Hey y'all - I was wondering if any of you have recommendations for documentaries covering the eastern front of WWII? My preference in documentaries tends toward the Ken Burns style of narrated legitimate historical photos/footage rather than reenacted footage.
That all said, the only documentary I know if that checks these boxes is the rather dated World at War from 1973 -- which is fantastic, mind you, but I'm hoping for something a bit more up to date and hopefully focusing on the war between Germany and USSR.
Any recs are much appreciated. O0
theres the Scorched Earth series on Prime.
theres also an excellent series that was made for Russian tv that I cant find atm.
ah here we go, Soviet Storm: World War 2 in the East
2 seasons on Prime and very very well done.
I have never seen anything on the Eastern front that was not hilariously myopic or a grossly slanted view based on the nation of origin of the producer.
Scorched Earth is pretty balanced or its topic.
I started on Soviet Storm but the reenactments put me off. If it's that good I'll have to give it another go though! And thanks for the reminder about Scorched Earth - I forgot all about that one!
Quote from: solops on April 10, 2021, 11:06:50 AM
I have never seen anything on the Eastern front that was not hilariously myopic or a grossly slanted view based on the nation of origin of the producer.
Yeah, this is true. Most docs are either "clean wehrmacht versus Asiatic hordes" or "heroic patriotic Red Army did nothing wrong."
Russia's War: Blood upon the Snow (sometimes titled with "Blood Upon the Snow" first) was made in Russia just after the fall of the Soviet Union, and is chocked full of archival footage. No re-enactments that I recall. I'm sure there's a certain amount of propaganda going on, but it's definitely not pro-Nazi, and DEFINITELY not pro-Soviet (as far as the government goes). If anything it's pro-peasant (so to speak): the Russian people are caught up in this epic super-villain war and trying to survive it, but can't come out of it clean themselves which is part of the tragedy. The series covers more than WW2, with a prologue and epilogue ep about Stalin's overlordship before and after.
The edition available in western nations has episode intros by Kissinger, but they're completely skippable, so any Kissinger fans will be disappointed and anyone else will be glad they don't need to listen to him really. ;)
Good luck trying to find it, though. I owned it originally on VHS, and managed to pick up a DVD set when I started seriously converting off tape, but the only thing available at Amazon right now seems to be Region 2. Used copies of Region 1 DVD sets start at $45+ and go up fast! Maybe ebay?
https://smile.amazon.com/Russias-War-Blood-Upon-Snow/dp/B002LFPBJW
https://smile.amazon.com/Blood-Upon-Snow-Russias-War/dp/B07XJD5B9X the region 2 set.
Note: in case anyone is curious, since I've compiled a lot on the topic, I don't recall this having anything to do with Suvorov's "Icebreaker" thesis. On the contrary, low-star reviews tend to complain that this series stumbles a lot trying to explain how Stalin could accomplish so much while being so wildly incompetent (and thus complain about the series being anti-Stalin propaganda).
I'd second everything recommended in the previous comments - all worth watching. Coincidentally, I had just started re-watching Russia's War last night (the music always brings me back).
Don't forget some of the old Battlefield episodes about any of the Eastern Front Campaigns. I really like that series as it was more toned down, less flashy than more recent documentaries.