PROPAGANDA IN PERIODICAL PRESS DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR (CASE STUDY OF VLADIMIR REGION)

The article considers the characteristic of propaganda in the periodical press during World War II. The author pays attention to the disadvantages of propaganda and flexibility of the Soviet press influence during the hard war years. The author uses the examples of central and local newspapers to considerthe drawbacks of propaganda. Besides, the sources of the research were the speech of L.Z. Mekhlis,the Chief of the Red Army propaganda (in Russian - “Glavpur”), the official letters of G.F. Aleksandrov,the chief of propaganda and agitation control to A.S. Shcherbakov, the reports of the Information Bureau, the letters addressed to Stalin to the editorial board of the central newspapers. In the article there are used both general scientific and specific historical methods of the historical research. The latter include the historical-genetic method, implemented through identifying the sources and reasons for changes in the agitation and propaganda activities. This method enables us to compile facts and historical data and recreate the overall picture of the propaganda efforts. Besides, there was used the historical-comparative method, aimed atidentifying various features and their comparison and contrasting. The author has come to the conclusion that in 1941-1943 the periodical press made a lot of propaganda mistakes, however by the end of the war these mistakes were less evident. The attention is paid to the brightest examples of the political and military propaganda. In remote regions there was no need of counter-propaganda since the opponent had no opportunity to carry out propaganda activities among the population. In general, the efficiently organized work of periodicals made the consolidating impact on the mass consciousness