I happened across this article from Filebox and it all seemed very familiar. Read along. Do you hear propaganda, media control, rallies, pamphlets, internet, youth vote, grass root, documentaries of their leader, 30 minute infomercials, ACORN, caucus, voter turnout and glorifying image? Musings not accusations. Scattered quotes from the article.
Pravda achieved the goals of Bolshevik propaganda by motivating the people and controlling the media available to them, The Russian Association of Proletarian Writers controlled the media available to the public.
To spread their propaganda, “agit-trains” were sent throughout Russia with pamphlets and even films to assimilate the peasants. This allowed the communists to see things on a local level and take care of problems at the root, such as school conditions and the secret police. These films brought the faces of Lenin and Trotsky to them and made them feel closer to their leaders.
To ensure that the communists secured the vote, voting rules were changed in the early 1920’s. Now, votes were taken by a raising of hands. Obviously not many people came out to vote under this method and a ‘secret’ ballot system was instilled.... To make matters worse, voting counts were manipulated, making voter turnout appear higher.
The influence of these groups – the writers, the soldiers, the youth, and the voters was to be accomplished through propaganda.
Lenin definitely used these means to promote his ideology, and his image was often used in propaganda, although not to the glorifying extent that Stalin's image was.
[Poster] depicts Lenin as the bringer of a better future but is different in the way that it does not depict the workers in adulation, rather, they are working hard - infering that all good Soviets should work hard to bring about the Leninist ideal.
