German Authorities' Anti-Soviet Propaganda in the Occupied Territory of the USSR (Based on the Materials of the General District of Belarus)

The article examines the problem of the German authorities' anti-Soviet propaganda in the occupied Soviet territory (based on the materials of the General District of Belarus). Using the research methods of analysis and synthesis, the author aims to establish the main directions of ideological influence of anti-Soviet character on the population of the district, to trace its evolution, to determine the effectiveness of German propaganda. The article is based on previously unpublished historical sources, including documents of the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus (NARB), which include propaganda materials of the occupied authorities, orders of representatives of the German administration and heads of the General District of Belarus regarding anti-Soviet agitation, analytical materials of Soviet authorities, reports of partisans. The duration of the occupation regime in Belarus during the Great Patriotic War forced the German authorities to use political propaganda to influence the local population. The tasks of anti-Soviet propaganda were the extermination of the “Soviet spirit” and Soviet values from all spheres of people's life and consciousness. The main techniques were demagogy, outright lies, and falsification. Thematically, anti-Soviet propaganda included a number of sections: informing about events on the Soviet-German front, discrediting Stalin and the top officials of the Soviet Union, criticism of the Soviet social security system and labor legislation, intimidation of the Belarusian population with the prospect of returning to Soviet power and punishment by the NKVD for living under occupation. Collaborationist organizations, including the Belarusian Central Rada (BCR), were involved in anti-Soviet propaganda. To spread the Nazi ideology, the occupiers created the Union of Struggle Against Bolshevism (SBPB) and the National Socialist Workers' party of Russia (NSRPR) in the district. However, participation in these pro-fascist organizations was mostly compulsory. Both heads of the German district administration - William Kube and Curt von Gottberg - attached great importance to the spread of national socialist ideology, the formation of a new scale of values, different from the Soviet one. The massive anti-Soviet propaganda aimed at various segments of the population was ineffective. The Belarusian population of the district distrusted both military political information and propaganda materials distributed by the invaders. The invaders' hopes of causing a mass popular upsurge against the advancing Red Army units crashed. The efforts of German and local propagandists were leveled by the extremely brutal occupation regime, including methods of fighting partisans, SS expeditions against civilians, and the mass extermination of Jews.

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