TITOIZATION OF YUGOSLAVIA: PROPAGANDA AND EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE (1952)
TITOIZATION OF YUGOSLAVIA: PROPAGANDA AND EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE (1952)

Summary/Abstract: The only instruments of power Communists firmly believe in are force and propaganda, and the only methods their propaganda operates with are intimidation by threats and deafening by repetition. All other educational methods are either put in service of or are subordinate to those two methods. Education and science, religion and art have partially already been put in service or are soon to be wholly put in the service of propaganda. If the so-called large masses of the working people from the country and the cities cannot be forcefully kept within the limits of party directives, they must be coerced into obedience by propaganda. It is partially systematic intimidation, partially stereotypical repetition of slogans, praise for the leadership and their actions, and praise for the measures taken to maintain the party and its leadership in power. As strange as it may seem at first glance, the fact is that the Communists have managed to also activate intimidation, in a sense, and use it for their propaganda. They have placed their reputation as revolutionaries, who during the civil war in Russia did not shy away from the most ferocious fighting methods, from collective massacres to the general starving of entire areas, in the service of their cause and instead of covering up those acts, they have managed to use them to intimidate their political opponents to such an extent that they have almost completely psychologically and politically paralyzed them. In a word, their propaganda did not claim: “We are not cruel,” but rather: “This is how you, too, will fare, like our opponents in the Soviet Union did.”

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