The use of leaflet propaganda was one of the most effective means of influencing the enemy.
Industrial and medical structures, as well as various propaganda organizations, were concentrated in Belomorsk, the frontline capital of Karelia. The Political Department of the Karelian Front was located in the city, under the control of which several propaganda publications were printed. For example, “Into Battle for the Motherland”, the satirical magazine “Draught”, daily newspapers of the Karelian Front combat units, several newspapers in foreign languages for enemy soldiers and various leaflets were mass-produced for both Soviet and enemy troops. Sometimes leaflets were dropped in bales from airplanes to be distributed by partisans and underground fighters, and sometimes special mortars were used for this, which were able to send a shell containing leaflets across the front line. One such shell is presented in the Karelian Front Museum.
This craft-produced wooden mine was made in Belomorsk, in 1943. The famous historian-orientalist Igor Dyakonoff, who served during the war in the propaganda department of the Karelian Front headquarters as a translator into German, left an account of how these mines were manufactured in his memoirs:
