Berkhoff, K: Motherland in Danger Soviet Propaganda during World War II

[Berkhoff] persuasively argues that, contrary to the popular notion that the war loosened Soviet cultural and political controls, the goal of mobilizing citizens led to greater centralization and censorship of information...He contends that censorship and centralization led to largely bland, uninspiring, and uninformative propaganda, which succeeded in its goal of mobilizing the population only because Nazi Germany's war aims and practices left Soviet citizens no other choice but to resist. Berkhoff shows that, nevertheless, postwar (and post-Soviet) Russians largely subscribe to the myths created by wartime propaganda, indicating its enduring legacy.--K. D. Slepyan"Choice" (11/01/2012)