unpleasant must be restrained in order not to give way to pessimism.”
• During the soviet counteroffensive near Stalingrad, against the background of rumors of an armistice with the USSR, Goebbels drafted an order: “to publicize a strong denial and vaguely hint at a new weapon, saying that new artillery of small caliber, but deadly power, will be used in Stalingrad.”
• The victorious relations of the USSR and the allies were categorically denied: “… soviet reports about ten thousand prisoners and twenty thousand killed do not correspond to reality, they are shameless and completely false products of fantasy. Despite the critical situation, it is completely excluded that the German front could be in danger.”
• In January 1943, Goebbels prepared the grounds for total mobilization in order to subjugate the way of life of the Germans to the needs of the authorities and the front: “there must be nothing but iron stability and determination in the mass media … the key solution to the situation is total war.”
• “There should not be a single word in the country or abroad about the ultimatum of the Bolsheviks, surrounded by German troops near Stalingrad.” Instead, propaganda stamped materials about the unification of Europe against the Bolshevik threat: “if there had been no Nazi revolution, today Europe would be a Bolshevik continent … instead of frontline reports, we need to emphasize the threat of a possible victory of the Bolsheviks.”
• In the German mass media, the soviet army became not “red” but “Bolshevik”, and the Western allies of the USSR were called “supporters”. “The polemic against Bolshevism must be daily and all-encompassing, even if there is a threat that the German public will tire of it. Special emphasis should be placed on the anti-social, anti-cultural and anti-German nature of Bolshevism.”
The only sad saying of Goebbels, the analogue of which we have not yet heard from the rashists: “Undoubtedly, Bolshevik propaganda succeeded in making a single nation out of a people who were skeptical of Bolshevism, a nation faithful to the principle “It is better to die standing than to live on one’s knees.”
As Shota Rustaveli said: “A glorious death is better than a disgraced life.”
We will definitely win!
SLAVA UKRAINI! HEROYAM SLAVA!
GLORY TO UKRAINE! GLORY TO THE HEROES!
