How Did Stalin Use Propaganda

After World War I, many people began to indulge themselves. They bought luxurious goods like cars, radios, and ice cream. There was a significant increase in consumerism. Then, the United States economy crashed because of economic nationalism, overproduction of goods, and war debts. Countries around the world relied on United States capital and trade, so when that was cut out, their economies began to struggle also. Artists and writers began to have a more negative outlook on life, and many people questioned democracy because of slow progress, and religion because of the horrors of World War I. People were very vulnerable because of the economic crisis and they wanted to prevent another war like World War I. Due to this vulnerability, many …show more content…
Propaganda is information designed to influence public opinion. It can also be used to build resentment against an enemy. In a newspaper, there was a picture of Stalin and Trotsky, who was Stalin’s competitor, but Stalin photoshopped Trotsky out of the picture. This piece of propaganda made Stalin look good to the people, and Trotsky look bad, so it helped Stalin gain power. For instance, an excerpt from Mein Kampf, a book written by Hitler, says that for propaganda to be successful, it has to be simple and repeated often. This source is significant because it helps any person understand the art of propaganda from Hitler’s perspective. This illuminates that by using simple pieces of propaganda and repeating them often, Hitler was able to take power in Germany. An example of this method of gaining power is found in a piece of propaganda from Joseph Goebbels, the chief of Nazi propaganda. This says that Jews caused all of the German’s suffering, and they need to be eliminated. This piece of propaganda was specifically used to build resentment against Jews. This helped Hitler maintain power because the citizens were focused on one common enemy, and he said that eliminating this enemy would help fix Germany. The purpose of this is to convince Germans that Jews are the cause of their despair and that they are enemies. This source is reliable because it is an example of propaganda that helped a dictator gain power. Another example is an excerpt from “The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism” written by Benito Mussolini. He said that Fascism is the best type of government because it makes the people happy. He used propaganda to promote his form of government by listing all of its good attributes, making his citizens think that his idea might be best. The point of view of Mussolini is biased because he is person that started the Fascist party. He is obviously going to think that the form of government that