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Agitation Propaganda is the systematic spreading and thorough explanation of political, philosophical, economic, historical, as well as scientific, technical, and other types of ideas by the political leadership of a movement, society or organization, advancing the effectiveness of political persuasion and training on the target, leading to rapid action, or mobilization.[1] In a simplified sense, Agitation Propaganda is focused on causing an excitement of emotions in the target, with the aims of stimulating action.[2] Agitation Propaganda covers a wide range of activities such as: disseminating posters, leaflets, and movies; fabricating or distorting events, forging documents and spreading disinformation, to even committing acts of terrorism to force the enemy to react. Agitation Propaganda’s versatility means it can be applied to endless applications and situations. [3]

A 1937 anti-Bolshevik Nazi propaganda poster. The translated caption: "Bolshevism without a mask - large anti-Bolshevik exhibition of the NSDAP Gauleitung Berlin from November 6, 1937 to December 19, 1937 in the Reichstag building".


Applications for Agitation Propaganda

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Revolutions

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Agitation Propaganda has been a vital tool to throughout history to revolutionary, resistance and militant movements hostile to the status quo power structure. Rebellions and resistance movements commonly utilize agitation propaganda in order to destroy the government or the established societal order by changing the political persuasions of the broader population.[4] Events like Spartacus’s uprising, or the French revolution demanded that the masses be agitated into mobilizing against the government, so they will provide the resources necessary to sustain a powerful resistance. The atrocities of the government, invented or actual, are propagandized to the public by the political leadership of the revolutionary movement, shifting the focus of the masses from day to day struggles to an enhanced sense that their government severally threatens their survival.[5]

Statue of Sun Tzu in Yurihama, Tottori, Japan

Waging War

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In times of war, governments themselves also commonly utilize Agitation Propaganda as a tool to galvanize energies and mobilize a nation against the enemy. [6] Times of war call for the total support of the mass populous in order to focus all resources of a state on the efficient and successful waging of war. The importance of popular support was understood as early back as Sun Tzu. Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War that the best way to achieve this was by establishing a moral influence over the populace that would place them in harmony with the will of the political leadership.[7] This moral influence is a political phenomenon that creates a willingness among the population to put the their needs second to that of the needs of the government, even to the extreme of laying down their lives.[8] To achieve this moral influence, governments typically us Agitation Propaganda, which demonizes the enemy and places the individual in a state of extreme hatred towards the barbarity of his enemy. This hatred is fostered by fortifying the mind of the nation with examples of the insolence and depravity of the enemy.[9] The blame for such a monstrous act such as starting a war is always placed at the feet of the enemy, creating an easy environment for propagandists to manufacture a satanic image of the enemy.[10] For once the public believes that the enemy began the War and blocks permanent, profitable and godly peace, the propagandist has achieved his purpose in forging the moral influence that Sun Tzu described.[11]

Agitation Propaganda is also used in times of war against the enemy to weaken their war making capabilities. Sun Tzu theorized that if a general is choleric his authority can easily be upset. His character is not firm. If the enemy general is obstinate and prone to anger, insult and enrage him, so that he will be irritated and confused, and without a plan will recklessly advance against you.[12] In this way agitation propaganda serves to inflame the enemy leaderships’ emotions, and cause them to make clouded, and hasty decisions, weakening their strategic capabilities.

Agitation Propaganda is also used to break the regimented discipline of the enemies’ population, breaking their will to support the war effort, and enlist in the military. The civilian lacks the automatic discipline of drill and unlike the soldier remains in an environment in which his human life characterized by sentiments continues.[13] Civilian unity is achieved by a repetition of ideas, and as such is standardized by the news and not by military drills.[14] To the wartime propagandist, Agitation Propaganda becomes the most efficient method by which to break this regimentation process, and sow the seeds of dissent and disunity in the enemy population.[15]

Constructing and Maintaining Totalitarian States

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As in war, Agitation Propaganda can be used in peacetime to regiment the civilian population of a newly formed government. This has often been the case when autocracies or totalitarian regimes form. The Soviet Union pioneered the use of Agitation Propaganda to sustain power and spread a new ideology, creating a modern propaganda state to re-invent the minds of the masses.[16]

Hitler’s Minister for Armaments and Chief Architect Albert Speer believed the modern technological age opened up a new world for which the dictator could subvert the minds of the masses and control their wills through propaganda.[17] At the Nuremberg Trials Albert Speer testified that:

“Hitler’s dictatorship made complete use of all technical means for the domination of its own country. Through technical devices like the radio and the loudspeaker, eighty million people were deprived of independent thought. It was thereby possible to subject them to the will of one man…Earlier dictators needed highly qualified assistants even at the lowest level – men who could think and act independently. The totalitarian system in the period of modern technical development can dispense with such men; thanks to modern methods of communication, it is possible to mechanize the lower leadership. As a result of this there has arisen the new type of the uncritical recipient of orders.”[18]


Methods of Deploying Agitation Propaganda

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Agent of Influence:

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An Agent of Influence is an agent of some stature who uses his or her position to influence public opinion or decision making to produce results beneficial to the country whose intelligence service operates the agent.[19]. They can be used to place the various forms of agitation propaganda mediums in places of influence such as government agencies, the media, and other avenues by which popular opinion is formed or born from.

