It's incredible what one can do with their own history. The creation of the myth takes a while to put together. Mass murders, purges, deportations, indoctrination, decades of fear and brain-washing, generation changes, and here we are, in the 21st century, and the history of the country in the 20th century is still on mass conscience and populist level is one grandiose Lie. By Brezhnev 70's, when the series were made, the Lie about the war had been perfected. Nobody denies the unprecedented heroism and sacrifice of the People. The myths and lies are in the presentation of details, of policy, in portraying the leadership and its role, in the whole narrative of the events in the war, etc. For example, who would be afraid now of the facts pointing to monumental incompetence of some generals. Does this belittle the valor of the heroes in the trenches? Of course, not. Nevertheless, this insane thinking is still alive and well in new Russia, and with no revisions still goes to the school textbooks. Result? Historical ignorance leads only to a new yearning for a new fuhrer inside the country that defeated another fuhrer sixty odd years ago. Movies like these don't help the truth a single bit. It's not the archival footage, one can make anything out of archival footage - look at German propaganda newsreels throughout the war. It's mainly what you say along with it... To listen to this Brezhnev propaganda now, after some glimpses of truths quietly have been coming out over the last couple of decades is to betray the memory of those who perished, and I don't care whether they were yelling "Stalin" or praying to god at that final moment. There is only one truth, and it still is largely buried in the secret archives or what is already known is ignored by general masses. In any case, there are far better series that as a historian i can recommend - both PBS and BBC did a fairly decent, although perhaps too simplified ("dummied down"?) versions of the action on the Eastern front. In Russian - there exists a 96-episode commendable effort called "World War II - Day by Day" (2005) ("Vtoraya Mirovaya - den za dnem"). It's a good account on a fairly limited budget.
If on the one hand the mass consciousness in modern Russia is still under heavy burden of happily inherited communist lies, the ignorance in the West, particularly in the USA is simply astounding, the understanding of war even among some fairly-well educated so limited, that there's really nothing to say. There's also yet another mythology, this time done by magicians of Hollywood. The makers of this culture simply bombard the masses with their garbage. There are some decent works on paper, informative and leading to thinking, but as usual they are simply buried and exist in the realm of few within the university system. Besides, how many people simply read and what do they read?..
Bottom line, history rarely teaches true lessons, that time it did. Before it's too late, it would be a great humanistic progress, if more people learn about those times in history, before it's too late. Go watch something better than this, please... 1 star for level of truth, 8 stars for the propagandist effort
If on the one hand the mass consciousness in modern Russia is still under heavy burden of happily inherited communist lies, the ignorance in the West, particularly in the USA is simply astounding, the understanding of war even among some fairly-well educated so limited, that there's really nothing to say. There's also yet another mythology, this time done by magicians of Hollywood. The makers of this culture simply bombard the masses with their garbage. There are some decent works on paper, informative and leading to thinking, but as usual they are simply buried and exist in the realm of few within the university system. Besides, how many people simply read and what do they read?..
Bottom line, history rarely teaches true lessons, that time it did. Before it's too late, it would be a great humanistic progress, if more people learn about those times in history, before it's too late. Go watch something better than this, please... 1 star for level of truth, 8 stars for the propagandist effort