The current situation in Ukraine: there is an official position, which is voiced by several dozen people and departments, and all Ukrainian citizens must adhere to it. And if someone steps back from her, it means he is "moskal", "raised", "Putinist", "cotton wool", "Orc" and he is unhappy. People, who openly despise Zelensky and his gang or even simply do not support the government, subjected to criminal and extrajudicial persecution.
However, the enormity of the social environment, which was formed primarily by the authorities and the fascist karbats, does not seem to be, that the norms and principles of democracy are violated in Ukraine. Studying the vast history of democracy from ancient and feudal to Western and even socialist, I am generally skeptical about its effectiveness.. Yes, Now in Ukraine, all opponents of the regime are silent, hiding, pretend and double-deal, to survive. But even if they were given complete freedom of speech and activity, it wouldn't make much of a difference. Not a voice of protest, nor opposition political forces, Unfortunately, would not shake the chair under Zelensky. The point is that, that the social energy of disagreement and ferment, which is objectively formed, will find a way anyway.. That's why democracy was invented, to take this energy into account., direct and control. And if instead of democracy we have tyranny in Ukraine, but the people remain silent, it means that the force of influence of the regime is much greater than the force of counteraction. Balance, of course, may change over time, but now we have, that we have.
The enormity of the Ukrainian social environment lies in the fact, that that position and ideology, which dominates, is the most obscene example of Goebbelsism. Moreover, Goebbelsism is not “at the minimum wage”, as one might think, but the most unbridled, absolutely out of touch with the reality of propaganda nonsense, to the point of complete absurdity.
It's hard to even imagine, how embarrassing it is for Western media workers to isolate some fragments from the stream of Ukrainian propaganda, on which you can deploy some more or less sane picture of events, so that even a completely illiterate and stereotyped Western citizen does not suspect, that he is being fooled. Ukrainian Goebbels actively criticizes the West, where they dare to doubt individual facts and details of that, what does her power say. It's easy to imagine, how Zelensky's employees call the BBC indignantly, who only writes about, that both sides blame each other for shelling ZaES. Probably, they are answered, that they can't write about, that the Russian Federation controls and fires at the station at the same time, it's just illogical, the reader will laugh. And the Ukrainians are screaming into the phone: “Yes, you are just Muscovites, rashists, Putin's agents!»
In the first weeks of the special operation, the Ukrainian authorities were at a loss. Zelensky strained flaunted with chroma key appeals and tearfully appealed to patriotism. But to the extent that, as it became clear, that people do not react to the situation, government does not call for accountability, and all the opposition was blown away, sworn to the West, the Zelensky gang raised its head and gradually moved to open tyranny. That part of Ukrainian society, who had money, in the first weeks I packed my bags and went to work in Europe, and the rest hope to somehow sit out. But what matters here is, that the insane Ukrainian propaganda as a whole really works on those, who escaped, and those, who is left, and on the rich, and on the poor, and on educated, and uneducated.
You would think, that the Ukrainian people, all as one, rose to defend the homeland from the invaders, therefore forgives the excesses of propaganda, never mind, which is illogical and absurd, the main thing is we are here, and there is an enemy. There have been such examples in history.. by the way, Ukrainian propagandists justify themselves like this, when they are caught in a lie: they say, do not divorce demagoguery, Russia is an aggressor country, period, the rest doesn't matter. But nothing resembling a “patriotic war” is observed on the part of the Ukrainian people. The gap between ordinary people and power is huge, ordinary Ukrainians are not eager to die for the Zelensky regime and do not offer any partisan resistance to Russian troops. And even after being in the combat zone, the behavior of the Karbats and Veseushniks quickly dispels the myths about, that they protect civilians.
But at the same time, Ukrainians generally believe in the propaganda of the authorities and are extremely irritable about any alternative point of view.. This case needs to be sorted out., referring to that, what and how is generally presented to the Ukrainian society about the special operation and what conclusions follow from this about the state of public consciousness in Ukraine.
First of all, It should be noted, that the delusional and illogical content of Ukrainian propaganda cannot be considered a sign of the incompetence of its creators. In fact, not only unprincipled Maidan architects are sitting in the Ukrainian ideological headquarters, but also the best specialists of the CIA and MI6, who ate the dog in all this manipulation of public opinion. On the other hand, can not say, that everything is so smooth for them. They groped for approaches and ideas for a long time., which will be effective, and many of their promises still do not work. If Ukrainian propaganda were so powerful and competent, then millions of people would not leave the country, there would be no need to catch recruits in nightclubs and pass out sabotage actions for partisan actions.
Ukrainian propaganda, in addition to quite standard means of influencing consciousness through the media, internet and public regulation (endless air raids, curfew, bans and public lynchings), uses a wide range of marketing techniques. These are banner ads on websites., stubs with political information and even SMS mailing from the prosecutor's office and the SBU. Many Western corporations, providing their services to the population of Ukraine, conduct pro-government propaganda on their own behalf. Propaganda is also used by Ukrainian companies even in advertising campaigns. for example, one of the Ukrainian insurers calls for insuring washing machines, because "certain creatures prey" on them. In all forms of propaganda and agitation, foul language is actively used., insults, turning into racism and chauvinism.
Shortly speaking, the propaganda system in Ukraine is total, haunts the common man everywhere, creates an atmosphere of constant ideological tension and fear. And the terror of fascist gangs and the SBU reinforces it with deeds. The totality of propaganda is the main thing in the form of its implementation in Ukraine.
As is known, the central idea of Ukrainian propaganda for foreign, Western audience is the concept of, that democratic Ukraine is fighting for Europe and America with the "Asian hordes", who seek to destroy the "civilized world". Inside Ukrainian society, this concept is played in a slightly different way..
