In the Soviet Union, propaganda was the practice of state-directed communication aimed at promoting class conflict, proletarian internationalism, the goals of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the party itself.

The main Soviet censorship body, Glavlit, was employed not only to eliminate any undesirable printed materials but also "to ensure that the correct ideological spin was put on every published item." After the death of Joseph Stalin, punitive measures were replaced by punitive psychiatry, prison, denial of work, and denaturalization.

Theory of propaganda According to historian Peter Kenez, "the Russian socialists have contributed nothing to the theoretical discussion of the techniques of mass persuasion. ... The Bolsheviks never looked for and did not find devilishly clever methods to influence people's minds, to brainwash them." Kenez says this lack of interest "followed from their notion of propaganda. They thought of propaganda as part of education."p. 8, Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917–1929, Cambridge University Press 1985. In a study published in 1958, business administration professor Raymond Bauer concluded: "Ironically, psychology and the other social sciences have been employed least in the Soviet Union for precisely those purposes for which Americans popularly think psychology would be used in a totalitarian state—political propaganda and the control of human behavior."Raymond Bauer, "Our big advantage: the social sciences (development in the US and Soviet Union compared)", Harvard Business Review vol. 36 (1958): pp. 125–136; quoted in Alex Carey 1997, Taking the Risk out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty, University of Illinois Press, p. 13.

Media Schools and youth organizations

An important goal of Soviet propaganda was to create a New Soviet man. Schools and Communist youth organizations such as the Young Pioneers and Komsomol served to remove children from the "petit-bourgeois" family and indoctrinate the next generation into the "collective way of life". The idea that the upbringing of children was the concern of their parents was explicitly rejected.Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, p315, One schooling theorist stated:

Those born after the Russian Revolution were explicitly told that they were to build a utopia of brotherhood and justice, and to, unlike their parents, be completely Red. "Lenin's corners", "political shrines for the display of propaganda about the god-like founder of the Soviet state", were established in all schools. Schools conducted marches, songs, and pledges of allegiance to Soviet leadership. One of the purposes was to instill in children the idea that they are involved in the world revolution, which is more important than any family ties. Pavlik Morozov, who denounced his father to the secret police NKVD, was promoted as a great positive example despite its fabrication.

Teachers in economic and social sciences were particularly responsible for inculcating "unshakable" Marxist–Leninist views. All teachers were prone to strictly follow the plan for educating children approved by the top for reasons of safety, which could cause serious problems dealing with social events that, having just happened, were not included in the plan. Children of "socially alien" elements were often the target of abuse or expelled, in the name of class struggle. Early in the regime, many teachers were drawn into Soviet plans for schooling because of a passion for literacy and numeracy, which the Soviets were attempting to spread.Robert Service, A History of Modern Russia, from Nicholas II to Putin p. 94

The Young Pioneers were an important factor in the indoctrination of children. They were taught to be truthful and uncompromising and to fight the enemies of socialism. By the 1930s, this indoctrination completely dominated the Young Pioneers.

Radio

The radio was put to good use, especially to reach the illiterate; radio receivers were put in communal locations, where the peasants would have to come to hear the news, such as changes to rationing, and received propaganda broadcasts with it; some of these locations were also used for posters.Anthony Rhodes, Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II, p212 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York

During World War II, radio was used to propagandize Germany; German POWs would be brought on to speak and assure their relatives they were alive, with propaganda being inserted between the announcement that a soldier would speak and when he actually did, in the time allowed for his family to gather.Anthony Rhodes, Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II, p224, 158 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York

Posters

Wall posters were widely used in the early days, often depicting the Red Army's triumphs for the benefit of the illiterate. Throughout the 1920s, this was continued.

This continued in World War II, still for the benefit of the less literate, with bold, simple designs.Anthony Rhodes, Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II, p218-9 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York

Cinema

Films were heavily propagandist, although they were pioneers in the documentary field (Roman Karmen, Dziga Vertov). When war appeared inevitable, dramas, such as Alexander Nevsky (1938) were written to prepare the population; these were withdrawn after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, but returned to circulation after the war began.Anthony Rhodes, Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II, p214 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York

Films were shown in theaters and from propaganda trains.Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, p308-9, During the war, newsreels were shown in subway stations so that the poor were not excluded by an inability to pay.Anthony Rhodes, Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II, p219 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York Films were also shot with stories of partisan activity, and of the suffering inflicted by the Nazis, such as Girl No. 217, depicting a Russian girl enslaved by an inhuman German family.

