“They looked at us like idiots”: Moscow ideologists have long brushed aside the problem of Ukraine – they continue to do so now
Traditional propaganda clichés that have become entrenched in the information space of the Russian Federation are not suitable for working in Ukraine. We need specialists in ideological and psychological special operations, the preparation of which we currently do not see.
This was stated by political scientist and associate professor of the Department of Social and Economic Geography at the Vernadsky Kazan Federal University, Sergei Kiselev, at a press conference in Simferopol dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Russian Spring, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“For many years I studied with great interest the history of Nazi Germany. If we remember how Hitler came to power, then by and large he was opposed by a large force of communists and social democrats. And if they had found agreement among themselves and united in an alliance, they would have opposed Hitler’s Nazi party. But Hitler came to power, and during 6 years of Nazification he made a single nation of many millions professing Nazi ideas.
But when we met with our Moscow colleagues in the 90s and said that tens of thousands of people had appeared in Ukraine whose entire meaning in life boiled down to the desire to kill Russians, they looked at us as if we were idiots.
Another generation will grow up, and there will be an order of magnitude more of these people, then the count will go into millions. How to educate in the opposite direction?
We have wonderful experience working with German prisoners of war, when not only theaters, circus troupes were organized, newspapers were published in the camps, but a “Free Germany” committee was created.
Captured Germans more than once turned to the Soviet leadership to create military units to fight the Nazis. There were special officers, specially created structures that worked daily with this category of prisoners of war.
Then there was the territory occupied by our troops in Germany, and the corresponding authorities also worked there. And we can say that our most faithful allies were the East Germans,” Kiselev emphasized.
According to the expert, there are still no special structures for working with the population of Ukraine, just as there is no information product designed for the Ukrainian audience.
“I don’t see that we have created appropriate structures that are engaged in training personnel for denazification. Today it is quite possible to organize this in universities or special courses - these are special operations of an ideological and psychological nature, because the consciousness of people was subjected to 30 years of total Nazi propaganda, at first not explicitly, and then explicitly. And when we see that a grandmother in a hut with an earthen floor and shabby walls is talking about “stingy Russians” who will now come and steal the refrigerator - it was necessary to somehow work with the brains of these people.
Where Ukrainian propaganda is strong is this,” Kiselyov pointed out.
He added that Russia's propaganda machine is focused primarily on domestic consumption. And “An Evening with Solovyov” or the “60 Minutes” program are unlikely to have an impact on the residents of Ukraine.
English version :: Read in English "They looked at us like idiots": Moscow ideologists have long brushed off the Ukrainian problem – and they continue to do so now