Propaganda is certainly one of the key elements of warfare. First of all, its purpose is to justify the war to the citizens of the aggressor country — to the voters, to potential conscripts, soldiers, and their families. Even in authoritarian countries, such as the rf, war cannot be won by coercion and "getting tough" alone. The goal of each political leader is to maintain his power, which will be at considerable risk in the event of defeat in the war he initiated. On the one hand, the population is the first to bear the burden of war — both economically and politically (tax increases, effects of sanctions, etc.), and from the point of view of the health and life of the combatants themselves. But demoralized fighters will not bring flash-like victories to the table for the warlords. On the other hand, propaganda is needed in the struggle for the "hearts and minds" of the local population in the occupied territories in order to reduce resistance to the occupiers.
As the British politician Arthur Ponsonby noted in his book Falsehood in War-Time, after the declaration of war, “the truth becomes the first victim” because without lies “there would be neither a desire nor a sense to fight.” Ponsonby analyzed the war propaganda disseminated by the Entente countries during World War I and published his study in 1928. “Lies during the war” was among the founding books in the field of propaganda. Later, Belgian researcher Anna Moreli summarized Ponsonby's work and deduced 10 basic principles of military propaganda.
Are the 10 principles of military propaganda by Moreli-Ponsonby since the First World War still relevant? We analyze this further as illustrated by russian rhetoric about the occupied Kherson.
Principle One: "We don't want war"
In its master frame, or the general “umbrella” frame for interpreting the war that russian propaganda seeks to achieve, hostilities are presented as a forced step. Russians were forced to take up arms for very different factors: whether NATO or the Nazi government in Ukraine, which came to power after the “coup d’état” in 2014 (although since then the political forces in Ukraine have already changed in both the executive and legislative branches of government, but they are not used to the change of power in russia), then the downturns of russian-speaking Ukrainians — and this list can be continued. One of the most recent illustrations of the use of this principle is the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the russian federation that “Zelensky should not surrender — he should give an order to stop hostilities” because russia’s goal is to “ensure the safety of people in the East of Ukraine, so that they are not threatened by Naziism.” In other words, rf imposes the idea that the russians came to protect people from the current “Nazi power” so they are interested in ending the war as soon as possible to save people — as soon as Kyiv stops shooting.
How exactly does the principle of “We do not want war” apply to the occupation of Kherson? First, russians continue to insist that Kherson itself is seeking to join russia:
Secondly, russian propagandists claim that once Kherson was under the control of the occupation authorities, peace and security prevailed in the region, but Ukraine and the collective West did not benefit from such a picture – so they continue to shell civiliansto be able to blame russia:
According to russian propaganda, the rf is trying to establish peace and order in the occupied territories (according to them, they are “liberated”) as soon as possible, and Ukraine does not like this.
Principle Two: “Our adversaries are the only ones to blame for this war.”
Kherson is a seaside city where one of the most important Ukrainian ports is located. The second principle of military propaganda is well illustrated by the following quote of the permanent representative (regrettably so) of the rf to the United Nations, Vasiliy Nebenzya: “In the context of your own “proxy war” with russia in Ukraine, you, in fact, have taken the entire developing world hostage, actually pushing it to the brink of hunger.”
The russians accuse Ukraine of blocking its seaports, including Kherson, which makes it impossible to export Ukrainian grain. Thus, according to russian propaganda, it is Ukraine that causes the world food crisis. It was said that Ukraine, in collusion with the West, was waging its own “war by agreement” and was indirectly holding hostage the “developing world” that could not receive Ukrainian grain by sea. This principle is also vividly implemented in the general framework of the russian invasion: russia is forced to defend itself against “the approach of NATO’s military infrastructure to russian borders,” despite the “30 years of attempts to negotiate,” according to putin.
Principle Three: “Our enemy is the incarnation of evil and the devil himself.”
