“Sorry babe, can’t go out tonight. I have to watch an hour-and-a half long review of an esoteric Soviet propaganda film from the 1950s. I’m sure you understand 😎”
I remember listening to a radio interview with the daughter of the director of this film. She said her father only felt safe at the conclusion of the film when he observed a tear flowing down Stalin's cheek, who was watching in the audience. Stalin turned to the director and said "I should've gone to Berlin."
As it turns out, the German extras were, in fact, prisoners of war who were brought on. They had their uniforms cleaned up, and they were probably put on set at gunpoint. And since this came out in 1950 there were probably hundreds of thousands maybe even millions of prisoners that could still be called upon.
The only way the stalin dating advice could have been even more hilarious for how insane and dark it is would have been stalin saying something like "hmmm I'm not very good at giving relationship advice, but let me introduce you to someone who is the real ladies man. LEVRENTIY COME HERE!" as beria just comes into shot
I reported to Comrade Biden "Talkernate History have exceeded their rich tapestry quota!" Comrade Biden replied "Good, but write me a letter if they fall behind."
One thing that's really important to point out in this movie is the fact that the acting and make-up was all because of how theatrical this whole movie is, it's 1950, it's not a movie in a way we think of movies today in the west, it's more of a theatre play on a screen. Scenes like the death of that one dude at the roof of the Reichstag look like that because they were never meant to look too real
17:27 This cigarette is a Belomorkanal cigarette. 2/3 of the cigarette is just a hollow cardboard tube that can be folded into a mouthpiece. It is found primarily in Russia and Belarus and is considered like a cheap vintage Soviet workers cigarette.
it`s machorka and the cigarette is called "папироса" which just means cigarette. the tobacco is extremely strong and is not just considered cheap workers cigarette. it simply IS the workers/peoples cigarette. belomor brand was just the state owned mass produced version of it. which is all the more ironic in a grim way cause said canal was dug by gulag inmates but never used for it`s original purpose cause it was too small and shallow. classic soviet style: huge effort, lots of lifes wasted just to please some maniac in charge but never actually achieve anything of value.
Kissing on the lips was a normal Eastern Slavic cultural practice; especially because of the old "holy kiss" from the Eastern Church. So not just a Soviet or socialist thing, Czar NIkki did it a lot for example. "способом отметить собеседника" (a way to distinguish the interlocutor), to indicates his importance. status and prestige, and to show him respect.
Oddly enough, the association of Georgians with Italians stereotypes is kinda accurate. In the USSR the Georgians - and probably the geographic Caucasians in general - were often portrait as people with fiery personalities, kind of similar to how Italians are portrayed in the American media. When it comes to Georgian culture, I think one may find a lot of similarities with italy: Georgians are people with ancient recorded history, who inhabit a beautiful mountainous Mediterranean-climate country, and are famous for their wine and khachapuri, in a lot of post-Soviet countries the Georgian cheese covered bread dish is in the same mind space as pizza when it comes the popular comfort food.
Because Italians aren't real. Ask yourself, have you ever met an Italian? All flights to Rome really go to Tiblisi. Roman Empire? I don't think so. It was the Georgian Empire.
A film I would love to see you review is this Chinese Korean War film called The Battle of Lake Changjin. You should see how over the top the film portrays the Americans especially General MacArthur.
Incorrect, it was the Soviet sappers of the 2nd Assault Engineer Brigade. N. Nikiforov talks about this in his 2008 book "Assault Brigades of the Red Army in Battle". It should also be noted that the figure of 10 000+ civilians perishing from the flooding is incredibly incorrect, and the correct amount is less than 200.
I actually worked with a native Georgian when I was a landscaper! Nice guy. He grew up during the late Soviet period and of course I asked him if he knew Stalin was Georgian which of course he knew and if he remembered any positive opinions of him from people around him..... no suprise that he said Stalin was scorned and hated. Pretty much called him a disgrace. He never was able to become a member of the Party but was young enough to be involved in the Young Pioneers youth league and did meet some local Communist Party officials but nothing more. When I asked him about his quality of life in the Soviet Union I was not suprised to hear him say it was "awful" 😆.
Well, that's just one guy's opinion. His saying that "Stalin was scorned and hated" by people around him is entirely misleading. The fact is that, like it or not, Stalin was generally loved in the USSR. That doesn't fit the Western narrative, but it's a fact.
You guys uploaded this while I'm on the plane to boot camp lol. Been watching you two since your Spanish Civil War episode and loved every video you made since. Can't wait to listen to this in 3 months!
