PR lessons from the Soviet Union (BP, listen up!)

The Soviet Union did a number of things very badly. From breadlines to bureaucrats to all the B.S., life was less than bearable for ordinary folks. However, in a piece for the Christian Science Monitor , mathematician Krzysztof M. Ostaszewski argues that Soviet apparatchiks did do one thing well — propaganda. He extracted a few lessons for PR people, and among them is the “Suslov Maneuver.” He explains: “Facing the possibility of being accused of an atrocity, or facing any form of…