"The Battle Of Russia" (from the "Why We Fight" series)

(this blog was begun the night of Monday September 30, 2019)

Tonight I watched a documentary called "The Battle Of Russia", which was part of the famous "Why We Fight" series that was released in theaters during World War Two. There were seven films in all, this one was the fifth and consisted of two parts running 84 minutes, making it a little longer than the other episodes, which averaged around an hour in length. In the case of the war in Russia (then known as the Soviet Union) there was much ground to cover, both literally and figuratively. The first fifteen minutes of the movie comes across almost as a "study film" of the kind they used to show us in elementary school. As the narrator informs us that "Russia is a rich country", we are given a tour of it's vast farms and gigantic factories. We are shown it's array of natural resources and given a list of statistics, and in watching this one would come to the conclusion that Russia is very wealthy country indeed, bursting with goods, including 55% of the world's oil.

I must interject briefly to say that, from what I understand, Mexico is a similarly wealthy country - rich in natural resources - but Mexico is always portrayed as being poor, and after WW2 ended, what children of my generation were taught and shown was that the Soviet Union (meaning Russia) was also very poor. We saw pictures of "babushkas" (heavy set old women wearing mu-mu dresses) pushing brooms in Red Square and were told "this is Russia".

We were given propaganda, in other words, and when I was a kid, it was common knowledge that Russians had an inferior lifestyle and crumbling infrastructure because of their socialist economy and communist ideology.

You'd never know any of this, however, judging from the reverse propaganda we are given in the narration of "The Battle Of Russia". Watching the first fifteen minutes, you would think this was a Soviet produced film, made to promote business for that empire. Knowing though, that major Hollywood bigwigs Frank Capra and Anatole Litvak were two of the directors of the "Why We Fight" series, you can only wonder what happened over the years between 1943 and 1947 to turn Russia into our greatest and most enduring enemy. "The Battle Of Russia" rightly describes and promotes the heroism of the Russian army as well as its citizens - and the war would have been lost without the effort of the Russians - but again, the narration and overall presentation of the film not only suggests but strenuously endorses the long standing historical grandeur of Russia and the Russian people, who are again rightly portrayed as stoic survivors overcoming impossible odds in fighting the onslaught of the German Blitzkrieg that overran Russian borders beginning in late 1941.

I guess my point is that, watching the film, which was produced as the war was being fought, the Russians - as a country, as a people and as an army - are shown to us as being not only heroes who were essential to winning the war (which is true), but also as an ally on the same level as we now consider the countries of NATO, the European Union, or even Israel. Really, if this film were released today, the viewer would walk away thinking that Russia was our closest ally and an heroic country to be looked up to.

Watch it for yourself and see.

And so my question again is, what happened to turn this alliance completely in the other direction?

Of course, the easy answer is that is was Soviet expansion after the war was over, which ran concurrent with the beginning of the nuclear arms race. The Russians also captured their share of Nazi scientists - as did we - and we were concerned about the technological advantage this might provide them.

At any rate, despite the unsuspected ultra pro-Russian slant of the film (and I am not complaining about it but merely making an observation), there is no question that the actual war footage we are shown is some of the most harrowing that can be imagined. The suffering of the Russian people during the Battle of Leningrad, in particular, was difficult to watch, and it is miraculous and of course a testament to their resilience that they not only survived but ended up driving the Nazis out of their city.

The tide turned after that, and the Germany army began to retreat from Russia. This was the turning point of the war, and after Leningrad it was all over for Adolph Hitler.

The film is a historical essay, so there is no plot for me to describe. If you are a WW2 buff, you may already know the chronology of what took place after the Nazis invaded Russia. But you know something? I think a film like this should still be shown in high school history classes, so that nobody ever forgets what an all-out battle for survival looks like in a World War. I am dismayed by the rumors that today's young people - the so-called "Millennials" - know nothing of world history, and worse, that they don't care. I don't know if this is true, but if it is, then the burden of responsibility is on the schools and universities to teach them about these things, so that it never happens again.

I myself plan to watch the other available films from the "Why We Fight" series, and I highly recommend "The Battle Of Russia" to anyone with a desire to know just how incredibly difficult it was for that country to throw off the German War Machine, and what it cost them in lives.

26 million Russians died in the five years of World War Two. That's almost half of the entire war dead of 60 million. It comes out to roughly 14,000 people per day - soldiers and citizens - that were killed, every day for nearly five years.

Try to imagine having lived through that. We are lucky we didn't have to.

But we should never forget it, and we should never allow world history to become passe.  /////

See you tonight, tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)