World War II Radio in the Soviet Union

Scenes of Soviet citizens huddling around a loudspeaker to listen to the voice from Moscow would become emblematic of wartime mobilization. Unlike other states, the Soviet Union confiscated the population’s wireless radio sets for the duration of the war. The party organization stipulated on October 11, 1941 that wireless radio sets could only be used for collective listening in the presence of “responsible” comrades.

Now that the authorities had the radio audience’s undivided attention, they set about using the medium to achieve their immediate goals. In the first instance, radio was a means of disseminating important practical information. Soon after the launch of radio for the occupied territories, partisans were instructed how to cut telephone wire and sabotage electricity cables; on the home front, listeners were advised how to extract the maximum quantity of potatoes from their allotments.

Nowhere was radio’s role in supporting morale more significant than in starving Leningrad. As one survivor of the Siege recalled, ‘the radio really was the only thread of life that connected the freezing and starving city with the outside world’. If radio fell silent in a particular district due to bomb damage, it was quickly restored. Broadcasters had reserve batteries in case of power failure so that they could continue working.

Yet, although radio was allotted a leading part in the huge propaganda effort of the first months of the war, it was far from clear that it was up to the task. As before the war, the most fundamental concern was the weakness of broadcasting infrastructure. In Gorky region it was soon discovered that, of 174 relay networks run by government institutions (vedomstva), only 133 were actually working. Expansion and improvement of infrastructure was accompanied by restrictions on private listening. More than 7,000 new reception points were set up around the region in the second half of 1941, while more than 18,000 privately owned radio sets were taken in by the authorities. Some over-zealous local committees had reportedly confiscated radio sets that were designed for collective listening. At the same time, vigilance was heightened with regard to programme content: three local networks were said to have put out “enemy programs,” and those responsible were punished “severely.”

Of course, the wartime regime was never likely to trust the instincts of broadcasting personnel. Political supervision of broadcasting remained stifling, and at least some observers resented the rigid patriotism demanded of them in all their radio work. Broadcasters knew all the while that they ran the risk of undermining morale or state security if they erred in content or delivery. If anything, the war added to the pressure on radio announcers: any slips were likely to be considered treasonous, while the volume of work only increased.

Working conditions continued to be desperately poor in all areas of broadcasting throughout the war. Restoring broadcasting infrastructure was a high priority for the Soviet government as it re-established its authority in territory clawed back from the Germans.

On May 2, 1945, General Helmut Weidling was put before the microphone to read out the decree on the capitulation of Berlin. The first time he delivered the text, it sounded too plaintive to be a military command; he had to be asked to repeat it. Only when the recording was played back to Weidling did he take in the full enormity of what he had done.

Use the search box to find information about Soviet Union radio during World War II.

