The Soviet Story
Encyclopedia
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
.
The Economist
review of The Soviet Story praises the film by saying
It concludes its review by calling the documentary "a sharply provocative work".
The New York Times
in its review of the documentary stated
Various Members of the European Parliament
(MEPs) who were interviewed for the film,
have expressed views in favour of it.
According to the Latvian MEPs Inese Vaidere
and Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis
writing in Parliament Magazine:
Both Vaidere and Kristovskis represent the UEN group which actively supported the production of the film.
After watching the film, Finnish MEP Ari Vatanen
gave the following comment:
British MEP Christopher Beazley
commented:
Vytautas Landsbergis
, MEP and the former Head of the Lithuanian Seimas
(Parliament), assessed The Soviet Story as
Likewise, Latvia's Minister of Justice, Gaidis Bērziņš (For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK), has said that, because of its important historical message, he would encourage the Ministry of Education to have the film shown in all schools in Latvia.
MEP from Latvia Tatjana Ždanoka
, who opposed Latvia's independence from the Soviet Union and ran as a candidate of the largest Russian political bloc in Latvia, regards the film as a "propagandistic odd job, which is given out to be "a new word in history". She also thought that "the second part of the film is pure political PR": while the first part of the film pictures the point of view of some historians, contemporary politicians criticize modern Russia in the end of the film. Ždanoka also noted that "a lot of attention was devoted to the partnership of the German and Russian military. This is followed by a jump forward in time to the 1940s, with a mass-meeting of Vlasovites
is shown against a background of swastika".
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
On May 17, 2008 the Russian pro-governmental youth organization Young Russia
organized the protest "Let's not allow the rewriting of history!" in front of the Embassy of Latvia in Moscow. An effigy
representing Edvīns Šnore was burnt during the protest.
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 fromer 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, Marx using the term "Völkerabfälle" in relation to a number of small European nations. Although sometimes translated as "racial trash", a more precise translation is "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."
In Finland the film was shown in events organized by the irredentist group ProKarelia
. A criminal complaint by Johan Bäckman
, member of the Finnish Anti-Fascist Committee
against ProKarelia
has led to a criminal investigation on suspicion of showing violent scenes to minors, incitement to ethnic or racial hatred and propaganda of violence. The Finnish Film inspector authority, however, did not find the film's content offensive and authorized its showing in Finland.
Johan Bäckman also protested against the screening of The Soviet Story on the Estonian National TV. He asked the Estonian police to start a criminal investiagion. The Police, however, turned down Bäckman's request and refused to initiate a criminal investigation "due to the lack of crime".
A number of critics condemned the film even before its premiere. Boris Tsilevich, a Latvian member of parliament representing Harmony Centre
, stated that it was a "typical propaganda" and its release was timed to coincide with the 2009 Latvian elections for the European Parliament
.
As a result of Dyukov's statements a criminal investigation has been initiated against him in Latvia.
Asked to comment on the case, Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins commented that Alexander Dyukov might be a "mentally unstable personality". Prime Minister of Estonia Mart Laar
called Dyukov "an officer of FSB"
Alexander Dyukov expressed his opinion that the film is a propaganda piece which makes false claims and uses distorted quotes and statistics. Dyukov later published a book "The Soviet Story: The Mechanism of lies", which made a detailed critical analysis of the alleged falsifications contained in the film".
Alexander Dyukov publicly criticized the film on TV and in the Russian newspapers, and one of his statements about the film contributors proved to be controversial with the film authors. He told the web site Pravda
.ru that he thought that Arseny Roginsky
, the head of the "Memorial
" society, took part in the preparation of the film. Roginsky himself, however, neither confirmed nor denied his participation but confirmed that other members of his "Memorial" society did take part in the film. He said that he sees too many journalists each day to remember if a Latvian team coming to Memorial was talking to him that day. He said: "'One of my employees mentioned in the film, gave an interview to the Latvian reporters about Katyn, so possibly on that day they came to me too'." He also added that "no historian, if he's not completely out of his mind, would pronounce the rubbish told in this film", calling the idea of NKVD-Gestapo accord a "delirium that can only be accepted by a very badly educated person". Arseny Roginsky said that most likely he will not take any action against the authors of this film. The official website of the film used this Arseny Roginsky's interview to Pravda.ru as proof that he did not take part in the film.
