Propaganda Patterns: Soviet Information Strategies and Their Re-emergence in 21st-Century Hybrid Warfare Against Ukraine

Visegrad Lecture Series

Propaganda Patterns: Soviet Information Strategies and Their Re-emergence in 21st-Century Hybrid Warfare Against Ukraine

by Liubov Baz, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Social and Political Psychology, National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine

Based on a primary source analysis of the Blinken OSA Archivum collections, this research uncovers the systemic continuity between late-Soviet information warfare methods and contemporary Russian aggression. The author demonstrates that modern propaganda patterns are a direct evolution of ethnocide strategies developed between 1989 and 1991 to dismantle Ukrainian identity.

An examination of RFE/RL monitoring reports and internal Soviet documents identifies the following instruments of ethnocide:

● Symbolic Destruction: The “Nazification” of the Trident (Tryzub) and the national flag as a method of alienating the nation from its foundational symbols.

● Spiritual and Cultural Ethnocide: The systematic discredit of the national church and the Ukrainian language.

● Geopolitical Blackmail: The engineering of regional conflicts and the weaponization of the “Crimean issue” to destabilize national sovereignty.

● Denial of Agency: Framing the struggle for independence as a project of “external management” or foreign interference.

The study proves that these archival funds contain the “genetic code” of modern hybrid warfare. Analyzing them is key to deconstructing the Russian narratives utilized in the present day.

The presentation may be followed online on Zoom:

https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/j/91299097034?pwd=GuYK1oqUT8ZZRLA3amgQNQQ1KLmeE9.1

Meeting ID: 912 9909 7034 Passcode: 315067