The use of children’s and female images by the ideological structures of the red army in working with enemy personnel in World War II

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The use of children's and female images by the ideological structures of the red army in working with enemy personnel in World War II

Svitlana Pavlovska

Annotation

Svitlana Pavlovska, PhD in History (military history), leading Researcher research laboratory Humanitarian Institute National University of Defense of Ukraine named after Ivan Chernyakhovsky (Kyiv) Ukraine

THE USE OF CHILDREN'S AND FEMALE IMAGES BY THE IDEOLOGICAL STRUCTURES OF THE RED ARMY IN WORKING WITH ENEMY PERSONNEL IN WORLD WAR II.

In any war, for the opposing sides, it was important to use the so-called "soft power" to demoralize the enemy. Agitation and propaganda activities included the implementation of an impact on the human psyche using a certain information product. In the Red Army during World War II one of the most common ways to demoralize the enemy and force him to stop armed resistance was a leaflet with a powerful emotional overtones. This is the image of the victims of the war, which were members of the families of servicemen. They remained on the territory occupied by the enemy and were defenseless.

Today, special ideological structures in the armies of the world are actively using leaflets to influence the target audience. And the experience of this type of activity of the Second World War is important for modern army ideologists.

Keywords: Second World War, Red Army, propaganda activities, ideological structures of the Red Army, posters, leaflets, a victim, features images of the victim. agitation propaganda information

Використання дитячих та жіночих образів ідеологічними структурами РСЧА у роботі з особовим складом противника у Другій світовій війні.

У будь-якій війні для протиборчих сторін важливо використовувати так звану "м'яку силу" з метою деморалізації супротивника. Агітаційна і пропагандистська діяльність передбачає здійснення впливу на психіку людини з використанням певного інформаційного продукту. У Червоній армії під час Другої світової війни одним з найпоширеніших способів деморалізації противника і примушення його до припинення збройного опору була агітаційна листівка із сильним емоційним підтекстом. Як правило, використовувався образ жертв війни - членів сімей військовослужбовців. Вони залишалися на окупованій ворогом території і були беззахисними.

Сьогодні спеціальні ідеологічні структури в арміях світу активно використовують листівки з метою впливу на цільову аудиторію. Досвід даного виду діяльності під час Другої світової війни є важливим для сучасних армійських ідеологів.

Ключові слова: Друга світова війна, пропагандистська діяльність, ідеологічні структури Червоної армії, плакати, листівки, жертва, особливості образа жертви.

The purpose of the article is to study the main directions in the work on leaflets. The authors explore the artistic techniques that Soviet ideologists used to demoralize the enemy. Work with the visual format is characteristic of the activities of the ideological structures of all armies, which took part in military conflicts from the second half of the last century. Leaflets are still one of the most common ways to influence the psychology of the target audience. The importance of this area of research is due to the complex socio-political situation in Ukraine. To confront the enemy, it is necessary to know his methods of work, many of which have remained unchanged since the Second World War.

In any war, it is important for the opposing sides to use a set of methods aimed at demoralizing the enemy. First of all, these are agitation and propaganda activities that envisaged the implementation of impact on the human psyche using a specially prepared information product.

During the Second World War, the ideological structures of the Red Army organized large-scale activities to create and distribute visual products. The most effective were leaflets and posters. This information product had the different target audience. This article will consider the features of creating a visual format that was aimed at the Nazis and the personnel of the Red Army. The content of Soviet leaflets, main slogans, and motivational orientation were changing throughout the Second World War, depending on the changing situation in the theaters of military operations. In the first months of the war on the territory of the USSR, the propaganda activities of the ideological structures of the Red Army bore a tinge of class struggle. In the first text leaflets, army ideologists called on the Nazis to show their class consciousness and turn their bayonets against the imperialists who unleashed an aggressive war БурцевМ. И. Прозрение. - М.: Воениздат, 1981. - 320 с. (Военные мемуары). [Електронний ресурс]. - Режим доступу: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/burtsev_mi/ index.html. The main was the slogan to join the workers `and peasants' the Red Army and crush the universal imperialism together. These appeals were unsuccessful. Firstly, because Hitler and his political power were popular in Germany. Secondly, successful military campaigns and experience of victories inspired the Nazis to further seize the territories to expand the living space of Germany. Very quickly the leadership of the Main Political Administration of the Red Army realized that it was necessary to change tactics and look for other ways of influence. Military ideologists categorically lacked knowledge about the Hitlerite soldier, his mentality, and psychological vulnerability. As a result of the measures taken, in particular, the analysis of trophy documents, it was possible to draw up a psychological portrait of a serviceman of the Hitlerite army. The study of trophy diaries, letters, evidences of prisoners of war made it possible to understand the value system of a German soldier who was heavily motivated to wage war to the limit Там само..