Dyukov alleges inconsistencies in the film and questions the credibility of some of the film sequences and conclusions of some of the Russian and Western historians interviewed in the film. Izvestia
reported that the part of the film pertaining to medical experiments in the GULAG used Sergey Melnikoff's web-site "GULAG: With a camera among the camps" as a source, which Dyukov maintains is not trustworthy. Dyukov also alleges in the same report that the document supporting the Gestapo-NKVD partnership
hypothesis presented in the film, the secret Gestapo-NKVD agreement of November 11, 1938, is a fake.
Dyukov also criticized the film for showing a famous photo which was widely published in Europe by the Nansen committee in 1922 and which bears the name "Brothers in misfortune" . The photo which shows a starving boy feeding another starving boy was taken during famine in Russia in 1922
, however in The Soviet Story, according to Dyukov, the boys are presented as victims of the famine in Ukraine
.
” party, declared that The Soviet Story film “glorifies Estonian Nazi collaborators, those who killed people in Khatyn
and in Pskov region”.
In response to Yarovaya's statement, Mart Laar
wrote: "It is indeed impressive how much wrong can be put into one sentence. First, Estonians did not kill anyone in Khatyn and, secondly, the specific crime committed in Khatyn is not mentioned in the film at all... This gives the impression that Yarovaya, actually, has not seen the film."
No part of the film talks or even mentions Estonian Nazi collaborators. Moreover, the film's director has clearly stated: "The Soviet Story condemns Fascism/Nazism.[...] The Soviet Story also reflects a point of view which is not shared by the Kremlin. As a result, the film is labeled as Fascist propaganda, even if the film describes Hitler and Nazism as criminal."
in Estonia and in Yanovskaya camp near Lvov."
This accusation was reproduced by such news outlets as Vzglyad and Vesti.kz.
The alleged scene from the Klooga concentration camp
showing corpses piled in stacks for burning does not appear in the film.
In 2009 the film has been nominated for the biannual Latvian National Film Award Lielais Kristaps
in the "Best Documentary" category.
In 2008 the President of Latvia, Valdis Zatlers
awarded the director of the film, Edvins Snore with the Order of the Three Stars
.
In 2009 Edvins Snore for creating the film "The Soviet Story" received the Estonian Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana
.
2008 in film
This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about Soviet Communism and Soviet-German collaboration before 1941 written and directed by Edvīns Šnore
Edvīns Šnore
Edvīns Šnore is a Latvian film director.He has become known for his 2008 documentary The Soviet Story. For this film, he was awarded with the Latvian Order of the Three Stars in 2008, and the Estonian Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana in 2009....
and sponsored by the UEN Group
Union for Europe of the Nations
Union for Europe of the Nations was a political group of the European Parliament between 1999 and 2009.-History:UEN was formed on 20 July 1999, supplanting the earlier Union for Europe. Its member parties Fianna Fáil and National Alliance were the driving forces behind the group, despite their...
in the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
.
The film features interviews with western and Russian historians such as Norman Davies
Norman Davies
Professor Ivor Norman Richard Davies FBA, FRHistS is a leading English historian of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom.- Academic career :...
and Boris Sokolov, Russian writer Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
, Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist....
, 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
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It highlights the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
as well as the Great Famine
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
, Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Katyn massacre
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...
, Gestapo-NKVD collaboration
Gestapo-NKVD Conferences
The Gestapo–NKVD conferences were a series of meetings organized in late 1939 and early 1940, whose purpose was the mutual cooperation between Nazi Germany and Soviet Union...
, Soviet mass deportations
Population transfer in the Soviet Union
Population transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "anti-Soviet" categories of population, often classified as "enemies of workers," deportations of entire nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite...
and medical experiments in the GULAG
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
.
Reception
The film has attracted praise and criticism from academic historians and political commentators.The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
review of The Soviet Story praises the film by saying
It concludes its review by calling the documentary "a sharply provocative work".
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
in its review of the documentary stated
Various Members of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
(MEPs) who were interviewed for the film,
have expressed views in favour of it.
According to the Latvian MEPs Inese Vaidere
Inese Vaidere
Inese Vaidere is a Latvian politician, serving as a Member of the European Parliament .She was formerly Vice-Mayor of Riga and member of the Saeima. She was elected to the European Parliament in 2004 for the For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK list; part of the Union for a Europe of Nations group...
and Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis
Girts Valdis Kristovskis
Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis is a Latvian politician and the current Foreign Minister of Latvia in the Cabinet of Valdis Dombrovskis....
writing in Parliament Magazine:
Both Vaidere and Kristovskis represent the UEN group which actively supported the production of the film.
