USSR's use of fake news

On July 17^th 1983, a small pro-Soviet newspaper in India published an article stating that AIDS was a mystery disease that was going to invade India. The article claimed that the CIA was experimenting with new, unknown biological weapons and things got out of hand, creating this disease. Later, the article was used as a source in much followed Soviet newspaper Literaturnaya Gazeta. From there, it spread to many news outlets across the world, and by April 1987, the story had been published in over 50 countries (Taylor, 2016).

The Soviet Union governments, particularly following Lenin’s rule, were notorious for faking stories in order for their dirty, behind-the-scenes work to go unnoticed. They did not call it “fake news” however, they chose “disinformation” which stems from a Russian word. They killed millions of people quasi-secretly, because they were experts at meddling with public opinion through the media and keeping people focused on other issues. One of the most tyrannical and powerful leaders in Soviet History, Joseph Stalin, used fake news as a weapon of control over his people. He was always portrayed in a suit, and appearing to be continuously working on “making the country progress” even in the dead of night, when any “normal” human would be sleeping. He used the news to make himself appear God-like. In the 1936 poster up above, children are seen hugging and showing affection towards Stalin, who’s dressed in a military – or at least patriarchal – outfit. The Russian words on the poster translate as “Thank you beloved Stalin for our happy childhood”. The “happy childhood” refers to the Stalin Soviet programs every young Soviet went through at the time. Those programs are a big reason for the amount of power Stalin had. The poster makes Stalin appear as the sole reason for the happiness of all Soviet kids, and as their overall caregiver, an undoubtedly impossible task for anyone (including Stalin). It looks like all children love and cherish Stalin in an attempt to further marginalize and eliminate critics of the regime and reinforce Stalin’s cult of personality. 

                                                          WORKS CITED
Ostrovsky, A. (2017). The invention of Russia: the rise of Putin and the age of fake news. New York: Viking.

Taylor, A. (2016, November 26). Before ‘fake news,’ there was Soviet ‘disinformation’. Retrieved November 16, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/11/26/before-fake-news-there-was-soviet-disinformation/

Image: Properganderpress. (2017, March 24). Stalin poster of the week 6: viktor govorkov, thank you beloved stalin for our happy childhood, 1936. Retrieved November 16, 2017, from https://properganderpressblog.wordpress.com/2016/12/20/stalin-poster-of-the-week-viktor-govorkov-thank-you-beloved-stalin-for-our-happy-childhood-1936/