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View Full Version : Any Good Documentaries on the USSR?



Nikolay
30th October 2011, 16:40
Trying to find a good documentary on the USSR on youtube, but haven't found anything worthwhile. I'm looking for at least a 1 to 2 hour long documentary that talks about the development of the USSR, it's political and economic system and it's collapse.

I don't care if the language is Russian, but as long as there's English subtitles then I'd be fine, but English is preferred. x]

Nikolay
31st October 2011, 23:25
uh.. so I'm guessing there's no good documentaries? :3

Arlekino
1st November 2011, 00:00
There is plenty documentaries about USSR sad but I can't find them with English subtitles. If I find I let you know. Suppose I am lucky I can speak Russian,:):)

Nikolay
5th November 2011, 01:04
Wow.. no documentaries about the USSR exist that are in English? :l I still can't find any..

Arlekino
5th November 2011, 01:10
What about try to watch Soviet movies made in Breznevs era about land cultivation, peasantry life or city life? There is with English subtitles?

KurtFF8
6th November 2011, 19:04
There are a few but I don't know of any great ones in particular. Opening in Moscow isn't bad, but it's quite dated.

Here are some clips from the internets that you may find useful though:

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Psy
7th November 2011, 01:16
Death of a Nation is a documentary on how Russia went to shit after the USSR collapsed.

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Commissar Rykov
7th November 2011, 02:23
Excellent documentary Psy. Depressing as hell but still worth watching.

Stew312856
8th November 2011, 11:40
If you want a good movie about the birth of the USSR, I have several recommendations:

REDS (Dir. Warren Beatty) ((Very interesting if watched in combination with either OCTOBER by Eisenstein or David Lean's version of DR. ZHIVAGO (even if it is blatantly pro-capitalist it's still fantastically shot)))

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: EMMA GOLDMAN (PBS Doc) Explains the great anarchist's views of the Bolsheviks and how they failed

There is a YouTube video called MARXIST VIEW OF THE 20TH CENTURY, featuring Alan Woods, that is really fantastic and explains the first 30 years of 20th century history.

If you really want a good documentary, you may need to accept that the film medium was quite new back then and that, as a result, the only media available is pro-Reagan stuff (here in English world, at least) made after the fact. John Reed's TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD and Emma Goldman's writings are the best source documents from that era.

x359594
9th November 2011, 15:26
There are few documentaries on the USSR as such in English that could be described as fair and balanced.

The 1967 Granada TV documentary Ten Days That Shook the World was made in cooperation with MosFilm and is quite good. Narration by Orson Welles with much rare archival footage taken before and during the Revolution and supplemented with footage from Octobyr.

KurtFF8
9th November 2011, 21:13
It seems that the Granadian documentary would likely be quite difficult to come by though

Nox
9th November 2011, 21:44
Death of a Nation is a documentary on how Russia went to shit after the USSR collapsed.



It's hard to put in to words how much the fall of the USSR totally fucked over Russia and other ex-Soviet countries.

It really is just unbelievable.