As a Ukrainian American, a favored target of Soviet wrath, now in her late 60s, I lived through the 1960s-1980s era of Soviet disinformation in the US with an acute sensitivity since I was often the subject of it (no such thing as a Ukrainian unless you need a drunk peasant or happy fascist to put forth)- and now, with almost nostagia, I recall those times that seem positively tame. Americans - bless us all - have been given more than a century of media that undertook the responsiblity of informing the public as a professional and ethical obligation. Took their jobs seriously. The public information we consumed, to a great degree, was verified before it was broadcast/printed. So, we Americans began to assume that once you read it in the newspaper/heard it on the airwaves - it was very likely true. Media organizatons were actually sued for lying. And Americans for sure are not in the habit of verifying information for themselves. Enter the 1990s and the full scale explosion of cable and the internet (once actually written as the Internet) - and well, free at last, free at last, G-d Almighty I can write and say whatever the hell I want, I can call myself a journalist, upgrade myself to "media" or "communications" specialist" - I can even call myself an expert and start my own blog - where to begin? where to begin to explain that we must now live the way that Soviet citizens lived pre 1990s - with constant skeptism re public information. If you want to trust, OK, but now you must verify. This is a great piece - was googling "Timothy Snyder disinformation" and your substack post appeared among list of options. I am genuinely in awe that you dealt with disinformation professionally for decades and remain lucid and sane. Congratulations. Thank you.
Many thanks for your kind comments and interesting, informed perspective. I visited Kyiv in 1972, in addition to Moscow, then Leningrad, and Tashkent. The media circus today is overwhelming, worsened by the poison of Kremlin disinformation.
As a Ukrainian American, a favored target of Soviet wrath, now in her late 60s, I lived through the 1960s-1980s era of Soviet disinformation in the US with an acute sensitivity since I was often the subject of it (no such thing as a Ukrainian unless you need a drunk peasant or happy fascist to put forth)- and now, with almost nostagia, I recall those times that seem positively tame. Americans - bless us all - have been given more than a century of media that undertook the responsiblity of informing the public as a professional and ethical obligation. Took their jobs seriously. The public information we consumed, to a great degree, was verified before it was broadcast/printed. So, we Americans began to assume that once you read it in the newspaper/heard it on the airwaves - it was very likely true. Media organizatons were actually sued for lying. And Americans for sure are not in the habit of verifying information for themselves. Enter the 1990s and the full scale explosion of cable and the internet (once actually written as the Internet) - and well, free at last, free at last, G-d Almighty I can write and say whatever the hell I want, I can call myself a journalist, upgrade myself to "media" or "communications" specialist" - I can even call myself an expert and start my own blog - where to begin? where to begin to explain that we must now live the way that Soviet citizens lived pre 1990s - with constant skeptism re public information. If you want to trust, OK, but now you must verify. This is a great piece - was googling "Timothy Snyder disinformation" and your substack post appeared among list of options. I am genuinely in awe that you dealt with disinformation professionally for decades and remain lucid and sane. Congratulations. Thank you.
Many thanks for your kind comments and interesting, informed perspective. I visited Kyiv in 1972, in addition to Moscow, then Leningrad, and Tashkent. The media circus today is overwhelming, worsened by the poison of Kremlin disinformation.
Thank you. This is very useful. I look forward to future posts.
A pleasure to read your Substack, Todd. Regards from Lithuanian info-front lines, Nerijus
Thank you, and it's a pleasure to hear from you. I remember fondly meeting you in 2015 in Vilnius.