decars1-5, Exercise 3: Propaganda as evidence

Model answer (check the details):

Why propaganda images are poor evidence about achievements: they were made to persuade, not to record. Films, posters and paintings showed smiling workers, empty scenic roads and monumental bridges, and left out hard conditions, forced labour, delays and the low traffic. Figures in the period were published to impress, and the regime controlled the press. The images are good evidence of how the regime wished the programme to be seen, which is a useful topic in itself.

Better sources:
1. Company and ministry records on spending, kilometres and labour.
2. Historians' studies that use those records.
3. Workers' and survivors' testimony, and police and labour reports from the time.
4. Traffic counts and statistics, such as car ownership.
5. Comparisons with other countries' road programmes.

Rule: use propaganda to study the image, and records and independent studies to study the reality.