PERIODICALS IN THE SYSTEM OF NAZI PROPAGANDA IN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES OF UKRAINE IN 1941–1943s

Abstract

In this article, the role of periodicals in the propaganda activities of the occupation authorities of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine and the military administration zone has been revealed; the content and types of periodicals have been shown; the task set before them by the Nazi occupation authorities in forming appropriate ideological structures to influence the population of the occupied territories of Ukraine has been disclosed. It is shown that Hitler’s governance used the press as one of the effective means of influencing not only the opinion, but also the consciousness of the population of the temporarily occupied territories. The subject of the study is the content of periodicals and their influence on the behaviour, moral and psychological condition of the population of the Ukrainian territories occupied by the Nazi army. The main aspects of Nazi Germany’s information policy in the occupied territories have been revealed with the use of comparative-historical and problem-chronological methods, as well as content analysis, which allowed to analyse the content of periodicals and to highlight the features of their content lines. The occupation administration used various forms of propaganda: publishing newspapers and magazines in Ukrainian; demonstrating special films in cinemas; releasing visual agitation in the form of posters and leaflets, as well as documentary exhibitions; through theatre plays, radio broadcasts in Ukrainian, Russian and other languages. It resorted to the modern methods of using the press in times of the war. The population of the temporarily occupied territories of the USSR demanded news as the only opportunity to navigate in those difficult conditions. That is why Hitler’s governance used the press as one of the effective means of influence not only the opinion, but also the consciousness of the population of the temporarily occupied territories. The German occupation authorities tried to take advantage of the “information hunger” that prevailed after the retreat of Soviet troops and to fill the information vacuum with their own propaganda. In order to spread the necessary information among the population, the Nazi occupation authorities published newspapers and magazines in each region, district, city.