Organization of Oral Advertising and Agitation in the Years of the Great Patriotic War (On Materials of North Ossetia)

This author examines the activities of Soviet party-state bodies in the field of propaganda among the population in the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (North Ossetia) during the Great Patriotic War. Propaganda is effective when its message is deeply rooted in the consciousness of the population group to which it is addressed. For this reason the media and the organizations of oral propaganda of North Ossetia sought to get the most accurate information on the particular group that was called upon to fulfill wartime tasks. The author used various types of sources, including documents from the Central State Archive of the Republic of North Ossetia that are here first introduced into scientific circulation. The paper identifies the directions of party-state bodies in organizing propaganda on the territory of the republic in 1941-1945, and it assesses the degree of their effectiveness. While the outbreak of the war led to an expansion of propaganda, there was an acute shortage of specialists in various fields of life, including in propaganda work among the civilian population. The paper reveals the main methods of forming the image of the enemy by propaganda bodies and the media. The author concludes that the activities of the propaganda apparatus in the republic during the War had a direct impact on public consciousness and contributed to the consolidation of the region's population in the fight against the enemy, and to overcoming the difficulties of the War years.