The “Great October” of 1923 in the Views of the Population of the Soviet Provinces

Abstract

Using materials from FSB archives and regional archives of Bryansk, Gomel, Kaluga, Orel, and Smolensk, this article investigates popular reactions in Soviet provinces to the ”German October” in 1923. Soviet authorities viewed the actions of communists in Germany positively and to assist them, a powerful propaganda campaign was launched. Ideas of peaceful Soviet foreign policy were broadcast to the population, and Poland and France were framed as emboidying the aggressive intentions of the “global bourgeoisie”. A significant place in the coverage of events in Germany was given to criticism of the German bourgeois government and the exposure of the position of German social democracy. It was important to show the degradation of social democrats and and the growing influence of the Communist Party. An important element of influence on people’s minds was the idea of the direct influence of German events on the fate of Soviet Russia. The population was led to believe that, to preserve the gains of the October revolution in the USSR, it was necessary to provide full support to Germany’s labor movement. Consolidation of the proletariat became the key to victory in the confrontation with global capital.