After watching the film, Finnish MEP Ari Vatanen
Ari Vatanen
Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and Member of the European Parliament 1999–2009. Vatanen won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times....
gave the following comment:
British MEP Christopher Beazley
Christopher Beazley
Christopher John Pridham Beazley is a British politician for the Conservative Party, who served as a Member of the European Parliament 1984–1994 and 1999–2009.-Background:...
commented:
Vytautas Landsbergis
Vytautas Landsbergis
Professor Vytautas Landsbergis is a Lithuanian conservative politician and Member of the European Parliament. He was the first head of state of Lithuania after its independence declaration from the Soviet Union, and served as the Head of the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas...
, MEP and the former Head of the Lithuanian Seimas
Seimas
The Seimas is the unicameral Lithuanian parliament. It has 141 members that are elected for a four-year term. About half of the members of this legislative body are elected in individual constituencies , and the other half are elected by nationwide vote according to proportional representation...
(Parliament), assessed The Soviet Story as
Likewise, Latvia's Minister of Justice, Gaidis Bērziņš (For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK), has said that, because of its important historical message, he would encourage the Ministry of Education to have the film shown in all schools in Latvia.
MEP from Latvia Tatjana Ždanoka
Tatjana Ždanoka
Tatyana Arkad'evna Zhdanok, , born May 8, 1950 in Riga, is a Latvian politician and Member of the European Parliament and a co-Chairperson of For Human Rights in United Latvia; part of the European Greens–European Free Alliance group. Zhdanok is co-chairperson of ForHRUL since 2001...
, who opposed Latvia's independence from the Soviet Union and ran as a candidate of the largest Russian political bloc in Latvia, regards the film as a "propagandistic odd job, which is given out to be "a new word in history". She also thought that "the second part of the film is pure political PR": while the first part of the film pictures the point of view of some historians, contemporary politicians criticize modern Russia in the end of the film. Ždanoka also noted that "a lot of attention was devoted to the partnership of the German and Russian military. This is followed by a jump forward in time to the 1940s, with a mass-meeting of Vlasovites
Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
is shown against a background of swastika".
On May 17, 2008 the Russian pro-governmental youth organization Young Russia
Young Russia
Young Russia is a Russian youth movement founded in April 2005. The movement is known for its protest rallies in front of foreign embassies and for various political rallies in the streets....
organized the protest "Let's not allow the rewriting of history!" in front of the Embassy of Latvia in Moscow. An effigy
Effigy
An effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional form.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer,...
representing Edvīns Šnore was burnt during the protest.
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
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of the Nazi German regime, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference was to inform administrative leaders of Departments responsible for various policies relating to Jews, that Reinhard Heydrich...
in Berlin." Furthermore, Ījabs comments on the notion in the film voiced by the British literary historian, liberal and fromer political activist George Watson that Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
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, Marx using the term "Völkerabfälle" in relation to a number of small European nations. Although sometimes translated as "racial trash", a more precise translation is "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."
In Finland the film was shown in events organized by the irredentist group ProKarelia
ProKarelia
ProKarelia is a Finnish irredentist group that works for the return to Finland of Finnish Karelia, Petsamo, Salla and some islands in Gulf of Finland ceded to the Soviet Union in past treaties in Moscow and Paris...
. A criminal complaint by Johan Bäckman
Johan Bäckman
Erkki Johan Bäckman is a Finnish political author, legal sociologist and criminologist, holding an adjunct professorship in three Finnish universities....
, member of the Finnish Anti-Fascist Committee
Finnish Anti-Fascist Committee
The Finnish Anti-Fascist Committee , also known by its Finnish abbreviation SAFKA, is a radical political organisation operating in Finland, founded in November 2008, but never registered...
against ProKarelia
ProKarelia
ProKarelia is a Finnish irredentist group that works for the return to Finland of Finnish Karelia, Petsamo, Salla and some islands in Gulf of Finland ceded to the Soviet Union in past treaties in Moscow and Paris...
has led to a criminal investigation on suspicion of showing violent scenes to minors, incitement to ethnic or racial hatred and propaganda of violence. The Finnish Film inspector authority, however, did not find the film's content offensive and authorized its showing in Finland.
Johan Bäckman also protested against the screening of The Soviet Story on the Estonian National TV. He asked the Estonian police to start a criminal investiagion. The Police, however, turned down Bäckman's request and refused to initiate a criminal investigation "due to the lack of crime".
A number of critics condemned the film even before its premiere. Boris Tsilevich, a Latvian member of parliament representing Harmony Centre
Harmony Centre
Harmony Centre is a political alliance in Latvia. It was formed in 2005 and its member parties are the Social Democratic Party "Harmony" and the Socialist Party of Latvia Harmony Centre (abbreviated SC; ) is a political alliance in Latvia. It was formed in 2005 and its member parties are the...
