This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
The module will offer a comprehensive overview and examination of the propaganda used by the Soviet regime in its attempts to build communism and defend the interests of the Soviet regime. The seminar structure will be broadly chronological, but in such a way as also to allow for a thematic approach. The module will initially look at early Bolshevik propaganda, both in 1917 and during the Civil War. It will then go on to look at the promotion of Stalinism in relation to industrialisation, history, education, the personality cult and religion. Space will be given to the patriotic propaganda of the Second World War, and the concurrent reinvention of Soviet ideology. Poster art, paintings, cartoons, film, newspapers and news agencies will all feature, as will some of the propagandists themselves. The institutional foundations of Soviet propaganda will be discussed. The tension between science and propaganda will also be examined. The role of disinformation and front organisations in Soviet foreign policy will be covered, as well as some aspects of the cultural Cold War. Practices of resistance to Soviet propaganda, arising from within the Soviet and Eastern bloc dissident movement in the post-Stalin era, will be explored. Consideration will also be given to the waning appeal of Soviet propaganda in the 1980s and 1990s, including Gorbachev's policy of glasnost’ and the management of the Chernobyl’ affair in 1986. At the end of the module, students will examine the extent to which the Soviet propaganda tradition has influenced Russian propaganda in the early 21st century under Putin. All these themes will be examined in the context of relevant historiography on Soviet and Russian history.
Total contact hours: 24
Private study hours: 276
Total study hours: 300
Main assessment methods
Essay 1 3000 words 40%
Essay 2 3000 words 40%
Presentation 15 minutes 20%
Reassessment methods
Reassessment Instrument: 100% coursework
The University is committed to ensuring that core reading materials are in accessible electronic format in line with the Kent Inclusive Practices. The most up to date reading list for each module can be found on the university's reading list pages: https://kent.rl.talis.com/index.html
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes:
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Understand and critically interpret the history of Soviet propaganda.
2. Understand the emerging Soviet and East European dissident critique of communist propaganda.
2. Understand the historical background to contemporary debates about Russian propaganda.
3. Understand and critically deploy historiographical concepts relevant to Soviet propaganda.
The intended generic learning outcomes:
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate their ability to think in critical and analytical terms about historical events.
2. Critically evaluate a theme over time, and
3. Construct coherent written and oral arguments.
4. Demonstrate and apply their ability to evaluate written and visual sources.
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