Everything about Agitprop totally explained
Agitprop is a contraction of "
agitation and
propaganda". The term originated in
Bolshevist Russia (the future
Soviet Union), where the term was a shortened form of
отдел агитации и пропаганды (
otdel agitatsii i propagandy), for example,
Department for Agitation and Propaganda, which was part of the Central and regional committees of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The department was later renamed
Ideological Department.
The term
propaganda in the
Russian language didn't bear any negative connotation at that time. It simply meant "dissemination of ideas". In the case of agitprop, the ideas to be disseminated were those of
communism, including explanations of the policy of the
Communist Party and the
Soviet state. In other contexts, propaganda could mean dissemination of any kind of beneficial knowledge, for example, of new methods in agriculture. "Agitation" meant urging people to do what Soviet leaders expected them to do; again, at various levels. In other words, propaganda was supposed to act on the mind, while agitation acted on emotions, although both usually went together, thus giving rise to the
cliché "propaganda and agitation".
The term "agitprop" gave rise to
agitprop theatre, a highly-politicized leftist theatre originated in
Europe of 1920s-1930s and spread to America as well, with plays of
Bertold Brecht being a notable example. Gradually the term "agitprop" came to describe any kind of leftist politicized art.
In the
western world, agitprop has a negative connotation. In the
United Kingdom during the
1980s, for example,
socialist elements of the political scene were often accused of using agitprop to convey an extreme left-wing message via television programmes or theatre.
After the Bolshevik revolution, an agitprop
train toured the country, with artists and actors performing simple plays and broadcasting propaganda. It had a printing press onboard the train to allow posters to be reproduced and thrown out of the windows if it passed through villages.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Agitprop'.
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