Today I was searching through the files of the Komsomol (Young Communist League) Central Committee's Department of Agitation and Propaganda. Lectures were a major part of this department's activities, but what interested me is the list compiled of common audience questions for the year 1955.
The historian in me thinks about how these questions are more likely reflective of the fears of the bureaucrats compiling the list than they are an accurate reflection of the actual questions and interests of the average Soviet young person.
And then there's the part of me that had a little laugh out loud in the archive.
"Why does the Soviet Union not demand that the United States return Alaska?"
"Was Jesus Christ the first communist?"
Good question.
Also, I'm trying to imagine how a Soviet propagandist might answer to such an audience.
The historian in me thinks about how these questions are more likely reflective of the fears of the bureaucrats compiling the list than they are an accurate reflection of the actual questions and interests of the average Soviet young person.
And then there's the part of me that had a little laugh out loud in the archive.
"Why does the Soviet Union not demand that the United States return Alaska?"
"Was Jesus Christ the first communist?"
Good question.
Also, I'm trying to imagine how a Soviet propagandist might answer to such an audience.
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