Russia’s Radio Putsch

It began on a November night in 1929. Amidst the static of Europe’s as yet uncrowded airwaves, a male voice announced: “Hier spricht Moskau.” The Soviet Union’s international radio propaganda system was born with a whimper: an insignificant couple of hours a week of doctored news and excerpts from Stalin’s speeches. Fifty-four years and billions of rubles later, it spews out 2,094 original program hours a week in 82 languages, at an annual cost estimated by the CIA at $700 million for Radio Moscow alone —the estimate does not include Radio Peace and Progress or the regional stations that also broadcast in foreign languages. And it continues to grow. According to the Office of Research of the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), in 1980 the Soviet Union increased its external radio broadcasting by 75 hours a week—the largest annual increase in more than ten years.

U.S.-Soviet Comparisons

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Christopher Perzanowski

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It began on a November night in 1929. Amidst the static of Europe’s as yet uncrowded airwaves, a male voice announced: “Hier spricht Moskau.” The Soviet Union’s international radio propaganda system was born with a whimper: an insignificant couple of hours a week of doctored news and excerpts from Stalin’s speeches. Fifty-four years and billions of rubles later, it spews out 2,094 original program hours a week in 82 languages, at an annual cost estimated by the CIA at $700 million for Radio Moscow alone —the estimate does not include Radio Peace and Progress or the regional stations that also broadcast in foreign languages. And it continues to grow. According to the Office of Research of the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), in 1980 the Soviet Union increased its external radio broadcasting by 75 hours a week—the largest annual increase in more than ten years.

U.S.-Soviet Comparisons