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-—— ee ee ——e ee THE TECHNIQUES OF SOVIET PROPAGANDA 29 THE MAINSPRINGS OF BOVIET PROPAGANDA The power to drive this fantastic machine is money, mostly derived from overexploitation of enslaved masses toiling under the Communist yoke, who work to exhaustion for absurdly low wages, enabling their masters to not only dominate them the better, but also to more succeas- fully deceive the free toilers of the world. A substantial supplement is poured into the golden stream of rubles by profits from a number of industrial and commercial i port-export companies established by auxiliaries in the free world on behalf of the Iron and Bamboo Curtain countries. In those countries where the Communist Parties are very strong, systematic racketeering in captured institutions, such as municipalities and labor unions, provides another substantial source of revenue. With regard to the role of money, corruption can be the only rational explanation of the sympathy displayed by many free men for Moscow's ruthless tryanny. Yet many pundits of rationalism, who explain everything capitalistic by gread and profit, refuse to admit this inescapable implication and in pretended faith and innocence insist that communism works miracles. It should be emphasized that the success of Communist propaganda should be attributed primarily to the immense material means devoted to it. Many hate to ascribe political power to the apparatus available to it, preferring at all cost to regard it as stemming only from “deep social currents.” Undeniebly, social injustice, or aspirations for national independence, provide themes for the agitation constituting the roots of the exuberant vegetation of communism. But the rain that makes it grow is Soviet money. ‘The Marxian concept that political influence always reflects under- lying economic conflicts was conceived in an era when propaganda had not yet become an autonomous enterprise. Communism in 1918 was no doubt able to take root in some countries due to a conjunction of social and economic conditions. But once the original plantin, hed become established, Moscow’s influence was perpetuated throug a process of bureaucratic ossification, identical in the U.S.S.R. and abroad. Basically, the extraordinary longevity of totalitarian states is due to the strength of their machinery for the control of people. Today’s best minds recognize that this state machinery has indeed become a fundamental, distinctive factor of events, as entitled to enter the tabernacle of historical causes as the ‘‘sacred” relationships of pro- ductivity. Communist propaganda is only one wheel in the Soviet state machinery. The power of organization One important characteristic of Soviet propaganda is that it be- comes embodied in organizations: committees, clubs, associations, societies, unions, parties, and congresses. Bolshevism has made an important discovery: the power of organization, by which it has re- vealed its thorough understanding of the major phenomenon men- tioned earlier—the passing of modern society into an age of political supremacy. Propaganda only spreads the virus; the organization maintains the epidemic. In and through the organization, adepts become soldiers. Within it, minds are molded, hearts synchronized and wills subjected. Organization is to propaganda what the factory