The following principle is vividly implemented in the very approach of the russian name of war — “special operation for denazification.” Nazism, which Ukraine is accused of, is associated with one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Europe of the last century — the Second World War, as started by Nazi Germany. This line is consistently and systematically maintained in russian propaganda about the occupied Kherson. For example, the propaganda Telegram channel “Kherson.ru” shared a message about the photo exhibition “Truth of Donbass” which allegedly shows “the crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis in Donbas” that “the Khersonites watched with tears in their eyes” because they “realized that all these eight years sponsored these atrocities”:
Principle Four: “We fight for a noble cause, not for our vested interests.”
This principle is perfectly illustrated by the following series of images that are also shared in the “local” Telegram channel of the occupiers “Kherson.ru”:
The Russians impose the idea that they “came to the defense” of the residents of the Kherson regio, who purportedly suffered from the pressure of the Ukrainian authorities. Propagandists reinforce this narrative with stories about “intimidated Khersonites” who have been threatened by the “Nazi authorities” for the past eight years:
Principle Five. “The enemy is intentionally violent, incidents on our part are of necessity or accidental”
The fifth principle of military propaganda is traced in the above example to the first principle “we do not want war” — war crimes against civilians are committed by Ukraine intentionally, to be able to blame them on russia. The Kremlin also disseminates messages that Kyiv seeks to destroy Kherson in order to revenge local residents for supporting russia. In response to these imposed fears, the propaganda immediately assures that “russia is now forever in Kherson” and will protect the city from “Ukrainian neo-Nazis”:
The Kremlin systematically tries to intimidate the residents of the temporarily occupied territories with “bloodthirsty Kyiv” which seeks to physically destroy all things russian, and therefore — both the russian-speaking population of Kherson and civilians who have pro-russian views:
However, it is worth noting that this principle in russian propaganda is not fully implemented because in the context of Kherson, russia does not mention any destruction and casualties caused by the russian army. On the contrary, the rf insists that Kherson was “surrendered without a fight”, and the russian army is not there at all. At the same time, the russians reinforce the argument about the “"cruelty of Kyiv” — Kyiv also allegedly knows that the russian army is not in Kherson, and therefore all the shelling of the city is carried out by the Ukrainian armed forces against the civilian population:
Principle Six: “The enemy uses prohibited weapons”
The most famous message in the context of this principle is russian disinformation about the manufacture of biological weapons in Ukraine. Thus, in propaganda media, there are occasional references to “outbreaks of botulism” in Kherson and other cities, which Ukraine has been hiding. This “spread of diseases”, allegedly silenced by Kyiv, confirms the existence of military bio-labs in Ukraine, which jeopardize the health and life of ordinary Ukrainians.
There were also repeated accusations of Ukraine of the shelling of the civilian population with cluster bombs that are forbidden to use in densely populated areas:
Principle Seven: “We have minor casualties, while losses of the enemy are enormous.”
This principle is also actively present in the master frame of russian propaganda. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, russia did not publicly report its losses at all. It was only later that the russian General Staff started publishing the significantly downsized figures. At the same time, russia is relentless in assuring that Ukraine will lose the war. Even more revealing were the attempts to hide the sinking of the cruiser “Moscow” by Ukrainian missiles for as long as possible (in addition, the loss of the crew was never recognized by the russians, despite numerous testimonies from parents and acquaintances of the perished sailors). Instead, russian propaganda often tells about Ukrainian casualties: for example, on March 6 and 25, the russian General Staff reported the complete destruction of Ukrainian air forces (while in June, Ukrainian helicopters and aircrafts keep carrying out combat missions).
As for Kherson, the russians somewhat changed the vector, and share messages about the Ukrainian army voluntarily “giving in on Kherson without a fight”, and, as discussed above, they keep saying that there are no russian military present in Kherson
Principle Eight: "Recognized artists and intellectuals support us"
There are certainly many questions about how real are the words of artists and intellectuals who support the occupation of an independent country and the killing of civilians. However, keeps to rather consistently engage them to legitimize their activities in the occupied territories — it is worth mentioning at least the trips to the TOTs of such well-known russian performers as the late joseph kobzon or the still living mikhail porechenkov.
