Representing Defeats: Mythologies and Mobilizations in Interwar Germany and the Soviet Union

Through the comparative rubric of “mass dictatorship,” this paper seeks to globalize the history of the ways in which the legitimacy of twentieth century authoritarian regimes was related to their military prowess. By focusing on domestic representations of unsuccessful military campaigns in mass dictatorships and examining the political dimensions of these representations, this paper examines the impact of military failure on the consensual foundations of dictatorship. Because of the high degree to which media was controlled in mass dictatorships, the notion of defeat often did not appear in public discourse until the war was lost or nearly lost. Even if setbacks were not immediately acknowledged, there is much to be gained by learning how the various fictions of military success operated. The centerpiece of my presentation will be the Soviet experience in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989. I will explore the transformations in Soviet public discourse about the participation of the Red Army in that war and relate them to ongoing reforms in the Soviet system. I will then compare the late Soviet context to media representations of various military setbacks in the Soviet Union, Germany, and Japan both during World War II and in its aftermath. The inclusion of the post-World War II Japanese, East German, and West German contexts allows me to consider differences in the representations of defeat in “mass dictatorships” and fledgling democracies.