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''The Soviet Story'' is a 2008 documentary film about Soviet Communism and Soviet–German collaboration before 1941 written and directed by Edvīns Šnore and sponsored by the UEN Group in the European Parliament. The film features interviews with western and Russian historians such as Norman Davies and Boris Sokolov, Russian writer Viktor Suvorov, Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, members of the European Parliament and the participants, as well as survivors of Soviet terror. Using these interviews together with historical footage and documents the film argues that there were close philosophical, political and organizational connections between the Nazi and Soviet systems. It highlights the Great Purge as well as the Great Famine, Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Katyn massacre, Gestapo-NKVD collaboration, Soviet mass deportations and medical experiments in the GULAG. The documentary goes on to argue that the successor states to Nazi Germany and the USSR differ in the sense that postwar Germany condemns the actions of Nazi Germany while the opinion in contemporary Russia is summarized by the quote of Vladimir Putin: "One needs to acknowledge, that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century". ==Reception== The film has attracted praise and criticism from academic historians and political commentators. The Economist review of ''The Soviet Story'' praises the film by saying It concludes its review by calling the documentary "a sharply provocative work".〔 The New York Times reviewed the documentary, stating Various Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who were interviewed for the film, have expressed views in favour of it. According to the Latvian MEPs Inese Vaidere and Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis writing in ''Parliament Magazine'': Both Vaidere and Kristovskis represent the UEN group which actively supported the production of the film. After watching the film, Finnish MEP Ari Vatanen opined: British MEP Christopher Beazley commented: Vytautas Landsbergis, MEP and the former Head of the Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament), assessed ''The Soviet Story'' as Likewise, Latvia's Minister of Justice, Gaidis Bērziņš (For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK), has said that, because of its important historical message, he would encourage the Ministry of Education to have the film shown in all schools in Latvia. MEP from Latvia Tatjana Ždanoka, who opposed Latvia's independence from the Soviet Union and ran as a candidate of the largest Russian political bloc in Latvia,〔Jamestown Foundation 23 May 2004: (Zhdanoka Candidacy Polarizes Latvian Election ) by Vladimir Socor〕 regards the film as a "propagandistic odd job, which is given out to be "a new word in history". She also thought that "the second part of the film is pure political PR": while the first part of the film pictures the point of view of some historians, contemporary politicians criticize modern Russia in the end of the film.〔 Ždanoka also noted that "a lot of attention was devoted to the partnership of the German and Russian military. This is followed by a jump forward in time to the 1940s, with a mass-meeting of Vlasovites is shown against a background of swastika".〔 The film prompted negative reactions from Russian organizations, press, and politicians. According to the "European Voice" newspaper, Russians are infuriated by the film which reveals the extent of Nazi and Soviet collaboration. On May 17, 2008 the Russian pro-governmental youth organization Young Russia ((ロシア語:Россия Молодая)) organized the protest "Let's not allow the rewriting of history!" ((ロシア語:"Не дадим переписать историю!")) in front of the Embassy of Latvia in Moscow. An effigy representing Edvīns Šnore was burnt during the protest. Latvian political scientist and cultural commentator Ivars Ījabs offers a mixed review of ''The Soviet Story''. On one hand, it is a well-made and "effective piece of cinematic propaganda in the good sense of this word", whose message is clearly presented to the audience. On the other hand, Ījabs does not agree with a number of historical interpretations in the film, asserting that it contains errors. For example, Ījabs states that, "In late 1930s Hitler did not yet plan a systematic genocide against the Jews", as it is suggested in the film; "Everybody knows that this decision was made in 1942 at the Wannsee Conference in Berlin." Furthermore, Ījabs comments on the notion in the film voiced by the British literary historian, liberal and former political activist George G. Watson that Friedrich Engels is "the ancestor of the modern political genocide".〔minute 16:37 Film "The Soviet Story"〕 Ījabs says: "To present Karl Marx as the "progenitor of modern genocide is simply to lie". Ījabs admits, however, the use of the term ''Völkerabfälle'' in Marx's newspaper to describe several small European ethnic groups. Although sometimes translated as "racial trash", other translations include "residual nations" or "refuse of nations", that is, those left behind (discarded) by the dominant civilizations. Watson views have been also criticized by reviewer Robert Grant as ideologically biased and for citing evidence that "seems dubious", arguing that "what Marx and Engels are calling for is () at the very least a kind of cultural genocide; but it is not obvious, at least from Watson's citations, that actual mass killing, rather than (to use their phraseology) mere 'absorption' or 'assimilation', is in question." More insight can be gained by considering the work of Marx and Engels. For instance one can find the citation: "Diese Reste einer von dem Gang der Geschichte, wie Hegel sagt, unbarmherzig zertretenen Nation, diese Völkerabfälle werden jedesmal und bleiben bis zu ihrer gänzlichen Vertilgung oder Entnationalisierung die fanatischen Träger der Kontrerevolution,...", which can be translated to: "These remains from a nation, ruthlessly crushed by the course of history, as Hegel says, these ''Völkerabfälle'' will be every time and remain, until their complete extermination or denationalization, the fanatical support of the counter-revolution,...". In this context the people presented as 'Völkerabfälle' are described as ennemies of Marx and Engels' ideas. Extermination or denationalization are presented as two possible options to remove these ennemies. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Soviet Story」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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