Propaganda train

An institution during World War II was the propaganda train, fitted with presses and portable cinemas, staffed with lecturers. In the Civil War the Soviets sent out both "agitation trains" () and "" () to inform, entertain, and propagandize.

Meetings and lectures Meetings with speakers were also used. Despite their dullness, many people found they created solidarity, and made them feel important and that they were being kept up to date on news.Karel C. Berkhoff, Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule p190

Lectures were habitually used to instruct in the proper way of every corner of life.

Joseph Stalin's lectures on Leninism were instrumental in establishing that the Party was the cornerstone of the October Revolution, a policy Lenin acted on but did not write of theoretically.

Art

Art, whether literature, visual art, or performing art, was used for the purpose of propaganda.Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, p282, Furthermore, it should show one clear and unambiguous meaning. Long before Stalin imposed complete restraint, a cultural bureaucracy was growing up that regarded art's highest form and purpose as propaganda and began to restrain it to fit that role.Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, p283, Cultural activities were constrained by censorship and a monopoly of cultural institutions.

Imagery frequently drew on heroic realism.eye magazine, "Designing heroes " The Soviet pavilion for the Paris World Fair was surmounted by Vera Mukhina's a monumental sculpture, Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, in heroic mold. This reflected a call for heroic and romantic art, which reflected the ideal rather than the realistic. Art was filled with health and happiness; paintings teemed with busy industrial and agricultural scenes, and sculptures depicted workers, sentries, and schoolchildren.

In 1937, the Industry of Socialism was intended as a major exhibit of socialist art, but difficulties with pain and the problem of "enemies of the people" appearing in scene required reworking, and sixteen months later, the censors finally approved enough for an exhibition.

Newspapers In 1917, coming out of underground movements, the Soviets prepared to begin publishing Pravda.Roy Medvedev, Let History Judgep41

The very first law the Soviets passed on assuming power was to suppress newspapers that opposed them.Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, p292, This had to be repealed and replaced with a milder measure,Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, p292-3, but by 1918, Lenin had liquidated the independent press, including journals stemming from the 18th century.Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, p294,

From 1930 to 1941, as well as briefly in 1949, the propaganda journal USSR in Construction was circulated. It was published in Russian, French, English, German, and, from 1938, Spanish. The self-proclaimed purpose of the magazine was to "reflect in photography the whole scope and variety of the construction work now going on the USSR". The issues were aimed primarily at an international audience, especially Western left-wing intellectuals and businessmen, and were quite popular during its early publications, with subscribers including George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, John Galsworthy, and Romain Rolland.

Illiteracy was regarded as a grave danger, excluding the illiterate from political discussion.Gail Warshofsky Lapidus, Women in Soviet Society: Equality, Development, and Social Change (University of California Press, 1978), p 64. In part this was because the people could not be reached by Party journals.Gail Warshofsky Lapidus, Women in Soviet Society: Equality, Development, and Social Change (University of California Press, 1978), p 65.

Books

Immediately after the revolution, books were treated with less severity than newspapers, but the nationalizing of printing presses and publishing houses brought them under control.Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, p294-5, In the Stalinist era, libraries were purged, sometimes so extremely that works by Lenin were removed.

In 1922, the deportation of writers and scholars warned that no deviation was permitted, and pre-publication censorship was reinstated.</ref> Due to a lack of Bolshevist authors, many "fellow travelers" were tolerated, but money only came as long as they toe the party line.

During the Stalinist Great Purges, textbooks were often so frequently revised that students had to do without them.

Theatre The revolutionary theater was used to inspire support for the regime and hatred of its enemies, particularly agitprop theater, noted for its cardboard characters of perfect virtue and complete evil, and its coarse ridicule.Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, p303, Petrushka was a popular figure, often used to defend rich peasants and attack kulaks.Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, p305,

Themes New man

Many Soviet works depicted the development of a "positive hero" as requiring intellectualism and hard discipline.B. R. Myers, The Cleanest Race, p 81 He was not driven by crude impulses of nature but by conscious self-mastery. The selfless new man was willing to sacrifice not only his life but his self-respect and his sensitivity for the good of others. Equality and sacrifice were touted as the ideal appropriate for the "socialist way of life." Work required exertion and austerity, to show the new man triumphing over his base instincts.B. R. Myers, The Cleanest Race, p 86 Alexey Stakhanov's record-breaking day in mining coal caused him to be set forth as the exemplar of the "new man" and to inspire Stakhanovite movements. The movement inspired much pressure to increase production, on both workers and managers, with critics labeled "wreckers".