Battle for the minds: Use of propaganda films in Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany

Author

David RosenblumFollow

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Date of Graduation

Summer 2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Department of Political Science

Advisor(s)

Scott Hammond

Dolores Flamiano

Robert Roberts

Abstract

Since the end of the Second World War, scholars and experts have examined the use of cinema in spreading totalitarian propaganda. Nazi Germany, in particular, has caught the most attention. However, most of these studies focus exclusively on one nation, and relatively few studies have tried to directly compare the cinematic propaganda of different countries. This study aims to directly compare cinematic propaganda of Stalinist-era Russia and Nazi Germany and find out who utilized the medium of film more effectively. To accomplish this, this study will examine and directly compare several critical components, such as industry structure and artistic merits, of each nation’s film industry. This study finds that the Germans were more effective than the Soviets at producing films in terms of quality and quantity. However, there is a lack of available data about the psychological effectiveness of these propaganda pieces. Therefore, this study can’t definitively state which nation more effectively used cinema as a propaganda tool.

Recommended Citation

Rosenblum, David, "Battle for the minds: Use of propaganda films in Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany" (2019). Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019. 710.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors201019/710