The Holocaust Propaganda Machine in Soviet Periodicals, 1941–1945

Abstract

The USSR entered the Second World War with the world’s most powerful propaganda apparatus, having twenty years of experience and a state monopoly on truth.1 All publications were subjected to a three-tiered system of censorship: personal, editorial, and official, with the common line of censorship determined at the highest level. In the Soviet Union, there were five primary sources of official information: (a) periodical publications, (b) fictional literature, (c) journalistic writing, (d) films, and (e) radio broadcasts. The author examines the Russian language periodical press, which was the most widely available print material in the USSR. These sources were entirely aimed at Soviet readers, as opposed to Yiddish-language publications, which were in part intended to arouse sympathy in readers abroad.2 Verification of casualty statistics and authenticating the facts of this published information is not the purpose of this article, but rather the author seeks to challenge the assumption that the USSR suppressed or censored reporting on the Holocaust during the Second World War.