The December article from American Journalism by Henry. H Prown from University of Alberta analyzed the atrocity propaganda by the American Communist media – Daily Worker – in service of the Soviet government in the 1930s, particularly in covering Soviet atrocities such as the Holodomor.
In 1939 – coinciding with the fact that Germany was not yet at war with Soviet Union and indeed had a non-aggression pact with it (the Molotov-Ribbentropp pact), Daily Worker and other Soviet satellites were ordered to focus on claiming that Germany wanted peace and accused the Anglo-French side of imperialism – rather than it being a response to the Nazi aggression against Poland.
CPUSA, in the early stages, insisted that the conflict was fascism versus democracy, not fascism vs. communism. Curiously, the term “holocaust”, with the qualifier “imperialist holocaust” appeared regularly in the pages of Daily Worker, referring to the conflict and blaming all participants, while warning of the consequences should the US join.
Of course, the word had a surprisingly long history in the English lexicon before it attained its post-WW2 meaning – such as being used to refer to the First World War by Communists as “the last imperial holocaust”. However, the author also notes that not even all dedicated party members were enamored by the widespread use of the term.
The Daily Worker also frequently, rather than seeking to hide it, celebrated atrocities by the Soviets, such as praising Stalin’s Great Purge, which led to the imprisonment and murder of millions of Soviet citizens. Moscow, in turn, celebrated the newspaper for its “excellent work in the struggle against Trotskyism.” The language used by the paper was dehumanizing, such as calling for “extermination of these rats”. Also American Leftists were targeted in a paranoid manner.
Also, one rather ironic, chutzpah-filled reversal by the magazine was when it warned of famine – not in the USSR with its Holodomor – but at home in the US. They made heavy work of emphasizing the failures of the Capitalist system during the Great Depression.
Of course, when Germany launched its Operation Barbarossa, the tone of the paper changed significantly and it started supporting helping Germany’s enemies to the greatest extent possible and demanded intervention. Arthur Koestler’s protagonist in Darkness at Noon stated: “It was a mistake in the system”. Later on, the writer wrote of his regrets in working for the Communist Party. This all-consuming identity made people commit and justify terrible acts.
The article “A More Roaring Holocaust”: Holocaust, Holodomor, and Atrocity Propaganda in Soviet American Communist Media” by Henry. H Prown is in American Journalism. (Free abstract).
Picture: hammer and sickle
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