Katyn, Truth and Propaganda by jk (16apr10) « (War crimes) PDF file
Here is a good article about the recent air crash which killed Poland's political leadership in Russia, on their way to commemorate the massacre of the Polish officers at Katyn in 1940.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/17/smolensk-crash-katyn-accident-of-history
The word 'propaganda' does not mean 'falsehoods'. It means statements, true or false, which serve a political agenda. It is debatable whether or not it is a useful phrase. It is not technically untrue to accuse someone of using a truthful statement as propaganda. But it manages to convey a misleading impression. It slyly inserts one's disapproval of the party at the same time as admitting the veracity of the assertion. Thus the Guardian says 'Nazi propaganda trumpeted the evidence of a "bestial Bolshevik crime"'. Why put it like that? Why is 'bestial Bolshevik crime' in quotes? Is it because the author thinks Stalin was no longer a Bolshevik? Or he doesn't want to offend animals?
Why not say "The Nazis were the first to condemn this atrocity, which confirmed some of their views, but British people were duped by Soviet lies"?
This technique, admitting a party's veracity at the same time as condemning it for 'propaganda' was displayed when journalists said 'climate change deniers' greeted the publication of emails showing climate change scientists falsifying results as 'a propaganda windfall'.
Would the press say "Zionist propaganda trumpeted the evidence of the concentration camps"?
PS. The cartoon is German, produced after the death of Polish leader Władysław Sikorski in 1943 in an air crash. Conspiracy theorists propose he was killed by the British because Roosevelt's deal with Stalin was unattractive to Poles, who may have wondered why they were fighting with Russia against Germany.