The War in the East -- on TV

February 2, 2022 5:07 PM

MeFite cwest (who seems to have abandoned us five years ago) on the DVD release of The Unknown War: WWII And The Epic Battles Of The Russian Front from 1978, which only now am I getting around to viewing. Hosted by Burt Lancaster; music by Rod McKuen.
posted by Rash (13 comments total)

Somebody on yt created a beautiful animated map series of the ebb and flow of the front 1941-45.

Sucker stole one of my ideas, but did it well so I'll let it slide.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 5:17 PM on February 2, 2022 [5 favorites]

cwest' post on 'The World at War'
posted by clavdivs at 5:30 PM on February 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

The series is still on YouTube, which is where I watched a bit of it a few years ago (don't recall if it was before or because of this original post).
posted by briank at 6:09 PM on February 2, 2022 [5 favorites]

Thanks for re-posting this. Soviet Storm is a ca. 2011 Russian series on the Great Patriotic War, and is also an interesting counterweight to the west-centric narrative of much WW2 documentaries - somewhere in the middle of one of the episodes there is a single sentence mention of D-Day. It's also interesting for how it treats Stalin and the top generals in light of the re-emerging power cults in Russia today.

It has fairly cheesy re-enacting and gratuitous video-game graphics, be warned.
posted by Rumple at 8:38 PM on February 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

in related: Rod McKuen's cat.
posted by ovvl at 8:55 PM on February 2, 2022

Conveniently starts in 1941, not 1939 yet still manages to include a "liberate Poland" chapter.
posted by UN at 10:23 PM on February 2, 2022 [4 favorites]

Here's a playlist on Youtube in slightly better quality.
posted by Kosmob0t at 12:55 AM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

I remember watching some of the original broadcast as it aired. Powerful stuff.

European and American accounts of WWII all too often downplay the immense role of the Soviet Union. (Ditto Russia in WWI.)
posted by doctornemo at 5:42 AM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Conveniently starts in 1941, not 1939 yet still manages to include a "liberate Poland" chapter.

Ha, yeah, one problem with looking at the "the immense role of the Soviet Union" is that you have to confront the fact that they signed a series of agreements (both open and secret) with the Nazis so that they were free to engage in their own wars of conquest against Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania in 1939-40. And, of course, both the USSR and the Nazis signed those agreements both fully intending to betray and attack the other side, it's just the Nazis did it first. And then conquered Eastern Europe after the Reich fell.
posted by star gentle uterus at 8:04 AM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

I watched this series on Tubi during the early months of the pandemic. As already noted, there's plenty of heavy and ham-fisted soviet party line influence. For instance, they were still pushing the "Nazis did it" line for the Katyn Massacre back then. Nevertheless, I've never seen a remotely comparable treatment of the Soviet/Nazi conflict.

If it helps anyone, the episode on the fighting in the Caucasus stood out to me.
posted by house-goblin at 10:20 AM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

in related: Rod McKuen's cat.

that is an Easter egg. McKuen worked on the documentary in a writing capacity.
posted by clavdivs at 10:54 AM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

The immense role of the Soviet Union - no need for quotes, it's just true - goes even farther than the Nazi alliance phase, which does indeed include those conquests and expansions. There's the 1939 battle of Khalkin Gol, which stymied the Japanese army's ambitions north of China.

I'm enjoying Sean McMeekin's Stalin's War now, which makes a good case for the centrality of the USSR in this period.
posted by doctornemo at 11:50 AM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'll add that besides Khalkin Gol, there was the Soviet declaration of war against Japan in 1945.

I read a lot of passages from the US Strategic Bombing Survey report for the Pacific Theatre (for a history paper I wrote) and though it was surrounded by much verbiage they were in no doubt that the Soviet declaration of war was the deciding factor in Japan's surrender. A lot of more recent scholarship has confirmed this, though I suppose it is still vigorously contested in some quarters.

I'll also add that the Unknown War episode on the Soviet offensive against Japan in Manchuria has some interesting footage of the Red Army outside of the usual European Theatre environment.
posted by house-goblin at 1:52 PM on February 3, 2022 [2 favorites]