The collapse of the plan to capture Moscow and the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad had significantly undermined their morale. It became clear that there would be no lightning victorious advancement. Controversial opinions about their further participation in the war began to emerge among German servicemen. This had become a breeding ground for impact on the enemy. Soviet army ideologists now began to use the slogan of surrendering to save lives and return home.

It was clear that one of the most common ways to demoralize the enemy and force him to stop armed resistance was a leaflet with powerful emotional overtones. For the German soldiers, family values were fundamental to their understanding of orderly life. The most common were leaflets with the following topics:

- images of orphaned children against the background of a military funeral;

- crying women with children who received news of the death of their spouse;

- A child crying out of desperation against the background of the body of the murdered father.

Both independent drawing scenes and subjects using photos were produced. It should be noted that the use of lifestyle tunes associated with suffering of children and women has always influenced the intensification of the emotional experience about the inability to protect their family. Specialists of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army developed 200 theses, which were grouped into 10 main themes: "The slogans of intimidation", "You need your family", "Save your homeland", etc Политическая работа среди войск и населения противника в годы Великой Отечественной войны (1941-1945) / Авт. кол. под рук. М.И. Бурцева. - М.: Воениздат, 1971. - С. 196.. The most effective in 1942 was the argument "Your family needs you". Sentimental topic intensified decadent moods of the enemy, in order to suppress the will of the Hitlerites as much as possible. The leaflet below shows a child against the background of letters to his father asking him to return home. This is one of the few leaflets, of which literal translation is kept in the State Social and Political Library of the Russian Federation "Dad, come home!". [Електронний ресурс]. - Режим доступу: http://agitka.su/index. php/ussr/520-centralshtab/belpartizan/beznomlbelshtab/6124-bel13.. In the text of the leaflet, the theme of the call to class consciousness and even to some justification of the Hitlerites "deceived" by their enslavers. A stamp is placed on the leaflet, as a pass to be imprisoned. The whole text is composed in the spirit of Soviet propaganda and it would hardly be understandable for the Germans. However, the theme of the child, the son who writes to his father and encourages him to return home, has become the main semantic content. The words that the farewell kiss of the wife and child have not yet cooled on the lips of the Hitlerite, the warmth of the home heart no longer heats one. Because he is on the vast expanses of Russia and freezes in his gray army overcoat. This first paragraph is the main one, it carries a semantic continuation in the child's bewilderment that his dad does not return. After reading these words, you begin to look at the image of the boy in a new way. With a thin neck, with a neat haircut, the boy looks directly at the leaflet reader. His face is not childishly distorted from bewilderment. Why did his father leave him and why does not he come and will he come at all?

Such a story is remembered and supplemented by the own experiences of each father who is at war, about the possible orphanhood of his children. The possible future of their children the Hitlerite started to associate with his own fate in this war. The doubts that arose with the German serviceman became the basis for a possible decision to surrender. What is the role of the child's image in this leaflet? The kid is a victim of circumstances that are caused by his father's participation in the war. This leaflet creates a kind of hopeless situation for the German soldier on the territory of the USSR. A professional soldier who has experienced so many victories, conquering a vital space for the future of Germany, can leave his own son as an orphan. And as a way out of this situation - the offer to surrender. Only in this way it was possible to save lives and later return home.

"Dad, come home!"