, stated that it was a "typical propaganda" and its release was timed to coincide with the 2009 Latvian elections for the European Parliament
European Parliament election, 2009 (Latvia)
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Latvia involved the election of the delegation from Latvia to the European Parliament in 2009. 17 lists containing a total of 185 candidates were registered for the election....
.
Criticism
Alexander Dyukov and Arseny Roginsky
Russian historian Alexander Dyukov, has been the most vocal critic of the documentary. His first reaction on the film was to write a brief repudiation of some of the claims made in the film, which he concluded with this reaction: "After watching two thirds of the film, I had only one wish: to kill its director and to burn down the Latvian Embassy."As a result of Dyukov's statements a criminal investigation has been initiated against him in Latvia.
Asked to comment on the case, Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins commented that Alexander Dyukov might be a "mentally unstable personality". Prime Minister of Estonia Mart Laar
Mart Laar
Mart Laar is an Estonian statesman, historian and a founding member of the Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes. He was the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002, and is the leader of the conservative party Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica...
called Dyukov "an officer of FSB"
Alexander Dyukov expressed his opinion that the film is a propaganda piece which makes false claims and uses distorted quotes and statistics. Dyukov later published a book "The Soviet Story: The Mechanism of lies", which made a detailed critical analysis of the alleged falsifications contained in the film".
Alexander Dyukov publicly criticized the film on TV and in the Russian newspapers, and one of his statements about the film contributors proved to be controversial with the film authors. He told the web site Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
.ru that he thought that Arseny Roginsky
Arseny Roginsky
Arseny Borisovich Roginsky is a Russian historian and human rights activist. He is one of the founders of Memorial.- References :...
, the head of the "Memorial
Memorial (society)
Memorial is an international historical and civil rights society that operates in a number of post-Soviet states. It focuses on recording and publicising the Soviet Union's totalitarian past, but also monitors human rights in post-Soviet states....
" society, took part in the preparation of the film. Roginsky himself, however, neither confirmed nor denied his participation but confirmed that other members of his "Memorial" society did take part in the film. He said that he sees too many journalists each day to remember if a Latvian team coming to Memorial was talking to him that day. He said: "'One of my employees mentioned in the film, gave an interview to the Latvian reporters about Katyn, so possibly on that day they came to me too'." He also added that "no historian, if he's not completely out of his mind, would pronounce the rubbish told in this film", calling the idea of NKVD-Gestapo accord a "delirium that can only be accepted by a very badly educated person". Arseny Roginsky said that most likely he will not take any action against the authors of this film. The official website of the film used this Arseny Roginsky's interview to Pravda.ru as proof that he did not take part in the film.
Dyukov alleges inconsistencies in the film and questions the credibility of some of the film sequences and conclusions of some of the Russian and Western historians interviewed in the film. Izvestia
Izvestia
Izvestia is a long-running high-circulation daily newspaper in Russia. The word "izvestiya" in Russian means "delivered messages", derived from the verb izveshchat . In the context of newspapers it is usually translated as "news" or "reports".-Origin:The newspaper began as the News of the...
reported that the part of the film pertaining to medical experiments in the GULAG used Sergey Melnikoff's web-site "GULAG: With a camera among the camps" as a source, which Dyukov maintains is not trustworthy. Dyukov also alleges in the same report that the document supporting the Gestapo-NKVD partnership
Gestapo-NKVD Conferences
The Gestapo–NKVD conferences were a series of meetings organized in late 1939 and early 1940, whose purpose was the mutual cooperation between Nazi Germany and Soviet Union...
hypothesis presented in the film, the secret Gestapo-NKVD agreement of November 11, 1938, is a fake.
Dyukov also criticized the film for showing a famous photo which was widely published in Europe by the Nansen committee in 1922 and which bears the name "Brothers in misfortune" . The photo which shows a starving boy feeding another starving boy was taken during famine in Russia in 1922
Russian famine of 1921
The Russian famine of 1921, also known as Povolzhye famine, which began in the early spring of that year, and lasted through 1922, was a severe famine that occurred in Bolshevik Russia...
, however in The Soviet Story, according to Dyukov, the boys are presented as victims of the famine in Ukraine
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
.
Irina Yarovaya
Irina Yarovaya, Russian MP, member of the General Council of the ruling “United RussiaUnited Russia
United Russia is a centrist political party in Russia and the largest party in the country, currently holding 315 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. The party was founded in December 2001, through a merger of the Unity and Fatherland-All Russia parties...