I've noticed a pattern. Almost all these propaganda films about the Soviet Union had that hilarious Russian dance. This movie has it. Mission to Moscow has it. The North Star has Ukrainians do it. I guess its a real sign your in for a treat. All this film is missing is Walter Huston.
The most famous dance with this movement In the USSR was probably hopak, a Ukrainian traditional dance. Before scrolling through Wikipedia, I was assuming that it become associated with Russia through Kuban Cossacks, many (if not the majority) of whose ancestors migrated to what is now Southern Russia from Ukraine. After checking a couple of Wikipedia articles, it seems that Russians have a couple of traditional dances with similar moves.
It's so funny how Aliosha and Natasha seem to have more chemistry and romantic tension with Stalin than with each other. Not trying to judge, but it's weird how we are supposed to believe Aliosha completely abandoned his previously life to become a soldier and save his girlfriend, like some kind of Soviet Liam Neeson, but when they are actually together, they just seem kind of bored or indifferent. I wonder if the weird Anti-Britain taint comes from this being an early Cold War movie where the Soviets and the US technically were still friendly towards one another while Churchill and the Brits were always anti-communism and anti-Stalin even during the war.
There's also the democracy vs monarchy angle between the US and UK. You and I know the King was largely a public figure with no concrete power but would someone who grew up under Stalin and Lenin believe that? Doubtful.
The period between WWII and the Korean War was an interesting time for US-Soviet relations. There was clear tension and machinations under the surface on both sides, but both were trying to put up public pretenses of quasi-friendship. Roosevelt had some clear left leaning tendencies and approved of the PR campaign to turn Stalin into "Uncle Joe" during WWII. The Soviets tested their first atomic bomb in the summer of 1949 and didn't start stockpiling them until well into the 1950s. I think the Soviets initially thought of Truman as being a milder version of Roosevelt until he put his foot down about the clearly Soviet-backed invasion of South Korea by the North. That's when the Cold War as we know it really began in earnest.
are there in fact any real Soviet Union romance stories or did the KGB just censor them for being counter-revolutionary capitalist dreck? At least there's some decent sci-fi from the soviet union
Okay, German here. The Nazis really did flood part of the Berlin subway (Lots of rivers in Berlin, chiefly the River Spree), though I don't know where the order to do it originated from.
I don't think anybody knows. The flood didn't happen until after Hitlers death, so it's entirely possible that there weren't any orders, just some holdouts.
To quote the NAFO podcast on Mark Felton, "I wish I could get a doctorate for reading Wikipedia on TH-cam." It's really funny when Mark includes blatant misinformation and hearsay in his videos, because it clearly comes from an edit to the wiki page.
Im glad the algorithm decided to bring you back to my attention, I've been subscribed for a while but had forgotten about you. Good news is I've got plenty of back content to watch now.
1:27 "the USSR was not the source of great acting" - that seems quite stereotypical. Given that acting was greatly about the stage, until the era of TV, this 1950 film is obviously caught up in the exaggerated movements that are done on stage (especially in dance.)
I’m shocked Stalin himself didn’t star in the movie. Though it was probably good for the other actors. If Alyosha was too charismatic on screen with Stalin he would be sent to Siberia Though as far as Stalins dating advice, I grew up in the Pacific NW and Stalins Grand daughter lives in Portland, Svetlana Stain became a Catholic and defected to the US and died in Wisconsin and her daughter ended up involved with weird Indie Music scenes in Portland and she lives there now
Great episode as always, guys. I always knew this film was weird going in, but actually part-watching it here, it’s downright freaky. A couple of observations, though: In the 1941 Red Square parade scene, you note how hilariously inaccurate it is that they’re using “IS-2s”, which wouldn’t see service for a couple of years after. In fact, the anachronism is even worse. Those are really *IS-3s,* which didn’t even see service *until the war already ended.* And they also pose as Tiger II proxies in the ReichSTag assault scene despite all the other authentic German equipment, adding to the confusing and conflicting imagery in this fever dream of a movie. As for the flooding of the U-Bahn scene, this was actually based on a real event, but played out with far more cartoonish melodrama than the real disaster. Also, there’s no solid evidence that the flooding was by German sabotage, with the degrading state of the bombed-out subway and the Soviets being equally culpable. That being said, the crimes of the N@zi regime were often so pointlessly cruel and brutal, especially at its collapse in 1945, that it can be hard to believe it’s not propaganda. Finally, I personally don’t rate Mark Felton. Apparently he’s an academic, but he never quotes sources and often makes all sorts of ridiculous claims, like accusing the German Tank Museum in Munster of selling their Tiger 1 to a private collector, *which actually got him a stern response from the museum rebuking his claim.* He also once went on a weird rant in ‘Britain’s Vietnam War’, claiming that the British should have stayed longer and should have been a lot more aggressive in Indochina, practically preventing the whole Vietnam war. It was honestly pretty unhinged - straight up calling the French “inferior military units” in comparison to the übermenschen Brits and Japanese POWs - and perhaps deserves a mention in a future video as a wacky alternate history idea.
