After Hitler’s invasion of the USSR, the Soviet troops did little but retreat until reaching Moscow. They were prepared for attack but not for a retreat, so the losses were massive. Stalin ordered his secret police divisions to stand behind the regular troops and shoot anybody who took a step back. But it wasn’t helping much. Soviet soldiers were still running away.
At the height of the panic and the terror the retreat was creating, a story appeared in a popular newspaper about 28 heroic Soviet soldiers who entered into battle with a vastly superior German battalion and chose to die, all 28 of them, but not take a single step backwards. The story went what today we’d call viral. Everybody reprinted it. The Soviet people were weeping over the touching last words of the 28 fallen heroes. It didn’t occur to anybody to ask – or at least not publicly – how the journalists could have known the last words of the 28 soldiers if nobody had survived.
A cultish following of the 28 heroes sprang up. They were posthumously awarded the highest Soviet military honor: the title of the Heroes of the Soviet Union. City streets were named after them. Schoolchildren memorized their names and swore to be just like them.
And then the dead heroes started surfacing very much alive and decidedly not heroic. The very first one to be found had actually defected to the Nazis and become a Polizei, which was hands-down the worst thing a Soviet person could be at that time. The second fallen hero had become a POW, which was the second worst thing to be in the USSR. All of the magically revived men were aware of their enormous Facebook following, or I mean, their heroic status and kept a copy of the book that had been written about their feat.
An investigation was conducted in 1948, and the journalist who originally published the story confessed that he had invented the whole thing. But the cult of the heroic 28 did not abate. It flourished and expanded until in 1988 another investigation was conducted. It confirmed that the story has indeed been 100% fabricated.
But the hero worship did not abate. Last week, Russia’s Minister of Culture declared anybody who doubted a single word of the original story about the 28 heroes was a traitor to Russia and a Nazi. The long-debunked story from 1942 is still alive and well.
So please let’s abandon the narcissistic myth that we are such special snowflakes who have invented a preference for pleasing stories over reality. Remember Cervantes’s Don Quixote? Two parts, 1200 pages, the first European novel, an international bestseller at the time of publication in 1605 and 1615? The power of fiction and the way people choose stories over reality is what the whole thing is about.
And remember the Bible and the Koran? Those works of literature took off like no YouTube channel ever will. For thousands of years people trust these texts over anything else in the world. That’s real power. And in the meanwhile, we are going on and on about some dumb Facebook stories like their authors have just invented the concept of the power of the word. As if thousands of years ago people didn’t already know that
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Clarissa's Blog 
Have no idea what you refer to in “dumb Facebook stories,” but loved the post about the heroic 28.
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There is a big scandal right now about Facebook influencing the election by allowing fake news stories to be published.
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“big scandal right now about Facebook influencing the election by allowing fake news stories to be published”
Yes, the media that brought us the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, UVS broken glass rape and “Trump has no chance” is upset about “fake news”…..
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\ There is a big scandal right now about Facebook influencing the election
Real news is more serious than a few fake FB posts:
Британская компания Cambridge Analytica помогла Дональду Трампу выиграть президентские выборы в США с помощью технологий Больших данных и персонально таргетированной рекламы в интернете. До этого та же фирма работала со сторонниками Brexit в Британии, а теперь заключила контракт с французским “Национальным фронтом”. Правда ли, что неожиданные исходы голосований в разных странах – не провал социологии, а победа социологии нового типа? Собеседник Радио Свобода Михал Косински, исследования которого косвенно связаны с деятельностью Cambridge Analytica, считает, что это преувеличение, но технологии Больших данных и снижение приватности сулят миру глобальные перемены.
http://trim-c.livejournal.com/1469415.html
On a somewhat different topic – a review of another Harari’s book (read «Краткая история человечества» ):
Попытаюсь тут изложить прогнозы и опасения Харари из его книги «История будущего».
http://sergeyoho.livejournal.com/142811.html
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I guess the thing to tell the Trump supporters in our lives is that they’ve been personally targeted.
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It’s very true that people prefer feel-good (or even tragic) fiction over truth. Just look at Shakespeare’s history plays. Richard III, for instance, may or may not have killed his nephews in order to secure his reign, but some scholars believe that Henry Tudor, who defeated Richard at Bosworth, had a stronger motive. Most people believe Shakespeare’s version of events because it confirms Richard was an evil king who deserved to be defeated, and that the Tudors saved England from utter ruin.
Personally, I like Shakespeare’s version because it’s a great story. But even I acknowledge that it might not necessarily be true. When it’s old history, it feels like it matters less. It’s not like one version or the other makes a difference to England now since the monarch is only a figure head these days. In 1485, though, it would have made a great deal of difference. Right now, it feels like we’re in a 1485 moment, and yet, there are still very few people who prefer the raw truth over a good story.
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Richard III is my favorite of Shakespeare’s plays. 🙂 But I’m one of those Ricardians who suspect that Richard was not guilty.
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Shakespeare had Elizabeth I as a patron. There was no way he’d paint Richard III as anything but a villain.
That play was art and propaganda more effective than any official history.
I’m not sure how much it would benefit Richard III not to produce their bodies. Or really anyone (Henry VII) who benefited from having them dead not to conduct a funeral. Young boys died all time from natural causes and illnesses.
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