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THE INTERACTION OF SOVIET STATE SECURITY BODIES AND MEDIA FOR DISCREDITING WAR CRIMINALS (AS EXAMPLIFIED BY THE NORTWEST REGIONS OF RUSSIA)

D.Y. Astashkin, B.N Kovalev, S.V. Kulik, H.I. Kokkonen, A.V. Bondarevskaia

Abstract

In the USSR, the interaction of the state security bodies and the media was carried out, in the first place, on the initiative of the KGB. Not all journalists had an opportunity to get documents of interest for their work. But when a historian or a newspaperman used in their work information unknown to a wider audience, a case evolved into a cause célèbre. That was an important aspect of the propaganda warfare between the Soviet Union and the West. Active cooperation between the state security bodies and the media became possible only during the Khrushchev Thaw. There could be several reasons for this cooperation. Firstly, it was the formation of a positive image of the KGB in a book or article, thematically related to the history of the state security bodies. Secondly, it was instruction in how to highlight a process over another unmasked criminal. The aim was to arouse public interest in the KGB’s work and to show the validity of trials and the unavoidability of punishment. Thirdly, it was the discrediting of Western countries. Capitalist countries were presented to Soviet citizens as places of refuge for war criminals.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/SGEMSOCIAL2017/HB21/S05.023

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