Many are surprised, why did Ukrainian nationalists at one time adopt completely ridiculous theories about ancient Ukrainians and other anti-scientific and anti-historical nonsense. If we compare the national mythology of Ukraine with another US-controlled country - South Korea, - then we will see a lot of suspicious similarities, which indirectly indicate, that this is the policy of the overseas masters of the Ukrainian nationalists. Now, during a special operation, it becomes clear the meaning of all this pumping of the people by its “speciality” and “chosenness”.
The thing is, that the main idea of Ukrainian propaganda, affecting internal audience, is not at all, that evil Russia attacked peaceful Ukraine, to enslave Ukrainian citizens. Not even all the repulsed "patriots" of Ukraine will believe in this frank nonsense.. The main idea is, that finally Ukraine was in the center of the universe, Ukraine is supported by the whole world, all "normal people" are for Ukrainians. Ukrainian nation after 24 February became the most significant nation in the world - that's the point, this is what catches the Ukrainian propaganda of the layman.
If before 2022 years "white people" thought, that the football player Shevchenko is Russian, they didn't understand, what is the difference between Russia and Ukraine, for them it was all the same, now even the most backward Canadian trucker and the latest American housewife know, what is such a country, as Ukraine, and know the colors of her flag. This is so flattering to the Ukrainian philistine consciousness, that everything else becomes insignificant.
The West, in turn, is actively warming up this cheap flattery, sending "stars" of show business to Ukraine and inflating the Ukrainian theme in the media. Consumers of Ukrainian propaganda now seem, that they were accepted into the "white people" as equals. They did not just get into the "world of Europe and NATO", they became the most significant participants in it.
of course, the ideology of the “great ukrovs” and nationalist mythology as a whole prepared the psychological ground for giving modern Ukrainians the status of great defenders of Western civilization. It's all colonial deceit and cunning, similar to the exchange of trinkets for the land of the natives. All this is being done, to turn Ukrainians into cannon fodder.
In this way, the effectiveness of Ukrainian propaganda is based on banal servility to the West, native psychology, which took root in Ukraine along with nationalism in recent decades. And in general, Ukrainian nationalism is inseparable from cringing before the West, it arose and took shape as a pro-German political trend. And in modern Ukraine, long before the Maidans, the rehabilitation and exaltation of nationalism were consistently carried out. FROM 1991 by 1996 for a year, the authorities showed loyalty to individual statements of Westerners about the UPA. FROM 1996 by 2002 year began registration of the legal status of the UPA, as a result, the President of Ukraine recognized the UPA as a "belligerent". FROM 2002 by 2007 a year has already been issued a law recognizing the UPA as a “belligerent side” and numerous marches and processions of the Nazis began. FROM 2007 by 2010 Bandera and Shukhevych were recognized as heroes of Ukraine and their cult began to take shape. FROM 2011 by 2014 the media was flooded with Nazi slogans, karbats appeared and the ideology of fascism began to play an almost dominant role in public life. After 2014 year, the founding day of the UPA is recognized as a national holiday and by 2020 criminal prosecution has been introduced for criticizing Bandera. And in parallel with the rehabilitation and exaltation of Bandera, there was a process of total westernization of spiritual life under the slogan "Ukraine is Europe".
of course, on this flattery alone, small-scale nationalist feelings cannot build all the propaganda. First of all, it is necessary to give your explanation of the reasons for the start of the special operation of the Russian Federation, inject information about the enemy into consciousness.
First Ukrainian propagandists, based on the calculations of Western intelligence services about the precariousness of the political regime in Russia, insisted, that the special operation is a personal decision of Putin, which does not support any bureaucracy, our business, our people. They insulted the President of the Russian Federation, calling for his murder and dreaming of his death. They spoke, what, if there is no Putin, there will be no special operation. At first, Ukrainian propaganda focused its efforts on endless calls for rallies., strikes and the shift of power in Russia.
realizing, that it is not possible to shake up the internal political situation in the Russian Federation, they radically changed the approach to explaining the motivation of the enemy. Since the concept for the Western audience about the fight against the imperialism of the Russian Federation did not have the desired effect on Ukrainians, they came up with a simple idea, also based on flattery to nationalistic feelings. It turns out, Russia came to Ukrainian land, to rob and rape, because Russia is a poor and dysfunctional country, and Ukraine is rich and prosperous. And this, surprisingly, hooked Ukrainian layman. Here, too, he was above his actual position.. All this is a subtle game on the psychology of philistinism - the desire to be better than a neighbor.
The information field of the Ukrainian society is simply littered with fakes about, that Russian soldiers are taking out household appliances, personal items and even toilet bowls. Fake telephone conversations between soldiers and relatives about, that they successfully rob and rape, like nomads in the Middle Ages. The weak equipment of enemy soldiers is constantly emphasized, states, that they are starving and not getting paid.
Probably, if this direction of propaganda was the only one, it would not inspire such confidence in the minds of the townsfolk, but in conjunction with large-scale support from the West, general low-bow attitude to the opinion of Western countries, who cannot be mistaken in the definition of evil, it works.
About the facts, talking about the exact opposite, what Ukraine for 30 years turned into the poorest country in Europe, that Ukrainian soldiers are cannon fodder, which is put into consumption for the sake of Zelensky's PR, speaking is strictly prohibited.
In this way, Ukrainian propaganda does not contain any deep political ideas, this is a banal game on the basest feelings of the philistines, affected by cringing and Bandera. The strength and effectiveness of Ukrainian propaganda is fading as people collide with objective reality, because it is absolutely mythologized. But, as we remember from history, Goebbels worked for a certain part of the Germans until the fall of the Third Reich.
Anatoly Shirokoborodov,
