ABSTRACT
Between the beginning of the Second World War, on June 22, 1941, until the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, at the beginning of 1943, the Soviet Union suffered enormous losses, numbering millions of soldiers who were killed, disappeared without a trace, or fell into captivity. Information as to the rapid progress of the Nazi army within Soviet territory, of the killing and destruction sown in the Soviet Union, of the atrocities whose like was previously unknown and which the Nazis committed in a routine way, the erasing from the face of the earth of entire cities and towns in the Soviet Union—none of this was divulged by the mass media of the Soviet Union. To the contrary, it was kept secret, as news thereof was thought likely to cause demoralization of the Red Army and the civilian population in their tremendous efforts to vanquish the Nazi foe. The Soviet media and press did not report the suffering and pain of the soldiers and citizens of the Soviet Union, but only acts of bravery, of defense of the honor of the homeland, and of self-sacrifice.
