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Reviews
Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin (2008)
Revisionist propaganda
The Treptower Park monument in Berlin depicting a Soviet soldier with a German girl he rescued is just typical of the conduct of the Red Army, characterized by unprecedented heroism and courage. In destroying the fascist vermin, Russia not only defended its freedom and independence but played the decisive role in the liberation of Europe and Asia from enslavement. World civilization was saved. As the great German writer Johannes Becher wrote in a poem after the war, "Who has done all the deeds/To free us from drudgery?/The heroes of the Soviet Union/Thanks to you, Soviet soldiers"
But influenced by the Cold War triumphalism of Anglo-Americans, a resurgent neo-Nazism in Germany, and fascist nationalism in countries of Eastern Europe, there is an effort to rewrite the facts and results of World War II. Blackening the name of the Red Army with sensationalistic, perverted accusations of mass rape made is part of an effort to revive German nationalism, whitewash the Nazi past, and normalize the fact that Germany was and will always be responsible for imposing a genocidal war. The Anglo-American revisionists in their soft war with Russia want to minimize the accomplishments of the Red Army and even portray Russia as being equivalent to Nazi Germany. German revanchists justify their vile designs with the fabrication of a "ravished Germany" at the hands of the "Russian Mongol hordes". The intent of this film to slander the Russians and the great Soviet soldiers as a hordes of marauding, Asiatic beasts has its roots in the dying days of the German Reich.
As Russian historians have shown, an objective analysis of abuses by the Red Army demonstrates that rape and other crimes against Germans did not represent a massive and extraordinary phenomenon, and were not the reflection of an organized and systematic policy by the authorities. Rather, the heroism and humanity of the Red Army is amply documented, as is the gratitude they received from the German people. The authorities did their utmost to ensure that that civilians would not be harmed by educating the rank-and-file soldiers and severely punishing offenders. The Germans did not experience a mere fraction of the horror that their soldiers staged in the East. The methodology employed by the falsifiers for their delusions about mass rape consist of dubious statistical manipulations and extrapolations based on the prevalence of abortions at a few health clinics. Nothing in their work provides convincing evidence that mass rape occurred.
While western falsifiers of history are so keen to highlight this "Eine frau in Berlin" story by devoting enormous resources for a movie and book, there is a curious absence of the stories of Red Army veterans who discredited these allegations of abusing German civilians, as well as countless German residents who expressed gratitude to the liberators. For example, Russian historian A. Dyukov cites the memoir of Lieutent P. Kirichenko, who confirmed that "The question of revenge against the Nazis dropped out. It is not in the traditions of our people to take out reprisals against women, children, and elderly. The attitude of the Soviet soldiers to the German civilians was neutral. Nobody, at least from our regiment, committed persecutions. Moreover, when we met with many hungry German children, we shared our food without hesitation."
Also from Dyukov's work are the reminisces of Irgmard Dietz, a Berliner: , "His name was Nikolai Semyonovich Silnev. We met in Berlin in May 1945. I was 20 years old and I lived with my mother and sister... I liked him, but he never approached me. He followed me when I was sick with pneumonia. He laughed a lot, which helped to free us from fear. His openness and humanity led us to become friends despite the language barrier, poor conditions of life, different backgrounds. He greatly influenced my spiritual healing and, of course, influenced my future. I thought a lot about him and wanted to say that I am forever grateful for the brief time we spent together."
The Soviet Story (2008)
Neo-fascist revisionism.
Supported by a fringe, neo-fascist faction of the European Parliament, which includes pro-Nazi glorifiers, xenophobes, and anti-Semites of the Fatherland and Freedom (Latvia), Lega Nord (Italy), and the Law and Justice Party (Poland), this propaganda piece with lies and innuendo seeks to generate hatred towards Russia and blacken the image of progressive forces throughout the world.
There is nothing new with the approach of this film. Desperate attempts to blacken the Russian Government and equate it to Nazi Germany is part of the old Cold War propaganda struggle waged by the United States Government and neo-fascist organizations like the John Birch Society. This is ironic given the fact that this film has received the enthusiastic support of the crypto-Nazis of Latvia's For Fatherland and Freedom party. Especially disturbing about the revisionism of this film is the denial of the Holocaust by seeking to shift blame from the actual criminals to Russia.
To start, this piece of pseudo-history does not include contributions from any respected, qualified scholars specializing in Russian history or political science from institutions of higher education. One contributor to the film, George Watson, fabricates and misinterprets quotations from Marx and Engels. Watson, it should be noted, is not a professor of history, political science, or any field relating to the film's subject. And while this film presents itself to be some kind of groundbreaking investigation of Russian history, it is curious how not a professor of history from Russia is found in this film. Rather, the documentary features a freak show composed of degenerates from radical right-wing parties, such as Kristovskis of the the aforementioned For Fatherland and Freedom party of Lavia.
Concerning the invented quotations of Marx and Engels, it is claimed in this film that Engels called Slavs "dirty" and opposed the existence of Poland. But this is a a falsification of history because Marx and Engels had long been some of the most passionate supporters of Polish independence, particularly the 1863 uprising. The film makes the outrageous claim that Marx and Engels called for a "revolutionary holocaust" against specific peoples. But Engels did not call for the destruction of what he called counter-revolutionary nations, but only predicted that such people would experience setbacks as they struggled with the progressive nations. In 1890, Engels would write positively on these backwards nations, believing in their right to self-determination: "Magyars, Romanians, Serbs, Bulgars, Albanians, Greeks, and Turks will then finally be in a position to...manage their own internal affairs according to their own judgment." It should be noted, however, that Marxism is not some kind of immutable dogma; Marx and Engels regularly revised their work and acknowledged their errors and mistakes that they previously made.
The film makes the spurious claim that a famine throughout Russia and elsewhere in the Soviet Union constituted a genocide against Ukraine that killed 7 million. But as scholars have noted, the famine was in no way limited to the Ukraine, but affected much of the country. To talk about a "Ukrainian Golodomor" is a misrepresentation of history. Contrary to what the film and its sources claim, the death toll was nowhere near 7 million. Professor Wheatcroft, for example, estimated that the death toll amounted to an estimated 4 to 5 million throughout the USSR, including 1.5 million in Ukraine. And as Tauger proves in his research, the famine to a large extent resulted from natural disasters. In particular, Extremely dry weather had the effect of reducing crops while extremely wet and humid weather later on led to infestations. And rather than desiring the famine, the Soviet Government took measures to provide relief to those areas affected by the famine.
Other monstrously false claims made in this film include the lies that Russia refused to enter into an anti-fascist alliance with the Western Powers, Gestapo staff trained the NKVD, Russia's extradition of Jews to the Gestapo, and Russia's involvement in the extermination of Jews, which I do not have the space to go into detail about.
Rather than wasting your time with this pathetic excuse for a propaganda film, a better choice would be to go to college and study the work of respected scholars to learn the truth.