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February 03, 2010
Mission to Moscow
During January, Turner Classic Movies, presented Shadows of Russia, a look at Russia and the Soviet Union as seen through Hollywood's lens. This fascinating series was conceived and programmed by film blogger Self-Styled Siren and the New York Post's Lou Lumenick.
Siren explains how it happened here.
I've been covering the series for Big Hollywood—Part I, Part II—and here's today's post:
Mission to Moscow (1943), based on the memoir of the same name by Joseph P. Davies, is, well, jaw dropping. Not because it’s so bad, which it is. But because it’s a piece of slick Stalinist propaganda produced by Warner Brothers.
How did this wretched film come into existence?
With the Soviet Union abandoning the Soviet-Nazi pact, and joining America and the allies against Germany and Japan, Roosevelt understood that the American people needed to be, um, reeducated in their attitude towards the Soviet menace. Thus, Roosevelt asked Hollywood to cooperate and produce films that cleared up all the alleged misunderstandings about totalitarian Soviet Communism and mass murdering Josef Stalin.
Or that’s the standard story. In Red Star Over Hollywood, Ronald and Allis Radosh report that:
In a newspaper interview, Davies said that it was he who had approached Harry Warner about the book, after other film companies had shown interest. If it was to be a movie, he told Warner, “I want you to make it.” Warner agreed, and Davies was paid $25,000.
Whatever the truth of the film’s genesis, using Davies 1941 memoir, Hollywood went to work.
A credulous dupe, Davies, Roosevelt’s ambassador to the Soviet Union, was, like New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty, a reliable apologist for Communism and Stalin’s murderous policies. Davies was, as Lenin famously labeled Western liberals, “a useful idiot.”
Most shocking in Davies memoir is the treatment of the Moscow show trials that took place between 1936 and 1938. In a major purge, Stalin accused the old Bolshevik leaders of plotting with Nazi Germany to overthrow the Soviet regime. The defendants were primarily old buddies of Lenin who had been celebrated as the first heroes of the Soviet Revolution. They were now accused of working with Trotsky to sabotage industry, assassinate Stalin, and bring down the Soviet regime.
The charges were absurd and most of the defendants were executed. Their confessions are lovingly rendered in a courtroom scene that paints the Soviets as scrupulous jurists. In fact, the hapless defendants were drugged, horribly tortured and told that their families would be murdered unless they confessed.
To read the complete article, head on over to Big Hollywood.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at February 3, 2010 08:51 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
Dear Robert: Regarding your review: The Russians needed to occupy FINLAND to protect themselves from German aggression, but they left the whole Russian-Polish border vulnerable and Stalin had purged the army so thoroughly, there was almost nobody to fight back and the Nazis were able to advance DANGEROUSLY far.
Costa-Gavras, who you once dismissed ad a useful idiot with a camera, DID make a DEVASTATING film about how the "confessions" at the Stalinist show trials were obtained: THE CONFESSION.
Did you ever read the BOOK Mission to Moscow? If you ever do, keep a bucket handy. It's nauseating.
Posted by: Miranda Rose Smith at February 4, 2010 12:13 AM
The whitewashing occurred far earlier than this, Robert.
NYT "journalist" Walter Duranty wrote glowingly of the Soviet Union and Stalin (1931) while 10 million people in the Ukraine were dying in 1931-1933 from forced starvation.
BTW he won a Pulitzer Prize for this.
I have learned a lot recently about the pact between Stalin and Hitler.
Traditionally it was portrayed as a marriage of convenience, but there was a lot more mutual cooperation and assistance between them.
For example during the Nazi invasion of Norway, Stalin allowed the use of a Soviet navy base for the Germans. There werfe a lot of military liaisons and cooperation from both countries.
That is why Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's secret plan for the invasion of the USSR in Aug 1941, was such a shock to Stalin and for the first few days he refused to accept it. And since he had murdered much of his own officer corps in the previous years, the Nazi invasion was all that more effective.
With all that being said, the Soviet Union had about 2/3rds of the Wehrmacht to fight, while the West had the other third.
Historians of a more cynical bent wonder who killed more Russians, Hitler or Stalin? Both were way over 10 million.
Each.
Of the many foolish tactical errors Hitler made, invading the USSR while fighting Britain had to be the worst. However from the West's viewpoint, alliance with the USSR was a pact with the Devil (particularly in view of Eastern Europe and Yalta - read Roosevelts "trust" in Stalin). The USSR ended up achieving what they wanted with the alliance with the Nazis. In fact, more since they had agreed to divide Poland.
In summary as bad as the results of the West's alliance with Stalin were, it is frightening to think of the consequences of a neutral Russia - which was a constant fear of Churchill and Roosevelt.
Operation Sea Lion, the Nazi plan to invade Britain, most likely would have succeeded long before America's rearmament and ridding Europe of the Nazis would have been exponentially worse.
At least that's my take...
Posted by: Bill Brandt at February 4, 2010 12:30 AM
Dear Robert: Would you recommend that I rent CONSPIRATOR for my birthday film? I had planned to rent COMMAND DECISION and THE LITTLE COLONEL. All the best and Shabbat Shalom.
Posted by: Miranda Rose Smith at February 4, 2010 12:38 AM
Correction: Should be "AS a useful idiot with a camera."
Posted by: Miranda Rose Smith at February 4, 2010 12:40 AM
A couple of years ago, I read the memoirs of a Soviet general--don't remember the name. After the liberation of a concentration camp in which the Germans were using gas-vans to kill prisoners, this guy spoke to another Soviet officer about how horrible it all was:
Other Officer: You know where you got the idea, don't you?
General: No.
Other Officer: From us.
Don't know if this is accurate, but there's no question that the Nazis adopted many Soviet techniques, and most likely the "education" went the other way, too.
Hitler referred to the Nazi judge Roland Freisler as "our Visheneky," referring to the Soviet prosecutor in the show trials.
Posted by: david foster at February 4, 2010 07:34 AM
Well said. The Eastern Front was the bloodiest of the War, perhaps of all wars, and Russians paid an almost unimaginable price in blood (20 million civilians and soldiers killed compared to 300,000 US soldiers). Some historians have criticized Mr. Roosevelt for giving ground to Stalin, but it's also understandable that during the planned invasion of Western Europe Russian cooperation was absolutely necessary to engage the enemy in the East. It is hard to imagine how the US and Britain would have fared if, as Mr. Brandt says, Hitler had not invaded Russia and the Russians had not engaged so many Germans in Eastern Europe. Attacking Russia was undoubtedly Hitler's cardinal error. Another big blunder was declaring war on the US when he had no need to. Fortunately in the end it all played out well for us.
You can read all about this in an excellent new book on WW2, "The Storm of War" by Andrew Roberts.
Posted by: Davo at February 4, 2010 11:05 AM
Just realized I screwed up part of my earlier comment..
"You know where you got the idea, don't you?"
should have been
"You know where *they* got the idea, don't you?"
Posted by: david foster at February 4, 2010 02:51 PM