Due to the high intensity of hostilities, russian singers and actors are not rushing to visit the recently occupied territories, including Kherson. For example, on May, 9, for some reason, the residents of Kherson region were entertained by military orchestras only, whereas the big concert in Kherson” announced by the gauleiter kiril stremousov” either did not take place or did not receive wide publicity in the russian media.
At the same time, some russian performers, although not massively, reach the temporarily occupied territories. For example, on May, 28, the russian singer julia chicherina “helped” the russian military to replace the road sign at the entrance to Melitopol to the sign “russia forever”, and she also took down Ukrainian flag from the city hall building in Enrgodar.
Principle Nine: “Our goal is sacred.”
One of the pillars of russian propaganda, both domestic and military, is Orthodoxy. Thus, according to the kremlin propaganda, one of the numerous objectives (as we can vividly see now) of the so-called special operation is to protect the Orthodox Church from the dissenters, or rather from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU):
Another example of the implementation of this principle is the narrative of russians about “we can do it again.” Thus, the publication of the Telegram channel Kherson.ru explained that the sacred goal of the russian occupiers is now to protect the legacy of their ancestors who fought against Nazi Germany:
Principle Ten: “Anyone who questions our propaganda is a traitor.”
The last, tenth principle of military propaganda in russia was embodied even in the format of criminal responsibility, because the events in Ukraine can not be called in other words than those defined by the official kremlin. Another example is this website, where the citizens of the Russian Federation for publicly speaking out against the war are tarred as traitors. And, of course, the so-called list of "foreign agents", which was created before the war, but actively replenished after February, 24, with all public officials who openly disagreed with the actions of the russian authorities, deserves special attention. And dmitriy medvedev recently stated: russian legislation related to foreign agents should be made tougher, and control over citizens and organizations on the list should be strengthened.
In general, the tenth principle of military propaganda can be traced only in the internal rurssian information field, because the rf applies it exclusively to its own citizens. In the case of Kherson, Crimea, LPR or DPR, russia does not share any such messages, seeking to conceal and silence the voices of people who disagree with the occupation and try to resist it.
Instead, russians actively promote the opposite message — Ukrainians gladly welcome the russian army and authorities, thank for the “liberation” and support the establishment of pro-russian administrations. One of the most striking examples of such a narrative is that in 2018, in the election of the president of the rf in Crimea, the “results” of the vote reached 92% in support of vladimir putin. The higher support of 93% putin managed to et only in Kabardino-Balkaria.
Propaganda under guidelines
It can be seen from the above that russian propaganda is not anything unique, created exclusively by russians. For the most part, the entire information policy of the rf is built around the 10 principles of military propaganda created in the 1920s and described in detail in the early 2000s. However, this does not mean that this type of propaganda is less effective and can be safely neglected. In fact, the situation is the opposite, because all military propaganda refers to certain basic ideas of the human community that can affect each of us.
However, this does not mean that the information war cannot be won. Today, Ukraine is also successfully engaged in this struggle, actively urging world governments to block russian television, social media, and other propaganda sources of information. In addition, Ukraine is actively promoting its own information agenda — spreading its view of the world war. However, although some researchers and officials were optimistic back in April that Ukraine actually won the information war with russia, it is too early to relax. In particular, over the past few weeks, the enemy has been actively sharing information and psychological special operations to break the Ukrainian morale and force Ukrainians to pressure the authorities to end the war as soon as possible. The information war continues, we need to fight further to defeat the system of military propaganda that russia has built in recent years. Anyone with a computer and a few minutes of free time can help — for example, by completing tasks through this Telegram channel.
Original publication: CENSOR.NET