Media Exploitation and Control:

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The control of media has become a common practice in states seeking to sustain undemocratic rule over its citizens. Mass media forms the opinions of entire societies, as such, without the mass media there can be no modern propaganda.[20] In order to become successful tools of agitation propaganda, the media must be under central control, disseminating the party line, and they must be diversified in their products.[21]

Forgeries:

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Is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Forgeries are used to stimulate opinions in the target based on false information. During the Cold War era, the U.S.S.R. intelligence service, the KGB, was able to convince many leaders of the Third World, that the CIA was targeting them by forging U.S. Government documents.[22]

Leaks and Exposures:

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The intentional leaking or exposing of governmental secrets to achieve political aims. A historical example of an exposure being used as Agitation Propaganda was the British exposure of the Zimmermann telegram to the U.S. Government, in March 1917. The Zimmermann Telegram was an offer from Germany to Mexico to enter into a war with the United States. The British Government new this would push the U.S. to declare war on Germany, and thus used it to gain help in fighting Germany in WWI. The U.S. Government leaked the telegram to the media, and the contents of the Telegram created public support for declaration of war with Germany in April of 1917.[23]

Stern view of the Maine

Exaggeration and Fabrication:

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The over embellishment or creation of events used to agitate the masses against the enemy. A famous example of exaggeration and fabrication would be the cries for war that followed the sinking of the USS Maine. The USS Maine was sent to Havana in 1898 to protect American interests during a Cuban revolt against the colonial Spanish government. The ship exploded in port when the forward gunpowder magazine was ignited. [24] The event was propagandized in the media, instantly blaming Spain for the sinking. The propaganda slogans of “Remember the Maine – To hell with Spain” forged American public support for war. The American newspaper stories ran with re-enacted drawings of Spanish saboteurs fastening an underwater mine to the Maine and detonating it from shore.[25]

A Grad missile hits Beersheba, 2009.

Terrorism:

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Acts of terrorism can be used as instruments to agitate an enemy target into pursuing a desired action. In these instances terrorist attacks such as bombings and kidnappings become Agitation Propaganda. al-Qaeda is the most skilled international terrorist organization at orchestrating terrorist attacks to have agitating effects on its target. al-Qaeda carried out September 11 attacks to agitate the United States into invading Muslim countries so they could be defeated and discredited over a long period of time, in the same way the Mujahideen did to the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.[26]

Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks on Israel carried out by Hamas are another prime example of how terrorism can be used to agitate a government into taking action. The attacks have repeatedly resulted in military action by Israel, often with large amounts of civilian Palestinian casualties serving Hamas’s recruiting line and bringing international pressure down on Israel. The Hamas rocket attacks, have even influenced Israeli politics, causing Sderot mayor Eli Moyal to resign,[27] and moved the Israeli people to elect more militant leadership.[28]


Historical Examples of Agitation Propaganda

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Bolshevik Russia and the Birth of the Soviet Propaganda State

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Agitprop poster by Vladimir Mayakovsky titled: "Want it? Join."
"1. You want to overcome cold?
2. You want to overcome hunger?
3. You want to eat?
4. You want to drink?
Hasten to join shock brigades of exemplary labor!"

Agitation Propaganda is such an integral part of Russian society and history, that they have their own term for it, Agitprop(/ˈædʒ[invalid input: 'ɨ']tprɒp/; from Russian: агитпроп [ɐɡʲɪtˈprop]). The Russian concept of Agitprop focuses on mass mobilization, and from the beginning of the Bolshevik revolution, was incorporated into the state institution.[29] Marxist/Leninist Communism relied on re-educating the minds of the masses, reversing Capitalism and instilling the necessary foundations for a Communist Society. Lenin described this mission as:

“We have to reach both as theorists and propagandists as well as agitators and organizers” all classes of people. The strength of agitation lies in its truthfulness, in exact knowledge of the experiences of the masses in building a socialist society, as well as in spreading and transmission of new and progressive ideas. It must be closely tied to practice in the realization of political and economic tasks. Building on the foundation of Marxism-Leninism, socialism seeks to create socialist persuasion. It educates the workers in socialist patriotism and proletarian internationalism, as well as builds their strong class position in the battle against the enemies of peace and socialism. ”[30]

To fully comprehend the Bolshevik view of propaganda, it is crucial to understand Lenin’s fundamental revision to Marxism.[31] Marxists believed that the struggle against the Capitalist system would rise up from the working class. Lenin, however, believed “that the working class, exclusively is able to develop only trade union consciousness” and needed “philosophical, historical, and economic theories elaborated by educated representatives of the propertied class”, in order to evolve to a level of social revolution.[32] Lenin’s revision to Marxism, and rejection that the working class could lead themselves to the revolution, created a Leninist brand of Communism where a few intellectuals would lead the masses. Leninists believed that their understanding of Marxism bestowed them with an instrument to analyze the process of history, and offered them “true knowledge”.[33] Thus, the task of the intellectuals as not to seek the knowledge they had already achieved through Marxism, but instead was to bring Marxist analysis to the proletariat.[34] As such Lenin built his political elite to be mass propagandists running a propaganda state, leading the workers, who were incapable of understanding Marxism, to build a better society.[35] This placed conducting Agitprop against the Russian people as the highest function of the Soviet Government.

