Today, the Institute for the Study of Communist Crimes launched the conference “Arts, Literature, and Propaganda Under Dictatorship.” The event, continuing tomorrow, offers experts a platform to examine how the communist regime shaped culture, using arts and literature as propaganda tools. Key topics include: regime control over cultural expression, censorship, the structure of state cultural bodies, the arts’ role in historical narratives, and the creation of the “new socialist person.”

Dr. Thomas Kunze, Director of the KAS Office in Albania, opened the conference with a lecture titled “The Cult of Personality in the 20th Century.” Citing his book Oh, You Dear Leader! The Cult of Personality in the 20th and 21st Centuries, Dr. Kunze discussed how figures from Hitler and Stalin to Kim Jong-un and Fidel Castro have used personality cults to manipulate public opinion and reinforce political power.

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