Today it is already known that Hitler's propagandists under the leadership of Goebbels used medieval prophecies to strengthen the faith of the Germans and their allies that the Third Reich was literally doomed to victory.
Someone drew Goebbels' attention to the predictions of the famous Michel Nostradamus, who lived in the 16th century and left behind a cycle of rhymed quatrains (quatrains), which allegedly predicted the fate of humanity for several thousand years in advance. Learning that the German astrologer Karl Ernst Kraft is not only well acquainted with the writings of Nostradamus, but also believes in the inevitable victory of Germany, Goebbels recruited Kraft to work in his ministry. Skillfully prepared poetic prophecies of the medieval mystic turned into a weapon of ideological warfare.
Nostradamus wrote in an extremely vague way so as not to give secrets to the uninitiated. This allowed his quatrains to be interpreted as they pleased. In Goebbels's diary dated November 22, 1939, we read:
“We can use this thing for a long time. I have banned the publication of all the predictions of Nostradamus. They must be distributed by hand, in secret. There should be a smack of something forbidden in it. Naturally, all this stupid nonsense should also be thrown into France."
Brochures with deciphering of the texts of Nostradamus, made by Kraft and, of course, predicting a quick victory of the Third Reich, were distributed in France as it was occupied by German troops …
It is not known whether the Soviet propagandists knew about this experience or whether they reached the idea with their own mind, but it turns out that something similar was done in the Soviet Union. Only they turned not to the writings of a medieval European mystic, but to Orthodox prophecies, which were much closer and more understandable to those living in our country.
For example, the text of a leaflet distributed among the Orthodox population of Belarus in the fall of 1942 has survived. I quote it in full here:
AMAZING PROPHECY
Promotional video:
Orthodox Christians, read the amazing prophecy made by Schema monk John in 1600.
His coming was considered to have happened more than once, and more than once people were deceived, since all the villains of the world are alike.
The real Antichrist will be one of the dictators of Luther's country, he will pretend to be the messenger of God. This prince of the world will take an oath on the Gospel and will call himself the hand of the Most High, called to punish the nations.
His weapons are cunning and treachery, his spies are scattered throughout the earth, and he possesses the secrets of strong people.
He will bribe scholars who will testify that he is called to a divine mission.
The war will give him the opportunity to take off his mask, a war that will become general in two weeks.
All Christian peoples, all Muslims and the most distant tribes will be involved in this war. Troops will move from the four corners of the world. In the third week, the angel will enlighten human minds and people will understand that they are at war with the Antichrist and that they must defeat him if they do not want to become his slaves.
The Antichrist will be recognized by many signs, he will beat priests, monks, women, children and the elderly, he will not give mercy to anyone, he will walk the earth like a barbarian, he will impersonate Christ.
His words will be like Christian ones, but his actions will be those of Nero. In his coat of arms there will be a black swastika, and a similar coat of arms will be in the coat of arms of his ally, another bad monarch. To defeat the antichrist, it will be necessary to kill more people than there were in all of Rome, but the effort of all states will be needed, because the rooster, leopard and mountain eagle could not overpower the black dragon if the prayers and participation of all mankind did not help them. Never before has humanity escaped a greater danger, since the triumph of the Antichrist was the triumph of Satan.
For it is predicted that 20 centuries after the incarnation of the Word, the beast will incarnate, in turn, and will threaten to bring the earth as much evil as the divine incarnation did it.
The army of the antichrist will be numerous, there will be Christians among them, just as there will be Mohammedans and pagans among the armies protecting the lamb.
At the beginning of the war, the whole earth will be saturated with blood, the sky and water and even the air itself will be red.
The black dragon will attack the rooster, which will lose many feathers, but which will bravely reflect the attack. However, he would not have enough strength if the leopard and his claws did not help him.
The black dragon will then fly in from the other side and destroy half of the rooster's property.
The mountain eagle will swoop down on the black dragon and its ally and destroy this ally, then the black dragon will rush to the rescue, which will leave the rooster alone for a while.
The battles at the start of the war will seem insignificant in comparison to the battles that will take place in Luther's country.
When the beast senses that it is wounded, it will become furious, it will take months for the mountain eagle, rooster and leopard to destroy it.
The rivers will be littered with mountains of corpses, only princes of blood and the first military leaders will be buried, hunger will come to the aid of the sword. The Antichrist will ask for peace several times, but peace will not be given to him until the victory over him is complete.
The defenders of the lamb will not retreat as long as the antichrist has at least one soldier in the army.
The Antichrist will lose his crown and die alone and in exile. His empire will be divided into 22 states, but none of them will have any troops or weapons.
The mountain eagle will own the happiness of salvation for Europe inhabited by Christians.
Then eternal peace will come, and every nation will live according to the laws of justice and truth.
Happy will be those who win the struggle, they will see a new humanity and a new kingdom that will come after the fall of the black dragon …"
Below was a transcript of the schema monk's words: “The events of the Second World War are conveyed in allegorical form in the prophecy. The Black Dragon is Germany, led by dictator Hitler. The ally of the black dragon, which also has a swastika in its coat of arms, is Finland. Rooster - France, in whose coat of arms there is a Gallic rooster. Leopard - British Empire, in the coat of arms of which, however, there is a lion, not a leopard. And the mountain eagle is Russia”.
This interpretation seems rather free, but we will forgive the Soviet propagandists for this. They did a just deed, showing believers that recognizing the victory of Germany and submitting to the invaders means giving up both their faith and everything that fills the life of an Orthodox person with meaning …