HOSTILITIES NEAR KHARKIV IN MAY 1942 IN THE COLUMNS OF THE PROPAGANDA PRESS ON THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES OF UKRAINE

Abstract

The article highlights and analyzes various materials published in 1942 in the newspaper periodicals of the occupied Ukrainian territories, which covered the hostilities near Kharkiv in May 1942. They can serve as a certain addition to the current scientific studies covering these events of World War II and their interpretation by one of the opposing sides in the German-Soviet war. It has been established that quite a large number of publications on the above topic were presented in newspapers: short front status reports on the current events, separate analytical articles evaluating the strategy and tactics of the opposing sides, more or less meaningful reviews of mass media reporters from various countries (mainly German satellites) as “foreign witnesses” of hostilities near Kharkiv, certain cartographic materials, photographs, etc. The sources for these publications were, as a rule, official information messages from Berlin, propaganda materials taken from central German publications, from radio messages, etc. Individual facts, reviews, and analytical judgments mentioned in the newspaper periodicals of that time are confirmed in the works of modern researchers, who characterize this battle as an example of a battle where the more decisive, quick and experienced side succeeds, and who note that the South-Western Front Command was close to victory, however the German Command was able to turn the situation in its favor, and the WPRA troops suffered a devastating disaster. While in the Soviet mass media the Red Army’s failures near Kharkiv were hushed up in every possible way, the population of Ukraine living under occupation had the opportunity to learn about this defeat and the losses of the Soviet troops without delay. Although this information was covered in a rather biased manner in the propagandistic interpretation of the occupying power, it was not far from the truth in a number of aspects.