If you enjoy history, and especially if you enjoy learning from history, I would recommend that you obtain a copy of The Soviet Story. (It is also available on Amazon.) This documentary is rich in “missing pieces” and helps explain many of the confusing issues of the mid and late 20th century.
Among its highest qualities is the presentation of those missing pieces. Among these are the philosophical and strategic documents that linked the Nazis and Soviets, the Soviet holocausts, Putin’s communism, and more –, events which generally only the most astute historian ever learns about. But they are all here, in a presentation that is certain to educate.
The irony is that I first saw this on MPT — Maryland Public Television. It’s not that PBS is known for defending communism. Well, not all the time. It is, after all, not just another type of government, or even a better way to get health care. Michael Moore does not have the [anatomical origin] to produce a film of this character.
So, spend a few bucks. Get a copy and, yes, show it to your church. Get your PBS station to dare run it. Show it to a history class. I would suggest it for a youth group. It’s graphic, but certainly no more than many movies that they watch anyway. And this has the distinct advantage of being true.
February 7th, 2010 | 4:36 pm | #1
Thanks for this post. Sounds fascinating. I love it when finally we get common mythologies about history debunked.
Ironically, this afternoon I’m enjoying reading Rod Stark’s book God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades.
Great stuff.
February 7th, 2010 | 10:22 pm | #2
One of the best books I have read about the Soviet Union is “Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar” by Simon Sebag Montefiore.
More than any book that I have read on the subject, it confirms that socialism and communism were not the determining factors in the history of the Soviet Union. Rather, it was lust for power as only unregenerate man is capable of exercising it; i.e. without any moral constraints. The ideologies merely served as fig leaves in an effort to give legitimacy to the regime.
In order to achieve their ambitions, its leaders were clever enough to be able to make the majority of the population believe in things that were contrary to their own interests. Interestingly enough, Nazism and Soviet Communism are identical in this respect.
It troubles me to see that the people who oppose any change in the health care system in the United States are using this method in the current debate. Somehow they have convinced a significant segment of the population that any change allowed to the current system will inevitably result in the institution of the Gulag in this country. The fact that our educational system has failed to enable people to make intelligent choices plays into their hands. How much, during this debate, for instance, has anyone heard about the healthcare system in Finland, a system that works well for its people without infringing on their freedom?
My point is that we have to be careful in understanding what we are looking at. If history teaches us one thing, it is that societies repeat the errors of their predecessors without even knowing that they are doing it.
Peace and Joy,
George A. Marquart
February 8th, 2010 | 1:19 pm | #3
… socialism and communism were not the determining factors in the history of the Soviet Union. Rather, it was lust for power as only unregenerate man is capable of exercising it; i.e. without any moral constraints. The ideologies merely served as fig leaves in an effort to give legitimacy to the regime.
Which is exactly the problem with communism and, often, socialism: This is the way it always goes, anyone’s presumably good intentions notwithstanding. I remain convinced the Solzhenitsyn is the place to start for understanding the Soviets. If anyone can’t handle the massive Gulag Archipelago, they can still tackle One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch or Cancer Ward or one of many others.
I’ll leave the health care thing alone except to agree that, yes, we are far too dumb to appropriately evaluate the ins and outs of a 1500-page bill in just a few days, and we always will be.
February 8th, 2010 | 3:32 pm | #4
The ideologies merely served as fig leaves in an effort to give legitimacy to the regime.
I wholeheartedly … disagree. Marxism/Leninism was the world view espoused by Stalin and his successors. World view is the lens through which sin focuses itself. And a Godless world view creates the bloodshed that was the USSR, and is Communism.
February 8th, 2010 | 4:51 pm | #5
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dave Lambert, Collin Brendemuehl. Collin Brendemuehl said: Unsanitized History — The Soviet Story http://tinyurl.com/ykhgd33 [...]
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