The Battle of Russia notes

WHY WE FIGHT SERIES: THE BATTLE OF RUSSIA BY FRANK CAPRA

The Battle of Russia…Capra later denied he had anything to do with it, but he did.

Our heroic Soviet ally.

Need for the Red Army to kill Germans and for Russians appear more like Americans for the American audience. How do you do that?...Ignore communism.

How to address: the Hitler-Stalin pact? The Great Purges of the 1930s? Invasion of Poland? Apologize for Stalin?

In 1943, films like Mission to Moscow and The North Star (I tried, and tried, and tried to find copies for us to watch, but no luck so far L ) were sold as pro-American and pro-Ally. So was Capra’s movie.

FDR hoped that the Soviets would become more open, more liberal, would need western aid after the war.

Capra risked wrath of FBI: He had dealt directly with the Soviet embassy to obtain footage.

Stalin ordered the film shown in Soviet theaters with his own introduction.

Capra later hounded about these facts once we were out of WWII and in the Cold War, this time against the Soviets.