The Marionettes - A Story About the World as Political Theater
Original title: Marionetterna –en berättelse om världen som politisk teater
Author: Ingrid Carlberg
Original publisher: Norstedts, 2023
Genre: Non Fiction

The 2016 US presidential election opened the world’s eyes to covert influence operations, planted fake news, troll factories and astroturfed grassroots campaigns. Today we live in a world in which the line between truth and lies is dissolving. A previously marginal phenomenon has evolved into perhaps the greatest threat to democracy.

During her thirty years as a journalist and novelist, Ingrid Carlberg has frequently encountered murky propaganda and remote-controlled puppet theater. In The Marionettes, Carlberg conveys a deeply moving and disturbing story that captures the people and the intrigues behind it all, while offering fresh understanding and new insights into current developments.

The story revolves around the German socialist Willi Münzenberg, considered by many to be the inventor of political puppet theatre, who operated in proximity to both Lenin and Stalin. Soon, world leaders were lining up to copy his methods. Winding through Berlin, Stockholm, Helsinki and Moscow, Ingrid Carlberg unveils an incredible history, one that continues to shape our world today.

Praise for The Marionettes:

”The Marionettes: A Story About the World as Political Theater by Ingrid Carlberg

Journalist, author and member of the Swedish Academy Ingrid Carlberg has written a magnum opus about political propaganda, disinformation campaigns and fake news. Her approach is historical, but her forays into contemporary troll factories and media lies are numerous, pertinent and jarring.

Carlberg’s protagonist is the activist Willi Münzenberg, who after the Russian Revolution created the new Soviet state’s propaganda industry and played a central role in the ideological power struggle of the interwar period. Carlberg provides fascinating glimpses of the early years of the Revolution when world Communism was a real possibility and Lenin a hero to many. […] We follow Münzenberg until the Spanish Civil War and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact when the dream collapsed and he could no longer turn a blind eye to Stalin’s terror and violent desire for power.

In the final chapter, Carlberg depicts the US and Western powers’ decision to confront Soviet lies and duplicity with equal measures during the Cold War. The CIA established the Congress for Cultural Freedom, aimed at generating favorable public opinion for the West by secretly supporting journals, conferences, publishing houses, artists, novelists and journalists, even in Sweden. Carlberg combines journalistic digging into archives, analytical rigor and engaging storytelling. The Marionettes is an extremely important book that helps us understand our history, our present and our future. Overall rating: 5 of 5.”

Bibliotekstjänst (BTJ)