The Tiger 1 at Münster was already owned BY a private collector, who had reassembled it from salvaged parts recovered in Latvia. He had loaned it to the museum as a display piece, but was forced to move it out of not only the museum, but Germany as a whole when legislation on privately owned military vehicles came down that would have essentially forced him to cut huge chunks off the thing and render it immobile if he wanted to keep it. Iirc it's in the USA at the moment
Hey there fellers, guy from what's left of Russia's here. Here's the gig: me and my Dad watched this movie last year, he's the 100% Soviet man born and raised. And he's still said that's a propaganda and the only thing he's liked were Hitler and nazis because they were cringe as f#ck. Also I've somehow make my Dad to watch "Death of Stalin" movie when he was indisposed in hospital and he literary didn't had anything else to deal with there besides watching his laptop. He watched that movie entirely. Without falling asleep while we watched *this* movie about Stalin. He didn't liked the "Death of Stalin" but he's watched it *whole.* P.S. You got me lads when you said "Jimmy Carter's spirit is with us". P.P.S. Well, please enjoy this brief few months before November, since you yanks *are* risking to befell into the same totalitarian cringe upon cringe upon cringe. What's with Liberal democracy's ending up in Star Wars quote with certain orange Mussolini-typed guy wanting to be king and all. Cheers from what's left of Russia.
Speaking of personality cults, i was at this crappy roadside zoo in Sarasota for spring beak because it had like a dozen tigers their and the tiger show they had during the show featuring appreciably some rescue dogs. The guy who owns and runs the place apparently was praising Ron DeSantis for passing the Florida Wildlife Corridor law and that was one of the most surreal moments in my life.
Okay, but can we talk about how fucking excellent the casting is, though? EVERYONE is recognisable as the historical figure they're playing. That's a huge achievement for 1950, especially for the Soviet film industry.
I can just imagine Stalin laying on his bed waiting for that letter from Alyosha so he can swoop in and give him the love that callous Natasha wouldn't.
if you guys would consider Second Civil War (1997) for a vote. It is a black comedy that was made on HBO about a second US civil war. tens of millions of immigrants and refugees come into the US with a huge amount of chaos around the world like a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, ecological collapse in China, and Russia invading the balkans. Idaho starts to refuse to accept anymore refugees which leads to a standoff pulling states into both sides. The alamo gets burned down, the statue of liberty is blown up. might make for an interesting choice.
I stopped the video about 10 minutes in to write an essay about Soviet hero worship specifically because I find it fascinating and multifaceted. However, I will delve more into philosophy/mentality than history. Part of the "deification effect" of historical figures isn't unique to communism; we see its effect in capitalist societies with figures like Otto von Bismarck, Napoleon Bonaparte, _especially_ George Washington, and even our legacy of more ancient figures like Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar. All real flesh and blood individuals with their faults and victories, yet often treated as the prime movers of history. They, however, are part of "normal" historiography, either foundational or acceptable to the prevailing social forces, and thus, posterity enlarges the great things they have done and diminishes their failings, but that becomes weird when the same effect is applied to something by social forces outside of what's considered to be, "the normal world." George Washington didn't personally make or break the colonies' independence from the British Empire, nor did Stalin make or break Soviet victory over Germany on the Eastern Front. Yet pop history compels us to ascribe much of the outcomes of these historical episodes to the people in charge. Various schools of communism have invented internal terms to critique this form of personality worship within communism, such as leaderism/commandism. A converse term exists, "tailism," referring to merely tailing the prevailing sentiment of the masses. But part of why communists fall so easily into this trap of ascribing mystical qualities to Marx or Lenin is, in one sense, fanboy mentality; in another sense, the internal politics of a siege mentality the Soviet state adopted in the wake of the objective failure of the world revolution of 1917-1923, and, finally, a product of the ideal rubbing up against reality. Suppose one reads and comprehends the works of Marx and Engels beyond the Manifesto. It can awe you that human beings were capable of such profound insights into social relations and world-history at such a time when the Industrial Revolution was so recent, passionately falling into the idea that they were visionaries, building off of Hegelian language to attempt to describe the historically deterministic laws of capitalist production and class relations; pioneering, in a sense, the intellectual tools to ascend beyond the current historical epoch of capitalism in the same way that capitalist history ascended beyond the epoch of feudalism. It becomes inconceivable for many people not to fall into the trap of hero worship, even when the founders of the communist movement at its inception rooted its propagation in the "rigorous critique of reality," attempting to minimize all subjective emotional appeal. Yet we are still human, and if we strongly value someone's insights, then we can easily make the mistake of accepting their insight unconditionally and uncritically, which, ironically, you aren't supposed to do if you consider yourself Marxist or communist: You're supposed to challenge everything, absolutely everything, in the ultimate pursuit of truth and universal human freedom. Sorry, this was long and rambling. I find communism a fascinating subject.
