| Abstrakt: |
The article deals with the phenomenon of rumor circulation in the last days of peace and first days of the war in the summer of 1914. A different kind of rumor tried to fill the gap between the huge demand for news on the side of the uneasy public (which appeared suddenly, with the high probability that hostilities will break out between Europe's great powers) and the limited, controlled by military censorship, influx of reliable news. In this brief period, almost all European societies were overcome with spy fever and a general hunt for suspected foreign agents, who, while undercover, had to try to blow up bridges, poison water and food supplies or spread infectious diseases. This atmosphere of suspicion, bordering on panic, led to numerous offences against innocent individuals and even threatened to destabilize public order. In Germany and Austro-Hungary, people spontaneously organized blockades on roads leading east and searched for French trucks with tons of gold destined for Russia. The blockades disorganized internal transportation and cost a few dozen lives, of people who happened to be travelling in suspicious cars. After a few days, the hunt for a gold transport was forbidden by the state authorities. Journalists and press editors contributed to the spread of rumors, publishing many special editions of newspapers with unchecked or even made-up facts, hoping to benefit from this rapid rise in the number of potential readers. By hastily publishing ill-considered communiques, even state organs sometimes stimulated the spread of fear and fake news among citizens. The authorities of the belligerents had yet to learn how to manage social moods and the dissemination of information, in conditions of the bloody and prolonged war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