Name	URL	Mp3	Info	Country	Date	Flag
Japanese Wartime Singer and Orchestra	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/japanese-wartime-singer-and-orchestra/	Japanese Wartime Song	Commercial recording of Japanese popular song performed by male vocalist and orchestra from Second World War, Japan, 1941-1945. In Japanese.	Japan	January 1, 1940
Japanese Wartime Orchestra Music	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/japanese-wartime-orchestra-music-2/	Japanese Wartime Music	Commercial recording of Japanese popular orchestral music from Second World War, Japan, 1944	Japan	January 1, 1944
How Should The Democracies Deal With The Dictatorships? Linda Littlejohn, Major George Fielding Eliot, Quincy Howe, Marilyn Josselyn	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/how-should-the-democracies-deal-with-the-dictatorships-linda-littlejohn-major-george-fielding-eliot-quincy-howe-marilyn-josselyn/	How Should The Democracies Deal With The Dictatorships? Linda Littlejohn, Major George Fielding Eliot, Quincy Howe, Marilyn Josselyn	America’s Town Meeting On The Air – How Should the Democracies Deal With the Dictatorships? With Linda Littlejohn, Major George Fielding Eliot, Quincy Howe, and Marilyn Josselyn.	United States	December 8, 1938
Elmer Davis - Japanese Reorganizing Nanking Government	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/elmer-davis-japanese-reorganizing-nanking-government/	Japanese Reorganizing Nanking Government	Elmer H. Davis (January 13, 1890 – May 18, 1958) was an American news reporter, author, the Director of the United States Office of War Information during World War II and a Peabody Award recipient.	United States	April 1, 1940
King George VI’s Empire Day Address	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/king-george-vi-empire-day-address/	Empire Day Address of King George VI	King George Sees Hitler Aim To Dominate All the World Empire Day Broadcast Calls on People to Fight for Lives – Recalls Britain’s Efforts and Hopes for Peace	United Kingdom	May 24, 1940
Japanese Wartime Music	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/japanese-wartime-music-2/	Japanese Orchestral Music	Teichiku (Production company)	Japan	January 1, 1940
Japanese Wartime Music	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/japanese-wartime-music/	Japanese popular orchestral music	Teichiku (Production company)	Japan	January 1, 1940
Japanese Wartime Female Singer and Orchestra	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/japanese-wartime-female-singer-and-orchestra/	Japanese Wartime Music	Commercial recording of Japanese popular song performed by female vocalist and orchestra from Second World War, Japan, 1941-1945. In Japanese	Japan	January 1, 1940
Japanese Wartime Orchestra Music	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/japanese-wartime-orchestra-music/	Japanese Wartime Music	Commercial recording of Japanese popular orchestral music from Second World War, Japan, 1944	Japan	January 1, 1944
Stapellauf des Panzerkreuzers Deutschland mit Ansprachen von Heinrich Bruening und Paul von Hindenburg	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/stapellauf-des-panzerkreuzers-deutschland-mit-ansprachen-von-heinrich-bruening-und-paul-von-hindenburg/	Stapellauf des Panzerkreuzers ‘Deutschland’ mit Ansprachen von Heinrich Bruening und Paul von Hindenburg	Deutschland was the lead ship of her class of heavy cruisers (often termed pocket battleships) which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II	Germany	May 19, 1931
Toni Sender – Ansprache für die Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands Anlässlich der Reichstagswahl	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/toni-sender-ansprache-fur-die-sozialistische-arbeiterpartei-deutschlands-anlasslich-der-reichstagswahl-speech-for-the-socialist-workers-party-of-germany-on-the-occasion-of-the-reichstag-electio/	Ansprache Für Die SPD Anlässlich Der Reichstagswahl am 20. Mai 1928	Tony Sender (November 29, 1888 – June 26, 1964) Sidonie Zippora (Tony) Sender grew up in an orthodox Jewish family and joined the SPD in 1910. In 1910, she went to work in the Paris headquarters of a metalware company and was active in the French Socialist Party. She returned to Germany when war broke out in 1914. She was one of the critics of the SPD’s vote to grant war loans and became involved in the opposition within the party.	Germany	May 20, 1928
Miklós Szedő - Hallō, Hallō, Itt Rádió Budapest	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/miklos-szedo-hallo-hallo-itt-radio-budapest/	Hallō, Hallō, Itt Rádió Budapest	Miklós Szedő (June 8, 1896 - August 19, 1978) was a doctor and tenor opera singer.	Hungary	1930
Heinrich Bruening’s Radio Speech on the Acceptance of United States President Herbert Hoover’s Proposals	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/heinrich-bruenings-radio-speech-on-the-acceptance-of-united-states-president-herbert-hoovers-proposals/	Heinrich Bruening‘s radio speech on the acceptance of US President Hoover’s proposals	United States President Herbert Hoover issued a public statement that proposed a one-year moratorium on the payments. He managed to assemble support for the moratorium from 15 nations by July 1931. But the adoption of the moratorium did little to slow economic decline in Europe.	Germany	June 23, 1931
