The German propaganda system in the occupied Soviet territory: structure, forms, methods, content and effectiveness of activities (on the example of the General District Belarus)

Importance. The interest in the research is due to the political events and processes taking place in the post-Soviet area. Russia is responding to military-technological and moral-ideological challenges. At the same time, the western information war launched against Russia axiologically, semantically has many analogies with the content of German propaganda in the occupied Soviet territory during the Great Patriotic War. The purpose of the research is to determine the order of organization, forms, methods and content, principles and effectiveness of the activities of propaganda bodies.Materials and methods. The materials of the General District Belarus, the chronological framework of the research – 1941–1944 are considered. Historical documents of the funds of the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus (NARB) were used. The latter are normative acts of the German civil administration of the General District Belarus, as well as materials of Nazi propaganda.The results of the research are of practical importance: they can be used in the educational and educational process in institutions of higher professional education.Conclusion. The propaganda activity of the German authorities on the Belarusian territory had a number of distinctive features. The ideological impact on the local population had the character of a well-organized work, which was built by analogy with the propaganda system of Nazi Germany. The propaganda was carried out taking into account the psychological and cultural-historical characteristics of the local population. In general, propaganda was assigned the role of a preventive tool in ensuring a calm rear and in fulfilling the economic and political tasks of the German Reich in the occupied territories.