The Soviet Story

The Soviet Story is a very important contribution for understanding a series of questions about leftism and Marxism outcomes. But other questions remain. First, _how_ is it possible at all that so many young people, as well as oldies, are still impressed by such ideologies? _How_ could it ever be possible that a historian such as Hobsbawn considers himself a communist socialist today, having declared not long ago that if it was not for being a Jew, in the 30s could very well have enthusiastically joined Nazism? With a huge lot of information and discussion nowadays freely available?

Many good comments on the documentary have already been made. But the main question that remains after it is: _how_ came that a Marxist "theory", that started copying the condolent humanitarians in the XIX century, defending egalitarianism ... terminated by practicing the most cruel and extensive genocides of the whole History of mankind?

Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are not short, and not without some work. And perhaps not bound to be contained in movie documentaries, however well performed as is this one. Only through some reading can we begin to see the answers, in analyses made clear along the last century by people such as Isaiah Berlin (as in 'Against the Current') and Karl Popper (as in 'The Open Society and It's Enemies'). Do enjoy them piecemeal.

The movie is excellent. It is well known that winners are writing the history- so the truth of soviet mass murders and genocide is still not truly known for the world. The movie is well-structured and compares two parallel regimes, so opposite but at the same time so similar. People from the countries that were occupied by red plague, know these stories from they parents and grandparents. it is rough to realize for a western world- but the soviet Russia was in no case better than Nazi Germany. For Baltic States people for example, actually it was in number of times worse, the real "holocaust" was created by red army. I have spoken with a lot of people who were in WW2 (for example my grandpa and grandma and et.) and all of them are describing Germans as "at least culture nation" but red soldiers as "dirty brutal people with no honor and compassion". Number of killed persons was several times bigger by Stalin than by Hitler. So who was the worst dictator? That is the question that this movie adduces and it is good, there are so much to bring to daylight and rewrite the history.

This documentary focuses on the atrocities committed against innocent people, mainly by Stalin and other high ranking Soviet leaders in the name of Marxism and Communism prior, during, and after the Second World War.

The documentary consists of much original footage, newspaper clips, interviews with witnesses and even some present day footage, all very well edited and cut.

The story told in this documentary is the best one I've yet to see regarding horrible crimes committed against humanity, because it is very well substantiated in terms of source-material and historical argumentation. The delight of seeing this educational footage is strengthened even more due to its addressing of one of the most inconceivable facts in the post-WWII world: How Adolf Hitler was forever after unconditionally condemned by close to everyone across the globe for his crimes, and how Joseph Stalin was commemorated for aiding the Allies in liberating Europe of fascism, regardless of the fact that in total more than 20 million (some even claim up to 50 or 60 million) people was murdered by the hands of the Soviet Gulag State. A fact which nobody in the western world seems to care about.

What this documentary furthermore achieves which is what eventually made me give it the 10th star, was the fact that the story was told very honestly and very unbiased, unlike much historical media, and the scriptwriters have done an extremely well job in mastering the whole aspect of the stories, and not just focused on narrow one-sided details.

Regardless of the fact that most people see Hitler as the "far-right", and Stalin as the "far-left", this documentary raises the ultimate question: were they indeed that different, after all?

Well i think this whole thing was very interesting. It was a different perspective on history, some details like the soviet controlled famine in Ukraine i knew about already, and some details like the collaboration of the SS and the red army i didn't. But of course i would not believe everything this documentary says, because the Latvians really aren't too good with Russia these days. Of course for me, Stalin still is the biggest Massmurder of our time (right next to Hitler), but on some aspects of the Soviet Union, this documentary does get a little polemic, since they forget to mention about the part after Stalin's death, were people could actually sleep at night without being scared of getting arrested every second. But still, very interesting take on history.

The Soviets and the Chinese Communists killed about 100 million of their own peoples. There is not the slightest historical doubt about this. The fact that some imbecile here says this is propaganda and "why bother" since the USSR disintegrated 20 years ago merely amplifies one of the film's points -- that the history is being whitewashed. We continue to hear, almost daily, about Hitler this, Hitler that, Hitler the other thing ... and he was a freakin' pantywaist compared to the Soviets and Chicoms. It matters, particularly since the so-called intellectual left in the West was complicit, starting with Walter Duranty and his phony reporting for the NYT. It's a reminder that today's fathead libs don't want. I am also quite down on the GOP, so don't lump me with them. I am a libertarian, actually, and find nothing to respect in either major political party in the U.S. today. However, it's the left that bears the greatest complicity in the murder of millions, by providing cover for the killers. Screw 'em.