Lecture & Discussion Length:

90 Minutes

For years, we’ve heard Vladimir Putin, the dictator of Russia, drone on about the need to destroy the “Neo-Nazi” regime in Kyiv, using a flimsy and baseless claim as a causus belli for destroying the sovereign state of Ukraine - but did you know that the roots of this claim, among others, comes from a deep tradition of propaganda from Russia? Long has Russian and Soviet propaganda tied the fate of the Ukrainian and Jewish/Israeli people, both in terms of accusations and conspiracies, as well as the “justified response” which inevitably follows. Posters of IDF soldiers and Ukrainians drunkenly plotting a Nazi takeover of Russia, blood libels of Jews and Ukrainians murdering Christian slavic children, and puppeteers of world domination calling back to the Elders of Zion. Together, we’ll take an art historical tour to explore the parallels of Anti-Ukraine, Antisemitic, and Anti-Israel propaganda from the Soviet Union to modern day Russia, and how we as citizens of the democratic world, can become more media literate and armed to identify such stigmas, stereotypes and conspiracy theories which may inject themselves into our news or visual feed.