Summary
Highlights
This documentary begins by highlighting the brutal methods of extermination used by the Soviet Union, similar to Nazi atrocities, but often unacknowledged. The 'sardine method' for mass burials and expertly aimed shots to the neck were common. The film argues that unlike Nazi victims, Soviet victims often had no memorials, and their stories were erased from history by both the perpetrators and their collaborators. It critiques the idea that communism, with its utopian ideals of equality, was inherently benign, positing that Lenin's concept of 'war of classes' necessitated the elimination of certain groups, leading to widespread suffering and death.
The documentary details the horrific Ukrainian famine of 1932-33, known as the Holodomor, presenting it as a deliberate act orchestrated by Stalin. All food supplies were confiscated, and a cordon was created to prevent escape, leading to the agonizing deaths of millions. NKVD units collected dead bodies, offering bread in exchange, and many were buried alive. Despite the famine, Ukrainian grain was exported to the West, which, despite media reports on the genocide, did nothing to help. Seven million people were starved to death in one year, making it an unprecedented extermination program.
The film explores the shared ambition of both Soviet communism and Nazi national socialism to create a 'new man,' a superior evolutionary form of human being. Both ideologies are described as being 'at war with human nature,' rooted in totalitarianism. Nazism is presented as a 'false biology' and communism as a 'false sociology,' yet both claimed a scientific basis. The documentary reveals that Karl Marx and Engels advocated for the extermination of 'racial trash,' a shocking and little-known fact, marking them as early proponents of political genocide.
The documentary presents evidence of early ideological similarities and cooperation between the Nazis and Soviets. Josef Goebbels, future Nazi propaganda minister, openly stated that the difference between Lenin's communism and Hitler's faith was 'very slight.' Hitler himself claimed to have learned much from Marxism and that national socialism was based upon it. The film highlights how both movements, being socialist in nature, shared a common goal of eliminating 'parasites' within society, with figures like Bernard Shaw supporting the idea of 'humane gassing' of the unfit, a chilling precursor to the use of Zyklon B.
The Soviet Union systematically exterminated 'class enemies' in a process similar to the Holocaust, involving public humiliation followed by mass killings. Shooting chambers with concrete walls and channels for blood were used in prisons, with hundreds killed nightly. Corpses were buried in mass graves across the country, often with blood dripping from the trucks used for transport. The film reveals that Stalin authorized the shooting of children from the age of 12 to address the problem of homeless orphans, and quotas for executions were common, leading to random killings across vast territories.
The film argues that Stalin consciously refused to join an anti-Hitler coalition, aiming to allow Hitler to destroy the existing European order, after which the Red Army would 'liberate' the continent. This plan culminated in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, which provided Germany with essential resources and a secure eastern border for initiating World War II. The secret protocol within the pact explicitly divided Europe, leading to the Soviet invasion of Poland from the East, mirroring Hitler's attack. Soviet bombers, guided by a transmitter in Minsk, aided the Nazis in attacking Polish cities, and the Red Army paraded alongside the SS.
The secret protocol also gave Stalin the green light to occupy other European countries, starting with Finland. Despite initially pretending accidental bombings, Moscow labeled Finland a 'fascist' regime and launched a massive ground attack. The Winter War resulted in massive Soviet casualties but also showcased Finland's desperate resistance. The USSR's brutal aggression led to its expulsion from the League of Nations, placing it alongside militaristic Japan, fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany as an aggressor. The Soviet Union became Germany's sole ally, providing crucial resources for Hitler's war machine while Soviet citizens starved.
The documentary illustrates how the Soviet Union encouraged European communist parties to support the Nazis and sabotage resistance movements. French communists, for example, advocated against fighting Germans and even sought permission from German authorities to publish their newspaper, highlighting similar anti-Jewish sentiments. U.S. President Roosevelt considered the Soviet Union an Axis power around this time. Senior Soviet officials like Molotov openly embraced Nazi ideology and declared that fighting it was a crime, likely because their own system relied on similar mass killings and concentration camps ('Work makes you free' in Nazi camps vs. 'Work is an honor' in Soviet camps).
The film exposes the shocking extent of Soviet-Nazi cooperation, including an SS officer greeting his Soviet counterpart with a Nazi salute. Archival documents reveal extensive collaboration between the SS and NKVD, involving the extradition of German communists and Jews to the Nazis, most of whom perished in concentration camps. Soviet officers even attended Gestapo training sessions and coordinated the deportation of Jews from Krakow. Despite official denials by the Kremlin, former high-ranking Soviet officials confirm the existence of a written agreement between the two powers. Today, some Russian figures still justify these actions as a fight against 'Jewish fascism'.
The Katyn Massacre of 1940 is depicted as a pivotal moment, where 20,000 Polish officers, doctors, and engineers were executed by the NKVD, marking the first mass execution of such scale in World War II. This preceded Nazi mass killings and unleashed an era of industrial killing. The film also details horrific tortures by Soviet officers who pulled out fingernails and cut tongues. After World War II, the Soviet Union continued to commit atrocities, including mass deportations of entire nations (Chechens, Crimean Tatars, etc.) in cattle trucks, resulting in immense suffering and death, similar to SS deportations. Concentration camps were maintained and used for medical experiments on prisoners.
The documentary argues that while the West celebrated the defeat of Hitler, it largely ignored ongoing Soviet crimes. The agreement with Stalin reshaped Europe, allowing the Soviet Union to continue its terror, including ethnic cleansing in the Baltic states. Many KGB veterans, who guarded death camps and participated in tortures, are still alive and celebrated as 'honorable veterans' in Russia. The film concludes by asserting that Europe's reluctance to condemn Soviet crimes, often driven by political and economic interests (like dependence on Russian gas), has allowed a distorted view of history to persist. This denial, it argues, leads to a continuous cycle of aggression and prevents the establishment of true justice and democracy in former communist countries. The documentary calls for the perpetrators of both Nazi and communist crimes to be brought to justice, emphasizing that crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations.