Persuasion and Soviet politics

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Persuasion and Soviet politics

David Wedgwood Benn

B. Blackwell, 1989

  • U.S. : est.

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Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This is an account of the historical background to Soviet thinking about propaganda. Traditionally Soviet leaders are thought to have devised an elaborate 'blueprint' for the indoctrination of their citizens. David Wedgwood Benn examines the evidence for such a 'blueprint' and highlights a major paradox, namely that the authorities in the USSR have previously attached greater importance to the organizational aspects of propaganda than the psychological. As a result they have been led into unrealistic beliefs about what propaganda can, and cannot, achieve. Part of the evidence for this lies in the fact that in Soviet Russia the social sciences, including psychology have at all times been subject to political constraints. The author describes the almost forgotten episode when opinion surveys were expressly forbidden in the Stalin era. He shows how the Soviet media became increasingly beset with problems of credibility - all of which helps to explain the reforms of 'glasnost'. The author shows that the family is a much more powerful factor in the shaping of individual values than the media and that Soviet citizens are more autonomous in their judgements than is often realized.

Table of Contents

  • Part 1: Persuasion, Soviet politics and reform. Part 2 How to persuade: Soviet communication and its problems
  • Soviet Propaganda and its organization
  • problems and criticisms. Part 3 Persuasion, public opinion and ideology: Propaganda in the context of Soviet society
  • the link between propaganda and organization in Soviet thinking
  • propaganda through psychological manipulation - the Nazi example
  • the evolution of Communist propaganda doctrine - the influence of Marxism
  • Lenin and propaganda
  • Lenin on public opinion - the question of majority support
  • Stalin on propaganda and persuasion
  • Stalin on the 'unanimity' of public opinion
  • the Brezhnev era and after - propaganda and the 'ideology of stagnation'
  • the influence of ideology on propaganda method
  • traditional Soviet guidelines for propagandists
  • other traditional methods of influence
  • public opinion as a weapon of persuasion
  • Conclusion - a method of persuasion?. Part 4 Propaganda, psychology and Stalinism: Soviet communication research in the 1920s
  • Soviet communication research from the 1930s
  • Stalin, Pavlov and 'mind-control'. Part 5 Soviet persuasion - from Stalin's death to Gorbachev's accession: The Khrushchev years - propaganda and de-Stalinization
  • the Brezhnev era - new thinking on propaganda method
  • propaganda, opinion research and the question of liberalization
  • media research from the late 1960s - pluses and minuses
  • Soviet propaganda research - conclusions and results
  • political socialization, the 'micro-environment' and the 'work collective'
  • propaganda, psychology and method. Part 6 Propaganda and the Soviet system - a critique: official goals and unofficial opinions
  • the realism of Soviet propaganda method
  • official and unofficial factors in socialization
  • the family
  • the critical audience. Part 7 Persuasion, Soviet politics and East-West relations: propaganda, public opinion and Soviet politics
  • public opinion, persuasion and consent
  • dialogue, confrontation and the Cold War.

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