Propaganda

The propaganda apparatus of the Russian Empire used poetry to broadcast the logic of domination into society: the imperial historian and participant in the events V. A. Potto records that the poet A. S. Pushkin proclaimed in verse the inevitability of subjugation: «Submit, Caucasus - Yermolov is coming!»^[1], while the poet V. A. Zhukovsky extolled the destruction of infrastructure by military commanders: «Scarcely at the villages - the villages blaze»^[2].

The construction of a new Soviet-imperial historical canon to supplant the Ukrainian past: "from the late 1930s a thesis took hold in the historical scholarship of the USSR," proclaimed in the works of B. Grekov, K. Huslystyi, and F. Yastrebov, "of Kyivan Rus as the 'common cradle' of the history of the Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian peoples," and "in 1939 B. Grekov advanced the proposition of the ethnic unity of the 'Rus people' in the era of Kyivan Rus"^[3]. This scheme displaced M. Hrushevsky's conception and denied the independence of Ukraine's history.

Total ideological control over art and the press, the banning of works and the vilification of writers for alleged "bourgeois nationalism." The campaign culminated in the verdict in the case of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee: "on July 18, 1952 the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court passed death sentences on 13 people, including 5 natives of Ukraine, well-known Jewish writers and poets"^[4].

The staging of public political persecution (attacks on Rylsky, Sosiura, Yanovsky, the campaign against "cosmopolitans"), instilling an atmosphere of fear. Its outcome was the execution of the defendants in the JAC case: "on August 12, 1952 they were all executed"^[4].

A state campaign to construct a historical myth: the "Theses on the 300th Anniversary of the Reunification of Ukraine with Russia," approved by the CPSU Central Committee, declared that "by this historic act was completed the long struggle of the freedom-loving Ukrainian people against foreign enslavers for reunification with the Russian people in a single Russian state"^[5] – the annexation of 1654 was retroactively rewritten as the goal and outcome of a national struggle.

The imposition of a concept of unbreakable unity instead of recognizing a distinct nation: per the Theses, "by the act of reunification the Ukrainian people consolidated its close and unbreakable historical bond with the Russian people, in whom it found a great ally, a faithful friend and defender"^[5]. The celebrations and the transfer of Crimea "taking into account the commonality of the economy, territorial proximity, and close economic and cultural ties"^[6] served the same frame.

Creation of an artificial picture of radiological well-being and the criminal, forced marching of people into the May Day demonstrations in Kyiv under radioactive fallout to mask the catastrophe^[7].

The conduct of an aggressive information campaign in favor of "their" candidate with the direct participation of the head of the Russian state: live on three Ukrainian television channels two weeks before the vote, praise was voiced for the candidate's government - "V. Yanukovych's government achieved more: they managed to fill this growth with good quality. That is, Ukraine's economy is developing in a diversified way"^[8]. In parallel, opponents were demonized with accusations of nationalism and pro-fascist views.

The deliberate injection of false historical narratives into the international arena: Ukraine, according to the Russian leader, "is not a nation built in a natural manner" and "an artificial country created back in Soviet times," and its territories were supposedly gifts - "In the 1920s and 1930s Ukraine obtained territory from Russia -- that's the eastern part of the country. In 1956, the Crimean peninsula was transferred to Ukraine"^[9]. From this the thesis of its possible disintegration was derived: "the country could just split apart"^[9].

The official denial of Russian troops' participation during the operation – and Putin's later admission (call-in show, 17 April 2014) that the denial was a lie: "behind the backs of Crimea's self-defense forces, our servicemen, of course, stood"^[10]. In the same broadcast an interlocutor congratulated him on having "honestly said that the 'little green men' are our peaceful military"^[10].

A massive campaign of fabricating fakes to dehumanize Ukrainians: on state television it was claimed that "Ukrainian armed forces herded city residents to the central square and publicly executed a small boy and his mother," yet "there is no evidence to support Pyshniak's claim," and the residents of Sloviansk who were interviewed did not confirm the story^[11]. The same method produced the fabricated "death of a 10-year-old girl" in the Petrovskyi district of Donetsk (March 2015): BBC correspondents on the ground established that no such girl had ever existed^[12]. In parallel ran an operation to conceal responsibility for the destruction of flight MH17: the Russian Ministry of Defense "made a series of self-contradictory claims blaming Ukraine, rather than Russia or Russian-led separatists, for the Boeing 777's shoot down," while a deputy defense minister publicly repeated "a fabricated claim that originated on Twitter of how a Spanish air traffic controller named Carlos saw two Ukrainian fighter jets near MH17"^[13].

The exploitation of the Odesa tragedy to build a state propaganda myth and invert the roles: the actual picture, per the UN, is clashes "between supporters of unity and supporters of the federalization of Ukraine, as a result of which 48 people died," while the investigation remains incomplete and "no one has yet been held to account"^[14]. The tragedy was used as moral justification for further aggression - by the same device as the "crucified boy" fake, for which "there is no evidence to support Pyshniak's claim"^[11].

Total indoctrination of Russian society with the ideas of the philosopher I. Ilyin (so-called "white fascism") and the transformation of the "Russian World" concept into a state ideology (rashism) that justifies the metropole's cultural superiority and existential right to violence against its neighbors^[15].

Total information control and a ban on calling the invasion a war - officially it was declared a "special military operation" whose stated aims were "demilitarization and denazification"^[16]. The informational cover for energy terror rested on the "response" narrative: "There is a lot of noise now about our strikes on the energy infrastructure of the neighboring country. Yes, we are doing this. But who started it?"^[17].