hold on to the center

In the winter of 1932-1933 Stalin’s Soviet government carried out a regionally motivated mass killing that seems to have surpassed the more well known Holocaust in scope and cruelty. It happened 10 years before the Nazi’s concentration camp ovens and was widely reported in the western press, unlike the Jewish Holocaust which was known regionally and in political circles but did not appear widely in the world press.

With a sinister narration and chilling first hand accounts, The Soviet Story begins with the Ukrainian starvation plot carried out on the people by their own government. This was brought to light in the relatively recent accounts of Soviet mass killings The Black Book of Communism weighing in at 912 pages. For the faint of heart and short of time, this documentary carries the point effectively in under 90 minutes.

Millions of tons of grain and all food stuffs were removed from the entire region. Its inhabitants were prevented from pursuing food or leaving the region by law. The Soviet authorities blocked passages out of the region and shot those who tried to leave. Over the course of that year, 7 million people died as a result. Most from slow, agonizing starvation or execution.

Most popular history of this period is focused on the Hitler’s Third Reich and includes the Soviet aspect in relation to it or World War II in general.  The Soviet Story tells a part of the story in a way that seems fresh and noteworthy. This video also focuses on the commonalities of Marxist theory as realized by Lenin and especially Stalin and his followers. I was surprised at how directly the principles of class warfare with extermination of those at the bottom and the top of the class pyramid were communicated and carried out. I’ve read Marx widely and was aware of his general references to those who must “perish in the revolution”, but the approach of Lenin and ambitious scale of Stalin actions are shocking.

Another interesting aspect illuminated is the similarities between Soviet and Nazi beliefs. The different philosophys about who should be killed and why gets great detail. The Soviets drew the lines by class, the Nazi’s by race or other ethnic discrimination.

I won’t try to summarize the content, but these observations come from only the first 1/3 of the video.  The overall scope is how Stalinism effected WWII and shaped the Soviet Union for the the Cold War.

It also contains an excellent telling of the USSR’s involvement in the first part of WWII allied strongly with Germany and determined to divide Europe between them.  I would recommend this documentary strongly to anyone who enjoys the popular WWI films like those on the history channel. 

I saw this video over the net last year and was fascinated by the parts I could understand. The interviews with non-English speakers were not subtitled. I wrote the makers of the film who explained that they had received similar concerns from all over Europe and were working to localize. Could I help with a donation? Absolutely. The DVD was released recently and I am grateful for my copy.