The next copy of the leaflet is rather laconic. A crying defenseless toddler is depicted on the background of his father's corpse. The leaflet is specified by a minimum of characters, a limited color and a short phrase: "Remember about your child"5. This leaflet is made in the technique of family photos-postcards.

However here is not a laughing happy baby depicted, but a tearful and unhappy orphan. The child did not fully understand the depth of his grief. But his tears are sincere because he will not see his native person. The look of a crying baby looking at the reader of the leaflet can not leave anyone indifferent. The authors of the leaflet counted on the fact that every German would have a sense of responsibility towards his children, which would have to be compared with the need to fulfill his soldier's duty in a war that no longer seemed victorious.

"Remember about your child!"

Such life-like moments are remembered and immediately overgrown with associations of their own experiences and memories. This image of a child who was a victim of circumstances caused by the death of his father in the war, could not leave indifferent. At some point in the perception of this image, some personal characteristics, such as hair color, haircut, are erased. Only a glance remains expressing suffering and desperation. The authors of this leaflet could have accurately conveyed the essence of the possible experiences of well- trained and ideologically trained Nazi soldiers.

"We will no longer see our father, Hitler has taken his from us!"

The next leaflet also used the story of orphaned children "We will no longer see our father, Hitler has taken his from us". URL: www.google. com.ua/search?q=советские+листовки+вов&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CT8N1AZ_1P. Against the background of a German death notification, the elder brother is telling with tears to a small child, that they will not see their father anymore. Accurate, well-dressed children, still from a happy family life personified family comfort and a successful continuation of the family for every Nazi. This leaflet is interesting for special ways of creating the image of a suffering child. We hardly see the face of the older boy. And only a brilliant tear with wet eyelashes convey the whole tragedy of the ruined childhood and the inevitability of accepting a new, adult life with its hardships and cruelty. This little boy, who became a victim of war, as an orphan, now must take care of the younger child in the family.

Leaflets with sentimental subjects were quite effective. Specialists of the 7th Division of the Main Political Administration of the Red Army developed a series of stories on the topic "Vater ist tod" (Papa was killed). The head of the Soviet Information Bureau, Alexander Shcherbakov, recalled the following story: "I was told about the leaflet "Fater Ist Tod!" - its action surpassed all expectations. I was told that there was no prisoner who did not mention it and that many German soldiers, raising their hands, held this leaflet as a pass to the captivity БурцевМ. И. Прозрение. - М.: Воениздат, 1981. - 320 с. (Военные мемуары). [Електронний ресурс]. - Режим доступу: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/burtsev_ mi/index.html. Features of artistic representation of children of German soldiers, as victims of war, are due to their indirect participation in the military confrontation. Precaution of their future and prosperous present had to become the main motivational component that shaped the attitude of the Nazis towards their own role in the war.

Very different methods were used by Soviet visual specialists in creating the image of a victim of Soviet children. If in the first case the children remained orphans, but they continued to live in a relatively safe environment, the fate of total destruction and enslavement was specifically for the Soviet children. A child is a symbol of procreation, a symbol of the future. When they destroy a child, they destroy the future. And in this case for Soviet artists, universal concepts were combined with personal perceptions about the role of each person in the future of society.

What mark can one make on the world? The civic role of the head of the family, breadwinner, and educator of children was connected with the socially significant role of the defender of his motherland and the defender of the future of his country. All this found expression in the visual style used in the creation of Soviet leaflets and posters from the Second World War. Soviet children were victims of the enemy, who perceived them as a target for destruction or enslavement. In accordance with the National Socialist ideology, the population of the USSR was assigned an unenviable part of total destruction without a special choice of humane ways of dealing with it. The topic of the threat to family members was one of the main ones in raising the morale of the Red Army. Typically, these posters or leaflets depicted children whose lives were cut off or threatened with death.

Conclusions

References

1. Burcev, M. I. (1981). Prozrenie. Moscow: Voenizdat Retrieved from: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/burtsev_mi/index.html [in Russian].

2. Burcev, M. I. (Ed.). (1971). Politicheskaya rabota sredi vojsk i naseleniya protivnika v gody Velikoj Otechestvennoj vojny (1941-1945). Moscow: Voenizdat. [in Russian].