The Russians seem to have a soft spot for Americans. I suppose it's because of the parallels between the two nations. Both America and the Soviet Union are continent-sized, revolutionary republics on the edge of Western civilisation. That's probably why this film, despite being made during the Cold War when Britain had been eclipsed by America, is more anti-British than anti-American.
Fantastic episode, you both knocked it out of the park. Haven't laughed that hard in ages. On a side note, I checked out the site at 1:14:38 to find a 20-year passion project by a man dedicated to appearing in a photo alongside as many celebrities as possible...and sleuthing out their true, shoe-less heights. A modern Stakhanovite if ever there was one.
I'm really liking the new trend of videos so far! I laughed hard with this one, its really amazing to see these kinds of movies and try to understand a bit of the people mindset back then. Cant wait for the next video and im going to make it a special "Self care day" when yall upload missing in action! Steak and some Beer. Thanks guys for another great episode!
30:20 Goering actually did have a swedish friend who helped communicate with the British Foreign Office during the Munich Crisis called Birgir Dahlerus. By all accounts he was used by Goering to push for the abandonment of the Czechs which in the soviet mind could be construed as capitalist collaboration with fascism against communism.
I think that the heavy anti-british sentiment with only mild anti-americanism is emblematic of the specific point in time when this movie was made (after WW2 but before proper decolonization and especially before the Suez Crisis), during which Britain was still considered a superpower, with the US at most the UK's equal. When Ike got the British and French to stand down in Egypt, it became apparent that this wasn't the case.
Speaking of russian war movies. DEFINITELY check out come and see 1985, not only does it show the horrors of ww2 eastern front, but also there is a small segment where the main protagonist is symbolically "shooting hitler back through time".
12:18 Reminded me, if you write alternate history stories about living people you ought to send it to them so they can see it. Probably print and mail it to them too.
Hitler being supportive of “we should open wide in the west so the American can come to us first and they can fight Russia with us” idea has to be the funniest thing in the movie since that’s basically what the July 20 plotter in 1944 wanted lol.
In that 1975 epic, they couldn’t even find a correct Yak 1,3,9 for the movie. The only part I enjoyed was the relation of the Stauffenberg bomb plot against Hitler. It was East-German-made.
Apparently the largest Georgian community is in Brooklyn according to the New York Times in 2008 following the Russo Georgian War. Most seem to be into construction. About 5000 strong. Cleveland also has a decent sized Georgian population. Amusing since it also has a large Ukrainian and Russian population, as seen in the beloved 1970s film The Deer Hunter.
The makeup in this movie is so odd and makes FDR look like a lich. Couple that with the fact he teleported, and I'm convinced he is one in this movie, lol
I think the guns and Artillery didnt have any sounds in order to prevent PTSD since a vast amount of the audience would have experienced the War also i wouldnt be surprised if this Movie was simply rushed to get it out as soon as possible.
27:30 fun fact! All of the german extras you see playing german soldier ARE ACTUAL GERMAN POW'S They were allowed to participate in the movie as long as they still have their original uniforms.
12:07 Wait, is this part alt-history or real? I'm having trouble finding lore on Jimmy Carter's ww2 service so I can't tell. Edit: Ah, nevermind that post-war bit is clearly not real, right?
Its Matts amazing story from the AI generated episode where Jimmy is basically a mass murderering Japanese machine. Its a classic. IRL he was a submariner in the navy post WW2. Although I think he graduated summer 1946, which is actually before the cut off date for anyone claiming to be a WW2 vet. Still a heroic guy, stepped into a nuclear reactor to fix in it 1952.
only a couple of minutes since the release getting my History Talkernated fresh edit: is it just me or does Alyosha look like communist Fred Flinstone from the live action Flinstones movie?
