Propaganda in the Russian Revolution and Civil War

Introduction: Propaganda Across the Revolutionary Divide

All parties involved in the Russian Revolution and Civil War used black, gray, and white (open) propaganda constantly during this period to rally supporters to their cause and denounce their enemies — including the Germans, Bolsheviks, Whites, monarchists, Allied governments, and Social Revolutionaries. Gray propaganda, often of uncertain or unknown origins, undermined support for the Tsar and the monarchy by portraying them as corrupt, treasonous, and sympathetic to Germany in the First World War, thereby opening the door to revolution. In the Civil War that followed, the Whites appealed to Western governments and public opinion through black propaganda, much of which was heavily antisemitic and was later picked up by various fascist movements in Europe — most notoriously through the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forgery created by the Tsar's secret police and widely circulated in White and émigré circles across Europe.

Open, or "white," Bolshevik propaganda was based on Marxist categories of thought, often simplified for mass consumption in the form of cartoons, posters, and pamphlets, but always with a class-warfare appeal against landlords, aristocrats, capitalists, and priests. In a sense, both sides could claim that their propaganda was a success — particularly in creating mass movements like Communism and fascism that dominated so much of the twentieth century.

Gray Propaganda and the Undermining of the Tsarist Monarchy

Throughout the era of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, gray propaganda of unknown or uncertain origins frequently portrayed the Tsar, the Tsarina Alexandra, and their officials as corrupt, treasonous, and allied with the Germans. All of this was very effective in undermining popular support for the monarchy, and some of it certainly originated with the Germans or the revolutionary opponents of the regime — or at the very least they eagerly circulated it. Much of the gossip and rumors surrounding the Tsar and his family actually originated in upper-class circles, which only made it sound more believable to the middle and lower classes.

Russian pamphlets, posters, and newspapers of the period were full of stories about how the Tsar was "intentionally keeping the army hungry, cold and without ammunition, of sending grain to Germany, releasing enemy prisoners of war" and having "dealings and secret agreements with the enemy" (Kolonitskii 51). Alexandra was German, after all, and was widely regarded as a spy in Russia; she was also thought to be the mistress of the nefarious Rasputin. So unpopular was this character that even the Whites and supporters of the monarchy believed he was secretly a Bolshevik agent selected by the "dark forces," "Jews," "internationalists," and "enemies of Christianity" to bring down the Tsarist state (Kolonitskii 53). By no means were only Bolsheviks and other revolutionaries circulating these stories about the alcoholism and drug addiction of the Tsar, or about how Rasputin controlled him through narcotics and hypnosis; even foreign diplomats picked up on these rumors and circulated them to their governments.