Curmei Marian Istorie, Anul II, Grupa B, Licență Zi

The Soviet Story

The Soviet Story is a 2008 documentary film about Soviet Communism and Soviet–

German collaboration before 1941 written and directed by Edvīns Šnore and sponsored by the

UEN Group in the European Parliament.

The film features interviews with western and Russian historians such as Norman Davies

and Boris Sokolov, Russian writer Viktor Suvorov, Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky,

members of the European Parliament and the participants, as well as the victims of Soviet terror.

The film argues that there were close philosophical, political and organizational

connections between the Nazi and Soviet systems before and during the early stages of World

War II. It highlights the Great Purge as well as the Great Famine, Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact,

Katyn massacre, Gestapo-NKVD collaboration, Soviet mass deportations and medical

experiments in the GULAG.

"Soviet Story" is the most powerful antidote yet to the sanitisation of the past. The film is

gripping, audacious and uncompromising. The main aim of the film is to show the close

connections—philosophical, political and organisational—between the Nazi and Soviet systems.

The Soviet Story makes a significant contribution to the establishment of a common

understanding of history and brings us closer to the truth about the tragic events of the 20th

century. A common understanding of history among the member states is crucial for the future of

the whole EU.

The film prompted negative reactions from Russian organizations, press, and politicians.

According to the "European Voice" newspaper, Russians are infuriated by the film which reveals

the extent of Nazi and Soviet collaboration.

Latvian political scientist and cultural commentator Ivars Ījabs offers a mixed review of

The Soviet Story. On one hand, it is a well-made and "effective piece of cinematic propaganda in

the good sense of this word", whose message is clearly presented to the audience. On the other

hand, Ījabs does not agree with a number of historical interpretations in the film, asserting that it

contains errors.

For example, Ījabs states that, "In late 1930s Hitler did not yet plan a systematic

genocide against the Jews", as it is suggested in the film; "Everybody knows that this decision

was made in 1942 at the Wannsee Conference in Berlin." Furthermore, Ījabs comments on the

notion in the film voiced by the British literary historian, liberal and former political activist

George Watson that Friedrich Engels is "the ancestor of the modern political genocide". Ījabs

says: "To present Karl Marx as the "progenitor of modern genocide is simply to lie". Ījabs

admits, however, the use of the term Völkerabfälle in Marx's newspaper to describe several small

European ethnic groups.

Although sometimes translated as "racial trash", other translations include "residual

nations" or "refuse of nations", that is, those left behind (discarded) by the dominant

civilizations. Watson views have been also criticized by reviewer Robert Grant as ideologically

biased and for citing evidence that "seems dubious", arguing that "what Marx and Engels are

calling for is [...] at the very least a kind of cultural genocide; but it is not obvious, at least from

Watson's citations, that actual mass killing, rather than (to use their phraseology) mere

absorption or assimilation, is in question."

The film has attracted praise and criticism from academic historians and political

commentators.