Novel by Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Published in Russia

MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) – A novel written by Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels has been published in Russia – a country that prides itself on playing a key part in defeating the Third Reich.

Algoritm, a publishing house known in Russia for printing books by controversial authors, announced the publication of Goebbels’ semi-autobiographical novel, Michael, in an undated post on its website. Russian media reported the publication on Saturday.

The 1923 novel tells the story of a World War I veteran who returns to peaceful life in impoverished, post-war Germany and turns to socialist ideas and Christianity, the announcement said.

“Although the work has some reflections on politics, it did not pursue political goals, because at the time of writing the author was elated by his dream of becoming a man of letters,” it said.

Four years after the novel’s publication that got him “disappointed” in literature, Goebbels became a propaganda minister in Adolf Hitler’s government, it said.

Goebbels ordered book burnings, orchestrated massive campaigns against Jews and perfected the use of radio and cinema for propaganda purposes. He and his wife committed suicide after killing their six children in May 1945, shortly before Nazi Germany's capitulation.

Books advocating Nazi ideas such as Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf, are banned in Russia and blacklisted as “extremist” literature. In 2011, a Moscow court gave a suspended one-year jail term to a man who published Mein Kampf online.

Last November, Algoritm published a book that it said was written by Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of the two jailed members of the Pussy Riot punk rock band. The book was recalled after Tolokonnikova’s protest.

Algoritm has published works by Russian nationalists, Kremlin critics and businessmen such as Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Eduard Limonov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky.