Did You Really Know the Red Bear?
If you thought you knew enough about Old Russia, then you have not watched The Soviet Story. The 90-minute film details Soviet Russia’s links with Nazi Germany and its horrendous legacy in Central and Eastern Europe. It tells the story of how the Soviet regime helped Adolf Hitler instigate the Holocaust as well as Russia’s slaughter of its own people on an industrial scale.
Latvian ambassador to the United States Andrejes Pildegovics told the audience at the Heritage Foundation that the film brings to the fore some of the unresolved issues in Europe and Western civilization as a whole. It deconstructs some of the myths built around a supposedly benign Soviet Russia, and invites a critical review of the Cold War and some of its secrets.
Filmed over a two-year period in Russia, the Ukraine, Latvia, France, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom, the film is a story of pain, injustice and realpolitik.
“..it presents a unique insight into recent Soviet history, told by people, once Soviet citizens, who have firsthand knowledge of it,” distinguished fellow in conservative thought at the Heritage Foundation, Dr. Lee Edwards, told the audience.
Dr. Edwards, who also chairs the Victims of Communism Memorial, also said the film would be an important tool in assessing modern Russia. He is the recipient of Accuracy in Media’s 2008 Reed Irvine award.
The film’s author and director, Mr. Edvins Snore, told this writer that he is looking to get the film into more hands in and out of Europe, possibly including Africa. He told the audience that filming began in Russia way before both the Kremlin and some of the interviewees could wage battle against the project.
The Latvian embassy in Washington, DC and its consul in New York are co-coordinating his visit and initial screening, as preparations are made for DVD production on a mass scale.
Jesse Masai is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
Jesse Masai
