Red Moscow

  Chapter 217 Propaganda

After learning about the results of Matvey and the others from Bindasov, Sokov sat at the table and pondered for a long time, and then said to Potukin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, after the defeat of our division some time ago, Morale has been very low. I think the results of today's sniper squad can be used for publicity, so as to boost morale and rebuild confidence of commanders and fighters."

  Hearing what Sokov said, Potukin quickly asked: "Comrade commander, what are you going to do?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, you and I are military chiefs, and it is the job of political workers to engage in propaganda." Sokov did not immediately explain to Potukin, but ordered him: "Please call the director of the division's political department to Come here, and I will personally assign tasks to him."

  After Potukin's call was made, within two minutes, a political worker appeared at the door. After raising his hand to salute, he looked at Potukin and asked respectfully, "Comrade Chief of Staff, are you looking for me?"

  Potukin pouted at Sokov and said, "Comrade Eric, I am not looking for you, but Comrade Commander is looking for you."

  The political worker known as Eric quickly turned to face Sokov again: "Comrade Commander, Eric, director of the Political Department of the 328th Division and deputy battalion-level political commissar, is reporting to you. I obey your orders, please instruct!"

"Hello, Comrade Eric!" Sokov stood up and shook hands with Eric, then pointed to the vacant seat beside him and said, "Please sit down." After the other party sat down, he continued to ask, "Eric Comrade, I called you here today to ask, is there any combat newspaper in our division?"

Sokov's question made Eric a little surprised, he turned his head and glanced at Potukin who was standing beside him, and thought to himself: "Why, didn't the chief of staff report to the acting division commander about the newspapers in the division? But he still nodded and replied, "Yes, there is a "Warrior" in the division, which is published every two days."

   "Published once every two days?!" Although Sokov had known for a long time that he ran tabloids in many division-level units, he was still surprised after hearing Eric's reply. He turned to look at Potukin and asked curiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I have been in the division for two days, why have I never seen this newspaper?"

"Comrade commander, please wait a moment." Hearing Sokov ask himself, Potukin quickly replied: "There is a newspaper in the division headquarters. I will find you a copy." A copy of the mimeographed paper was handed to Sokov, "Comrade Commander, this is the "Warrior" in the division."

  Sokov took the mimeographed tabloid similar to a leaflet from Potukin's hand, and looked at it carefully. The newspaper uses 16-size paper, only one side has words, and the headline is "Warrior News" in large font. Below are a few articles, which briefly introduce some recent things that happened in the division.

After quickly browsing through the contents of the newspaper, Sokov put the newspaper on the table, looked at Eric and asked: "Comrade Eric, I can't see any morale-boosting content from your newspaper. What? So, you haven’t thought about adjusting the content of the report?”

After hearing what Sokov said, Eric immediately said with a sad face: "Comrade commander, you don't know. Originally, we had special political workers in each battalion to provide articles for newspapers. But during the battle some time ago, these political workers Most of them were sacrificed, so the source of the manuscript became a problem..."

   "Please wait a moment, Comrade Eric." Before he could finish speaking, Sokov raised his hand to interrupt him, and said, "I want to ask, how many people are there in your political department?"

   "Including me, there are five people." Eric replied briefly.

   Sokov picked up the newspaper on the table, shook his hands, and continued to ask: "How did you obtain the manuscripts required by the newspaper?"

   "This is very simple," Eric said with a smile: "We call the regiments every day to let them know the latest situation of the troops so that they can edit the latest manuscripts."

Sokov threw the newspaper on the table, looked at Eric and asked: "Comrade Eric, do you think that sitting in the room every day, making a few phone calls, and writing a few news from the regiment-level leaders can do the job?" Good newspaper, does it boost the morale of the troops?"

Sokov's words made Eric's face turn red and white. He shook his head and replied, "Comrade commander, I don't think so. However, we don't have enough manpower to go to the regiments to collect news." ..."

"You can leave one person on duty, and the rest of you can go outside and talk to commanders and fighters at all levels, so that you can find a lot of writing materials." Sokov said here, in time He clearly explained the purpose of recruiting Eric: "For example, in the past two days, we formed a sniper team to snipe and kill the enemies on the other side of the river, and achieved considerable results."

  Hearing what Sokov said, Eric's eyes widened in surprise. He looked at Sokov in disbelief and asked, "Mr. Comrade, is this all true?"

"It's true." Sokov nodded vigorously, and said: "The sniper team formed by the 1st Battalion of the 1135th Regiment killed and wounded 51 enemies in the two days of yesterday and today. Sergeant Turvey alone killed 25 enemies. In your newspaper, you can make him a model and promote it in the "Warrior" to achieve the purpose of boosting morale."

The reason why Sokov said this was because he remembered that in a World War II movie watched by later generations, the commanders in Stalingrad set up the sniper Vasily as a model and hyped up his achievements in order to boost morale. Purpose. Sokov now asked Eric to focus on promoting Matvey, but he was just following the example.

This kind of propaganda method is not surprising in later generations, but Eric was surprised when he heard it. He couldn't help but said excitedly: "Mr. Propaganda, let every soldier know about him, this is very useful for us to unite the army and boost morale."

   After saying this, Eric stood up and asked Sokov: "Comrade commander, do you know where this sergeant named Matvey is?"

"Comrade Eric, Sergeant Matvey is a soldier of the 1st Battalion of the Bindasov Regiment." Before Sokov could speak, Potukin said first: "If you want to interview him, you can go directly to the 1135th Regiment The station of the first battalion, after explaining to the acting battalion commander, Captain Jetrov, he will help you find Matvey."

  Seeing Eric turned and walked out, Sokov told him from behind: "Comrade Eric, I hope to see your interview report tomorrow morning."

   "Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Eric stopped, turned around and assured Sokov, "After the interview with Sergeant Matvey, I will personally lead people to print the new newspaper overnight."

  (end of this chapter)