Degradation, Shock, and Endurance
(EN: This book is somewhat controversial - not merely because of its topic, but because of its origin. It is presented as a synthesis of various Soviet documents on the practice of brainwashing, but may in fact be a fabrication to provoke outrage and opposition to the communist party and due to its suspicious origin is considered that it may be a hoax or a work of science fiction. I've read it, and preserved notes, as it seems interesting and plausible, in spite of its dubious validity and origin.)
While a person maintains their integrity and their dignity, they can remain resistant to new ideas. If is for this reason that a conquered nation must not merely be defeated, but utterly humiliated and degraded before the people will be truly conquered and able to accept foreign rule.
By the same token, a country will also maintain respect for its leaders and institutions so long as they appear dignified. This is the value of propaganda: where defamation can cause people to lose faith in their leaders and institutions, they cease to support them and may even overthrow them. Where an ideology can be sufficiently defamed, it will be rejected.
And on the individual level, a person who is defamed and degraded loses respect for himself, loses his integrity in defense of his individualism, and is this made ready to immolate himself and reform according to different principles. This is why people who are already in a state of disgrace or confusion about their purpose and identity (such as the poor and disillusioned youth) are highly susceptible to suggestion.
It is common in military training to strip an individual of his self-worth to make him amenable to conforming to the qualities of a soldier - when his personal identity is sufficiently degraded, becoming anything else is more attractive. In prisons, it is likewise common to abuse and degrade individuals to relegate them to a state of disgrace, then gradually reward them with recognition and respect for adopting different attitudes and behaviors. In these examples, deprivation and physical ordeals are often used to weaken their reserve as well.
The individualist, who values himself above others, is the most difficult target for communism. In collectivist cultures, where people define themselves by their role in society, the task is simply change their perception of their role or their definition of society, and the people will fall in line. But an individualistic culture is one in which each person is loyal to himself - there is no single entity that controls the loyalty of many, and a nation of individuals must be converted one person at a time.
An individual can also become the source of rebellion against a new ideology, so it is of the utmost importance that individualists be converted or eliminated very early in the process of communizing a society. They will be "nothing but trouble" until they are pacified.
Another group of people who are priority targets are the youth who will become the future leaders of a nation. To enlist them, capitalize on their youthful rebellion and ambition by enlisting their assistance in degrading social institutions that are hostile to the communist ideology.
The degradation of an institution generally has a double benefit. The institution itself is eliminated as a competitor for the loyalty of the people, and the ideals for which the institution stands then become degraded. Naturally, institutions that are based on ideals that are supportive of the communist ideology are not competitors to be overcome, but allies to be leveraged in the conversion of a society.
There's some discussion of religious institutions in general as a high-priority institutional target. Churches seek to gain power over people by proxy, causing people to value abstract and immaterial ideals over the practical concerns of the material world. Fortunately, many churches are themselves and materialistic, and they hypocrisy facilitates their own degradation.
When degrading an institution, specifically, the better tactic is to use a sudden shock rather than a slower and more insidious method of slowly bringing the institution down. A sudden collapse has a more powerful impact, leaves people who believed in the institution shocked and susceptible, and causes doubt about the viability of similar institutions.
Where societal institutions collapse suddenly, the economic conditions are degraded, privation and depression come about, leaving the people in general susceptible to suggestion of a better set of ideals. But it must appear that these institutions have collapsed from within - any indication that they have been undermined or are "under attack" by an external force rallies defense rather than undermines faith.
It's randomly asserted that it should require "no more than twenty or thirty years" to collapse a nation from within by degrading its institutions.