There are examples of not only dictators using propaganda, but even weaker government officials and entire nationalities using propaganda to "get what [they] want." Propaganda is a system of information spread whose purpose is the advertisement of an ideal held by the party that made the propaganda itself. The specific purpose of propaganda ranges from getting voters for a certain cause to giving the general public similar sentiments to yourself. Propaganda is a system based not specifically on the dictator, but any person who uses media to spread their own beliefs and ideals, whether they be good or bad.
In the case of dictators, propaganda was an excellent method of spreading information that not just the literate could understand, but the entirety of the public. Especially under Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1953, the use of propaganda on the unwary and uneducated public in the form of political cartoons and radio messages allowed the Russian leader to maintain a popular standing with the public. Under the rule of Stalin, freedom and exploration of the realities of the world was limited for the general public, so the main source of information at the time, newspapers and other media, allowed the propaganda an easy way to spread falsities.
Propaganda being used by a dictator is not automatically a lie. Of course, much of the propaganda spread by dictators was fabricated, but often not entirely. Also know that countries like the Soviet Union that were--for the most part--ruled by a dictator were not the only governments to use propaganda. The USA and many other democratic countries used their fair share of propaganda, but these attempts were not as successful as ones seen by Russia at the time probably because of the reasons I listed earlier. America and other democratic countries did not have as tight of a grip on foreign and worldwide affairs, so the spread of information was not limited to newspapers and radio, thus allowing for Americans to be not as effectively affected by propaganda.
