COMMUNISM PROPAGANDA IN SOVIET ARMENIA

Year 2022, Issue: 45, 151 - 175, 14.11.2022

Mehmet Sezai Türk , Abdülhakim Bahadır Darı , Özkan Avcı

Abstract

The Soviet Union brought communist regimes to power in the socialist republics affiliated to it and spread communist propaganda to ensure that the people embraced these regimes. The Soviet administration used discourses that glorified the ideology of communism through the mass media it dominated, and in this way, it aimed for the peoples of the Soviet Union to embrace communism and implement the decisions taken by the regime without question. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) was also one of the Soviet socialist republics of the Soviet Union where communist propaganda was implemented. The Soviet Union made effective use of various mass media for propaganda in the ASSR. One type of mass media used was propaganda posters. Propaganda posters in this study directly reflect the features of Soviet Totalitarian Media Theory. For this reason, the examination of the posters containing the communist propaganda is important in terms of revealing the Soviet Union’s propaganda in the ASSR. Thus, this study aims to explain which messages the Soviet Union used in the communist propaganda in the ASSR through the visual and written indicators on the posters. For this purpose, the posters that include communist propaganda in the ASSR are analyzed using the semiotics method in the light of the semiotic concepts of the linguist Karl Bühler. How Soviet propaganda presented communist ideology in the ASSR and how it established a link between the Armenian people and communism are examined in the posters. In the light of the findings obtained in the study, it is revealed that the messages that communism played a leading role in the construction of contemporary and prosperous Armenia, and at the same time, that the Armenian people were loyal to the communist ideology are given in the posters. In this way, this study concludes that Soviet propaganda tried to legitimize the decisions taken by the communist regime in the ASSR in the Armenian public opinion.

Keywords

Propaganda, Communism, Armenia, Soviet Union, Ideology

SOVYET ERMENİSTAN’INDA KOMÜNİZM PROPAGANDASI

Abstract

Sovyetler Birliği, kendisine bağlı sosyalist cumhuriyetlerde komünist rejimleri iktidara getirmiş ve iktidara getirdiği bu rejimlerin halk tarafından benimsenmesini sağlamak için komünizm propagandasına yönelmiştir. Sovyet yönetimi, egemen olduğu kitle iletişim araçları üzerinden komünist ideolojisini yücelten söylemlere yer vermiş, bu şekilde Sovyetler Birliği halklarının komünizmin sahiplenmesini ve rejimin aldığı kararların Sovyetler Birliği halkı tarafından sorgulanmadan uygulanmasını amaçlamıştır. Ermenistan Sovyet Sosyalist Cumhuriyeti (ESSC) de, Sovyetler Birliği’nin komünizm propagandasının uygulandığı Sovyet Sosyalist Cumhuriyetleri’nden biri olmuştur. Sovyetler Birliği, ESSC’de propaganda yaparken çeşitli kitle iletişim araçlarından etkin bir şekilde yararlanmıştır. Bu kitle iletişim araçlarından biri de propaganda posterleri olmuştur. İncelenen propaganda posterleri, Sovyet Totaliter Medya Kuramı özelliklerini de doğrudan yansıtmaktadır. Bu nedenle ESSC’deki komünizm propagandasını içeren posterlerin incelenmesi, Sovyetler Birliği’nin ESSC’deki komünizm propagandasının ortaya koyulması bakımından önem taşımaktadır. Böylece çalışmada propaganda posterlerinde yer alan görsel ve yazılı göstergeler üzerinden Sovyetler Birliği’nin ESSC’de komünizm propagandasında hangi mesajlara yer verdiğinin açıklanması amaçlanmıştır. Bu amaçla ESSC’deki komünizm propagandasına yer veren posterler, dilbilimci Karl Bühler’in göstergebilim kavramları ışığında göstergebilim yöntemi kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Posterlerde Sovyet propagandasının ESSC’deki komünizm ideolojini ne şekilde sunduğu ve Ermeni halkı ve komünizm arasında nasıl bir bağ kurduğu incelenmiştir. Çalışmada elde edilen bulgular ışığında posterler üzerinden komünizmin, çağdaş ve refah içinde bir Ermenistan’ın inşasında öncü rol oynadığı ve aynı zamanda Ermeni halkının komünizme bağlı olduğu mesajlarının verildiği ortaya çıkarılmıştır. Bu şekilde çalışmada Sovyet propagandasının, ESSC’de komünist rejiminin aldığı kararları Ermeni kamuoyunda meşrulaştırmaya çalıştığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Keywords

Propaganda, Komünizm, Ermenistan, Sovyetler Birliği, İdeoloji

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