There is a phenomenon of when one lies so much, they themselves starting to believe in their own lies.
One example is USSR and Russia that in attempt to become like the West ended up imitating more of the old Soviet propaganda clichés of what Capitalism was and not the actual Western practices. This approach gave birth of a unique Russian thing that is even called Russian Oligarch, because it hardly has any comparative examples anywhere else in the world.
However, roots of Russian Oligarch can be traced back to Soviet propaganda about the West.
It is no secret that propaganda is biased and often untrue. However, propaganda not only promotes the system, but also misleads and outright lies about how the rival system even functions. After all reality is complex and nuanced and masses better react to good vs bad cliches. Thus, often completely untrue narratives take room in collective unconscious.
How Soviet Propaganda Depicted West and its economy.
Picture depicts a capitalist sitting on a chair atop of the enslaved worker and holding Bible.
Soviet propaganda, when talked about the US and Capitalism, used to portray it exclusively as a system, controlled exclusively by powerful tycoons such as Rockefellers, Vanderbilts or more modern Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. The actual US free market economy has plenty of small and medium size businesses as well as the ability to start your own, but propaganda of course omitted that.
You cannot hate a system where a family or a group of friends started a small shop together and run it privately. If you show them that, people will start asking uncomfortable questions such as 'why we can't have it in USSR'. So Soviet propaganda simply overlook existence of all small and medium size businesses in free market economy.
Instead, they called market economy capitalism and portray it as run exclusively by fat ultra rich tycoons, who are all in the league with each other to keep people miserable. A system where millions of people have no choice but to work in appalling conditions for an ultra-rich tycoon and endure privations and misery so that he would be able to afford himself another mansion or super-yacht. That is a system one can truly hate. And USSR propaganda shamelessly claimed that the entire US and the Western world lives like that.
To spice it all up, Soviet propaganda could even provide life footage of life in the US. Of course, they made this footage exclusively in economically depressed regions, such as Detroit, Haarlem borough of New York and Rust Belt region in general.
In reality, the US is not only the Rust Belt, but it also has many nicer places all over the country, in fact all areas outside of Rust Belt are rather well off. Finally Rust Belt came to be so poor because of the changes in the economy and not because the US government or tycoons created it intentionally. It continued to exist because the US did not have a readily solution to this problem and not because anyone wanted it to continue this way. However Soviet propaganda claimed that Rust Belt is not only intentional, but that the US and capitalists plan to turn the entire world into a Rust Belt.
However, that again will make people question why we can't have the better parts. No, propaganda needs a scary boogaloo to make people support your system. Soviet propaganda made it a simple choice between like in Detroit or like in USSR.
That gave ordinary Soviets the illusion that all Western Countries are like Detroit and run by greedy selfish tycoons.
Soviet propaganda mongers then made full use of their propaganda concoction. Once they convinced their people that Uncle Sam wants to turn everything into a Rust Belt, they could use it to convince soldiers to interfere in places like Hungary, Czechoslovakia or Afghanistan. Saying it is needed to save these people from being Rust-Belted.
People who trusted the government could truly believe that USSR is doing would a favor but protecting it from being Rust-belted by the US and Capitalism. They could also believe that people of the world are grateful to USSR for saving them from the grim fate of Detroit.
Soviet propaganda also claimed that people who oppose the system wish to condemn everyone to Rust Belt like existence. Thus, winning popular approval for jailing any opponents of the regime.
'Capitalism' after the USSR
Then when USSR finally collapsed and Russia and other post-Soviet states embarked on path of democratization, they inadeptly went on recreating the Soviet propaganda cliches into their new economies. They have done so because that is how they understood the West.
With that they went on and turned the post-Soviet states into their own version of Rust Belt. As absurd as it sounds. And they have done it intentionally, by design.
It produced the so called post-Soviet system dominated by oligarchs, mafia, corruption and under the carpet deals.
This post-Soviet system actually baffles Western analysts a lot. They call it variety of names, including transitioning state, captured state or even mafia state. Whatever it is, it is not the same thing they have in the West.
However, for people inside these post-Soviet states this is capitalism. That is how they understand capitalism. This 'capitalism' in turn prompted people to seek more pro-Western government, which in turn made oligarchs to defend the system by adopting anti-Western propaganda, just like USSR did. Irony is that Soviet propaganda now defends the anti-Soviet system from the west that wants to make it less anti-Soviet Western.
Oligarchs vs Tycoons
They do not even equate Russian oligarchs with their closest Western analogue, business tycoons. Russian Oligarchs have too many unique characteristics, tycoons lack.
Western Tycoons often owe their position to aptitude in business. Some like Warren Buffet or Rupert Murdoch do acquire existing businesses, but the most praised, like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or Mark Zackenberg often create their own business as start-up. Vanderbilt and Rockefeller too created their own businesses. Sure, modern Rockefellers merely inherited wealth from their predecessors, but the originators build it themselves.