At the heart of Lenin’s conceptions of Agitprop and its role in forming a Communist state, was the idea of the agitator. Leninists viewed propagandists to be someone who presents many ideas to one or few persons, where as an agitator crafts his message, choosing one distinct idea to present to a mass of people.[36] Lenin believed that the propagandist explained so many ideas that his message could not be easily digested by the masses and as such could only target the individual, however the agitator’s carefully chosen message that was disseminated at the right time, and in the right circumstances, left a more complete explanation that could reach the masses.[37] In the eyes of Leninists, the propagandist must explain the ideas surrounding an issue.[38] Lenin used the example of unemployment, saying that a propagandist would explain its inevitability, and how there is a need for a transformation to a socialist society to avoid it. These things do not speak to emotion, where as the agitator would seize a situation like the death of an employed worker’s family from starvation, exploit it to convey to the masses the imperative need to eradicate unemployment.[39] Lenin believed that appeals to emotion were more effective on what he believed to be a simple working class than explaining ideas. This became the driving doctrine behind the Soviet propaganda state.

The base for the Soviet propaganda state began during the underground struggle, but it did not fully develop until the Bolsheviks had control of the state, enabling them to take charge of the media and to focus mass resources on Agitprop. [40] The Bolsheviks struggled to power during the Russian Civil War period from 1917 to 1922. The Civil War was ultimately won by the weaker Bolsheviks through Agitprop targeted at winning over the Russian mass population.[41]

Soviet Agitprop Methods During the Russian Civil War

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  • Censorship of the Press:


Nazi Germany

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References

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  1. ^ Kleines politisches Wörterbuch: Neuausgabe 1988. (Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1988), 17-18, 795-797.
  2. ^ Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (New York: Random House, 1973), pg. 71.
  3. ^ Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (New York: Random House, 1973), pg. 71.
  4. ^ Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (New York: Random House, 1973), pg. 71.
  5. ^ Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (New York: Random House, 1973), pg. 71.
  6. ^ Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (New York: Random House, 1973), pg. 71.
  7. ^ Sun Tzu, The Art of War, trans. Samuel B. Griffith (London: Oxford University Press, 1971), 64.
  8. ^ Sun Tzu, The Art of War, trans. Samuel B. Griffith (London: Oxford University Press, 1971), 64.
  9. ^ Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War I (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1971), 77.
  10. ^ Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War I (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1971), 77.
  11. ^ Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War I (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1971), 77.
  12. ^ Sun Tzu, The Art of War, trans. Samuel B. Griffith (London: Oxford University Press, 1971), 67.
  13. ^ Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War I (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1971), 11.
  14. ^ Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War I (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1971), 11.
  15. ^ Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War I (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1971), 11.
  16. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 1.
  17. ^ Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited (New York: Harper & Row, 1958), 37.
  18. ^ Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited (New York: Harper & Row, 1958), 37.
  19. ^ Mark L. Reagan, "DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms," DTIC Online, May 2, 2011, “Agent of Influence, GL-4”, accessed March 10, 2012
  20. ^ Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (New York: Random House, 1973), 102.
  21. ^ Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (New York: Random House, 1973), 102.
  22. ^ Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Fight for the Third World (New York: Basic Books, 2005), 483.
  23. ^ Christopher Andrew, For The President's Eyes Only (New York: Harper Perennial, 1996), 42.
  24. ^ Naval History and Heritage Command, Sinking of the USS Maine, http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/spanam/events/maineskg.htm Accessed November 17th 2012.
  25. ^ Small Planet Communications, Inc., The Spanish-American War, http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/remember.html, Accessed November 4th 2012.
  26. ^ Bruce Riedel, The Search for Al Qaeda: Its Leadership, Ideology and Future (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute Press, 2008), 122.
  27. ^ "Israeli Mayor Quits Over Rockets". BBC Online. December 12, 2007. Retrieved October 20, 2008.
  28. ^ PA: Hamas rockets are bid to sway Israeli election, Associated Press (retrieved from Haaretz) 09-02-2009
  29. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 1.
  30. ^ Kleines politisches Wörterbuch: Neuausgabe 1988. (Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1988) pg. 17-18, 795-797.
  31. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 5.
  32. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 5-6.
  33. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 5.
  34. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 5.
  35. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 6.
  36. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 7.
  37. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 7.
  38. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 7.
  39. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 7.
  40. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 15.
  41. ^ Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 15.
  • Kleines politisches Wörterbuch: Neuausgabe 1988. (Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1988) pg. 17-18, 795-797.
  • Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (New York: Random House, 1973).
  • Sun Tzu, The Art of War, trans. Samuel B. Griffith (London: Oxford University Press, 1971).
  • Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War I (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1971).
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