Military Review English Edition November December 2016 | Page 122

they built the party and movement; and to serve as the that encourages the Internet broadcast of beheadings
party’s instrument for organizing followers of the parin a calculated effort that serves the dual purpose of
ty, propagandizing the movement’s cause, and agitating both terrorizing opponents as well as taunting and
in multiple venues to undermine the existing sociopofrustrating Western governments.
litical order and set the conditions for the popular rise
Subsequent to Lenin’s day, one can hardly think of an
of the proletariat.
identifiable revolutionary or insurgency movement with
If Lenin were alive today, which instruments of
any resilience in either the twentieth or twenty-first cencommunication would he seek to control in order to
tury that did not feature a vanguard party with control
organize, agitate, and propaor outright ownership of at least
gandize his cause, and which
one mass medium tailored to
at the same time would serve
its needs or the environment in
as the scaffolding to build the
which it operated. For examparty? If anything, Lenin was
ple, the Volksicher Beobachter
visionary and opportunistic.
(National Observer) supported
Therefore, there is no doubt
the rise of the National Socialist
that Lenin would have sought
Party in pre-World War II
out the most state-of-the-art
Germany, Pravda (Truth) supmedia available in an effort
ported the Bolshevik consolito focus public attention
dation of power in Russia, and
on his political objectives.
Granma supported the comConsequently, the vast potenmunist party of Fidel Castro in
tial for using the Internet and
his domination of Cuba. These
social media to reach millions
are just a few such examples
as a rapid and cost-effective
demonstrating the fusion Lenin
means for organizing, agitatstated was necessary between a
ing, and propagandizing could
vanguard party and control of
not have failed to attract his
a mass medium to usurp and
attention. Though his program
then maintain political hegeof modern activism might
mony over a polity.
have included traditional
Among the first steps t