In contrast Russian oligarchs often owe their positions to networking, connection and friends in high places. They are mastermind of networking and build durable networks that hard to dismantle even by the governments of post-Soviet states. Even if President or Prime-Minister wants oligarchs to be dealt with, oligarchs have enough friends in police, courts and public prosecution to procrastinate any investigation indefinitely without getting caught.
Oligarchs do not build new businesses, they only take over existing profitable businesses, using their networks of friends. Then they defend their holdings from another such takeover, while using profits from the enterprise to keep these friends loyal. Thus, public prosecutor who takes money from oligarch secretly in cash will never progress a case against him to the court. If he is replaced, oligarch can simply offer cash to his successor.
Thus, the system oligarchs created in post-Soviet states has nothing to do with free market liberal democracy, west has. This ugly apparition is horrible product of misinterpretation of Soviet propaganda, corruption and ill will of its beneficiaries.
How the US propaganda depicts USSR
However, USSR is not the only country that used propaganda to demonize their opponents.
The US was not as proactive and intentional in its propaganda as USSR was. Unlike the USSR there was no centralized effort to create a cohesive picture of what USSR and Communism was. Different people and interest groups contributed individually to the Western Image of USSR. Some of these depictions even contradicted each other. Because of that the idea of what Communism is, or what it should be even called, is much more diffused and blurred compared to the Soviet propaganda image of 'capitalism'.
Overtime whatever information they had about the USSR eventually condensed into an image of a totalitarian Orwellian state, as depicted in George's Orwell' 1984 book. See Big Brother watches you. War is peace and other lines from the picture above. Actual Soviet propaganda posters do give that kind of impression to people who cannot read what is written on them.
It was easy to equate the party and the KGB with the omnipresent Big Brother from the book. That is how they understood it. USSR gave them plenty of reasons to believe it is true, by jailing political opponents as well as because of GULAG camps in Siberia. Solzhenitsyn wrote his firsthand example in such camp.
West of course saw a country that runs such camps a horrible place to live. That too united the West in its desire to protect their freedom from the Orwellian state.
Soviet invasions into Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan did not help the image of Socialism either. That created the final bit of the puzzle of Communism/Socialism. Military uses brute force violence to force people to comply and obey.
Finally lack of private property in the USSR, that only applied to privately owned business but not personal property.
That created an image that USSR and through that Socialism, Communism and Eastern Bloc countries were all absurd and contradictory societies where black is white and while is black. The fact that some letters in Cyrillic alphabet look like inverted versions of Latin alphabet only added to this perception.
According to the West Soviet system consisted only of two things: the totalitarian propaganda that brainwashes people to the level of complete idiotism and a brutal repression against all those who did not comply.
West also depicted Soviets as people who praise government for the totalitarian control and oppression it does. Speculating that some psychological differences between Westerners and Soviets cause them to accept this system.
Actual USSR
While most cruel things people believe about the USSR were indeed true, that overlooks the reasons why people actually supported it.
What Soviet Supporters liked about USSR was a charity state, that looked after its people. When it comes to various social support programs, it partially walked the talk as well, both internally and internationally.
It is this social security that bought the USSR government popular support or at the very least contentment of the population. Not its repressive measures.
People had little choice in the kind of help and support they will have, but support was there. For a passive and content person USSR could indeed offer everything. Government will pay for education, then find them job, provide accommodation, medicine was also free and universally available. Not sure if they could even find you a wife if you cannot find one yourself.
Problems would only arise if you do not like job or the accommodation and want to change it. There was little to no ways of changing any of that. That of course left a number of people indeed discontent with their lot. After all you would rather live in Sochi than in Vorkuta, but alas government decides on that.
However, government indeed conditions society to compliance, so one could not expect even social understanding for desire to better one's lot in life.
Things will get worse if you do not want to work at all. Protesting things will make it even worse. In general, there were very little opportunities to get out of system loop.
Government always acted like they have everyone's best interest in mind. Sometimes it did good things. Other times it was like the Garnier de Naplouse, the Hospitalier Doctor from first Assassin's Creed. Regardless of what USSR did, it always acted like it is trying to help.
However, free accommodation even in Vorkuta and a guaranteed job would make a less picky person wander if that is not too bad. So, the US conveniently overlooked these facts from general public.
Social Causes
Another thing USSR liked to do it championing various progressive social causes. They poked their noses in the US segregation and other inequality and never failed to mention to their own people that they do not segregate Black People like the US used to do. That was due to the fact that the fact that there were no Black People in the USSR.
USSR also spend a lot of money on various African Liberation movements, such as in Rhodesia and South Afrika. Because of that their current governments likely to have Russian connections. Perhaps it is through these connections, Russian corruption spreads to these nations and slowly destroys them from within.
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