” party, declared that The Soviet Story film “glorifies Estonian Nazi collaborators, those who killed people in Khatyn
Khatyn massacre
Khatyn, Chatyń was a village in Belarus, in Lahojsk district, Minsk Voblast. On March 22, 1943, the population of the village was massacred during World War II by the 118th Schutzmannschaft battalion, formed in July 1942 in Kiev, mostly from Ukrainian collaborators, prisoners of war and...
and in Pskov region”.
In response to Yarovaya's statement, Mart Laar
Mart Laar
Mart Laar is an Estonian statesman, historian and a founding member of the Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes. He was the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002, and is the leader of the conservative party Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica...
wrote: "It is indeed impressive how much wrong can be put into one sentence. First, Estonians did not kill anyone in Khatyn and, secondly, the specific crime committed in Khatyn is not mentioned in the film at all... This gives the impression that Yarovaya, actually, has not seen the film."
No part of the film talks or even mentions Estonian Nazi collaborators. Moreover, the film's director has clearly stated: "The Soviet Story condemns Fascism/Nazism.[...] The Soviet Story also reflects a point of view which is not shared by the Kremlin. As a result, the film is labeled as Fascist propaganda, even if the film describes Hitler and Nazism as criminal."
RIA Novosti
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported: "The film shows the alleged victims of Stalinist repression: the corpses piled in stacks and covered with logs. In fact these photographs were taken by the Soviets in 1944 and represent the victims of the Nazi atrocities in Klooga concentration campKlooga concentration camp
Klooga was a Nazi labor subcamp of the Vaivara concentration camp complex established in September 1943 in Harju County, during World War II, in German-occupied Estonia near the northern Estonian village Klooga...
in Estonia and in Yanovskaya camp near Lvov."
This accusation was reproduced by such news outlets as Vzglyad and Vesti.kz.
The alleged scene from the Klooga concentration camp
Klooga concentration camp
Klooga was a Nazi labor subcamp of the Vaivara concentration camp complex established in September 1943 in Harju County, during World War II, in German-occupied Estonia near the northern Estonian village Klooga...
showing corpses piled in stacks for burning does not appear in the film.
Film festivals and awards
The film has been screened in the following film festivals:- 2008 Boston Film FestivalBoston Film FestivalBoston Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It has been held annually since 1984, usually in early September....
, USA – "The Soviet Story" received the “ Mass Impact Award” - 2008 KinoLev Film Festival - Lviv, Ukraine
- 2008 Black Nights Film FestivalTallinn Black Nights Film FestivalTallinn Black Nights Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Tallinn, Estonia...
– TallinnTallinnTallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
, Estonia - 2008 Arsenals Film Festival - RigaRigaRiga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Latvia - 2008 Promitey Film Festival - TbilisiTbilisiTbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
, Georgia - 2008 Baltic Film Festival – BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany - 2009 Sedona International Film Festival – Sedona, ArizonaSedona, ArizonaSedona is a city that straddles the county line between Coconino and Yavapai counties in the northern Verde Valley region of the U.S. state of Arizona...
, USA - 2009 Mene Tekel festival - PraguePraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Czech Republic - 2009 Politicsonfilm Film Festival - Washington, USA
In 2009 the film has been nominated for the biannual Latvian National Film Award Lielais Kristaps
Lielais Kristaps
Lielais Kristaps National Film Festival is a Latvian film festival. Since 2001 it's organized every two years. Lielais Kristaps is the highest prize awarded in the Latvian cinema. The festival was first held in 1977.-Best Film:-Best Documentary:...
in the "Best Documentary" category.
In 2008 the President of Latvia, Valdis Zatlers
Valdis Zatlers
Valdis Zatlers is a Latvian politician and former physician who served as the seventh president of Latvia from 2007 to 2011. He won the Latvian presidential election of 31 May 2007...
awarded the director of the film, Edvins Snore with the Order of the Three Stars
Order of the Three Stars
Order of the Three Stars is order awarded for merits in service for Latvia. It was established in 1924 in remembrance of founding of Latvia. Its motto is "Per aspera ad astra"...
.
In 2009 Edvins Snore for creating the film "The Soviet Story" received the Estonian Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana
Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana
The Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana was instituted in 1995 to honour the independence of the Estonian state. The Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana is bestowed upon the President of the Republic. Presidents of the Republic who have ceased to hold office shall keep the Order of the Cross of...
.