The Stalinist Cult of Personality in Lubelskie Voivodship. Stalin’s Death on Columns of “People’s Banner”

Abstract

Stalin’s death staggered the whole world, especially the “socialistic world” of the Eastern Bloc. It comes as no   surprise that this fact was used by propaganda of the states within Soviet Union’s spheres of influence. This article describes and analyzes the propaganda campaign that took place during March and April of 1953 on columns of  “People’s Banner” „Sztandar Ludu”), a media organ of the local PZPR’s (Polish United Workers’ Party) committee in Lublin Voivodship and compares it with the content of other selected Party’s local organs of the same period. The overview of topics raised by texts’ authors in the Lublin’s newspaper and its counterparts in other voivodships, along with the examined proceedings of  PZPR’s local committee, shows that the campaign was successfully put through. It was a result of the centralized inspiration and the control of the message of the press.  It made the   message extremely schematic and uniformed at the level of local propaganda, the image of the reaction of citizens in other voivodships being presented as exactly the same.