Franz Engel and Fritz Wiesenthal – Hallo! Hier Radio Wien!	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/franz-engel-and-fritz-wiesenthal-hallo-hier-radio-wien/	Hallo! Hier Radio Wien! Franz Engel and Fritz Wiesenthal	Austrian Jewish comedian Franz Engel (September 16, 1898 – October 16, 1944) was famous and popular in Vienna and Berlin prior to the rise of the Nazis. He fled Germany and then Austria after Aunschluss in 1937. He fled to Paris and then Westerbork transit camp. The Nazis deported him to the Theresienstadt, and then to Auschwitz, where he was murdered. Fritz Wiesenthal (1883 – 1936) was a Jewish Austrian musician, lecturer, and pianist. In the 1920s, Wiesenthal was the emcee of the “Kabarett Leopoldi-Wiesenthal” in Vienna, with the Ferdinand and Hermann Leopoldi, Jewish musicians. When the cabaret failed financially, Wiesenthal moved to Berlin. He was incarcerated in a sanatorium and died in 1936.	Germany	May 13, 1936
WOR First Air Raid Drill in the United States	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/wor-first-air-raid-drill-in-the-united-states/	First Air-Raid Drill in USA	Preparations for a possible air attack were underway, and the first Air Raid Drill in America was scheduled to take place over the small Long Island town of Farmingdale, a rural community which was host to two aircraft plants.	United States	May 16, 1938
Amelia Earhart a A Woman’s Place in Science	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/amelia-earhart-a-womans-place-in-science/	A Woman’s Place in Science	Amelia Earhart was only thirty-nine years old when she and her plane disappeared during her quest to become the first woman to fly around the world. One of her best known speeches — “A Woman’s Place In Science” — was a radio address given in 1935, less than two years earlier. It was part of a broadcast exploring the emerging roles for women in science.	United States	January 1, 1935
John J. Weeks – National Defense Test Day	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/john-j-weeks-national-defense-test-day/	National Defense Day	The approximately 90-minute, “primetime” broadcast, “The National Defense Test,” originated from the War Department building in Washington, DC, in front of a small “studio” audience on the evening of September 12th. It began with the program’s de facto host, US Secretary of War John W. Weeks, welcoming the “ladies and gentlemen of the radio audience.” In a halting, formal cadence, he then proceeded with an impressive, if cumbersome, roll call of distant stations he was broadcasting “from.”	United States	September 12, 1924
As Time Goes By	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/as-time-goes-by/	As Time Goes By	“As Time Goes By” is a jazz song written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. It became famous when it featured in the 1942 Warner Bros. film Casablanca, performed by Dooley Wilson as Sam.	United States	July 25, 1931
Albert Grzesinski (Polizeipräsident) – Die Unterwelt in Berlin (“(Police Chief) – The Underworld in Berlin”)	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/albert-grzesinski-polizeiprasident-die-unterwelt-in-berlin-police-chief-the-underworld-in-berlin/	Albert Grzesinski (Polizeipräsident) – Die Unterwelt in Berlin	Albert Carl Grzesinski (July 28, 1879 – January 12, 1948) was a German SPD politician and Minister of the Interior of Prussia from 1926 to 1930.	Germany	April 23, 1931
Paul von Hindenburg – Erklaerung zur erneuten Praesidentschaftskandidatur	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/hindenburg-erklaerung-zur-erneuten-praesidentschaftskandidatur-declaration-of-renewed-candidacy-for-president/	Erklaerung zur erneuten Praesidentschaftskandidatur	Reichpresident Paul von Hindenburg’s (October 2, 1847 – August 2, 1934) seven-year presidential term was due to run out in the spring of 1932, and if he wanted another term, his legendary stature would ensure his reelection. But if he did not run again, Hitler would be the likely winner. With the steadily worsening Depression and the Nazis’ surging popularity, it was unlikely that anyone but Hindenburg could beat Hitler.	Germany	March 10, 1932
Joseph Goebbels – Reichstagsrede	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/joseph-goebbels-reichstagsrede-reichstag-speech/	1931-02-05 – Joseph Goebbels – Reichstagsrede	Berlin, February 5 – A well organized secret Fascist local defense corps, ready to combat communist and other riots, was discovered in a score of Palatinate towns by the Speyer police today. According to political observers, the discoveries clearly reveal the restlessness and fear of a civil war gripping the population of Germany.	Germany	February 5, 1931
Luigi Bernauer - Hallo Hallo Hier Radio!	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/hallo-hallo-hier-radio/	Hallo Hallo Hier Radio!	Most listeners wanted to hear light music, which is why the radio was dependent on light hits. In this context takes the 1927 hit Hello! Hello! Here Radio! (Norag Marsch) is a special one, because this song is one of the few hits about radio itself.	Germany	January 1, 1930
Charles Lindbergh in Washington	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/charles-lindbergh-in-washington/	Charles Lindbergh in Washington	On June 11, 1927, Charles Lindbergh received the first Distinguished Flying Cross ever awarded.	United States	June 11, 1927
Stalin’s Address to the Soviet People	https://www1.worldwar2database.com/stalins-address-to-the-soviet-people/	Stalin’s Radio Broadcast to the Soviet People	According to historians, Stalin’s speech to the citizens of the USSR on the radio on July 3, 1941 played an important role in the mobilization of the population in the initial period of the war.	Soviet Union	July 3, 1941

Jason McDonald

Author of the World War II Multimedia Database