Hey fellas! I got a collection of alt history stories for you guys! I recently passed through a brand new microcenter that opened up in south Florida and at checkout I saw a big beautiful book called “What if…Book of Alternative History”. It’s awesome, it’s got full page illustrations and really cool timeline graphics to make it easy to see point of divergences and how it reflects against our real lives. Some of the stories include: what if Hitler invaded Britain? What if the soviets had won the space race? What if China had found America first? And the big one that’s got a full page illustration is: what if JFK wasn’t assassinated? (It’s got an edited picture of JFK wherein he looks to be around 60ish years old.) Very cool and very high quality book. I highly recommend picking it up!
Your movie reviews are fantastic. I love "Gods and Generals," one of my favorite movies but understand its flaws and respect the criticism. It is certainly meant for a pro-Confederate audience. I hope to see more movie reviews like this of one of the more well know terrible Soviet movies, they're great. Not sure what the other videos are about, but I'm sure they're ok too.
Despite the awkward acting in this awful propaganda film they had spectacular scenes of battle and I loved the fact that they got people who really look like those historical personalities. Like they even had the balls to include Stalin's poc-marks that he had when you look up-close, which is why I didn't understand the complaining about his "smooth skin".
I watched a documentary on Soviet made films and the guy who played Stalin, that was the only part he was supposed to play! Not allowed to play any other part in movies! The other crazy thing is the director was so worried about this movie he watched Stalin while Stalin watched the movie and when he saw him smiling he knew he was safe from being sent to prison!
It's scary to suggest Trump making a movie like this because if he becomes president again he would definitely have something this self-aggrandizing made about him. And no one would be allowed to laugh.
46:54 This is actually taken from history, kind of? At very late stage of the war Hitler desperately began hoping Allies would turn against the Soviets as a bigger threat and allow him to survive. When relatively pro-Soviet Roosevelt died, he absurdely proclaimed God had not abanded them and that the war was won. Two weeks later he meet said God eye to eye.
“Sorry babe, can’t go out tonight. I have to watch an hour-and-a half long review of an esoteric Soviet propaganda film from the 1950s. I’m sure you understand 😎”
This post was approved by true Stakhanovites.
I mean most american war films literally are military propaganda lol
I remember listening to a radio interview with the daughter of the director of this film. She said her father only felt safe at the conclusion of the film when he observed a tear flowing down Stalin's cheek, who was watching in the audience. Stalin turned to the director and said "I should've gone to Berlin."
As it turns out, the German extras were, in fact, prisoners of war who were brought on. They had their uniforms cleaned up, and they were probably put on set at gunpoint. And since this came out in 1950 there were probably hundreds of thousands maybe even millions of prisoners that could still be called upon.
Must be pretty wild to be a German movie goer potentially seeing your missing husband or father as an extra in this bizarre movie.
@@shinyagumon7015 You'd probably be crying in the theater.
That certainly puts an ominous tone on this film.
@@Ridgwaycer I mean there's already ominous tones, this is just some extra icing.
Imagine surviving Stalingrad, only to be forced to be in a shitty movie that briefly depicts it.
The only way the stalin dating advice could have been even more hilarious for how insane and dark it is would have been stalin saying something like "hmmm I'm not very good at giving relationship advice, but let me introduce you to someone who is the real ladies man. LEVRENTIY COME HERE!" as beria just comes into shot
What would happen is Beria just looks Natasha up and down and says "Too Old"
I reported to Comrade Biden "Talkernate History have exceeded their rich tapestry quota!"
Comrade Biden replied "Good, but write me a letter if they fall behind."
One thing that's really important to point out in this movie is the fact that the acting and make-up was all because of how theatrical this whole movie is, it's 1950, it's not a movie in a way we think of movies today in the west, it's more of a theatre play on a screen. Scenes like the death of that one dude at the roof of the Reichstag look like that because they were never meant to look too real
Who up Talkernating they History?
17:27 This cigarette is a Belomorkanal cigarette. 2/3 of the cigarette is just a hollow cardboard tube that can be folded into a mouthpiece.
It is found primarily in Russia and Belarus and is considered like a cheap vintage Soviet workers cigarette.
it`s machorka and the cigarette is called "папироса" which just means cigarette. the tobacco is extremely strong and is not just considered cheap workers cigarette. it simply IS the workers/peoples cigarette. belomor brand was just the state owned mass produced version of it.
which is all the more ironic in a grim way cause said canal was dug by gulag inmates but never used for it`s original purpose cause it was too small and shallow. classic soviet style: huge effort, lots of lifes wasted just to please some maniac in charge but never actually achieve anything of value.
Kissing on the lips was a normal Eastern Slavic cultural practice; especially because of the old "holy kiss" from the Eastern Church. So not just a Soviet or socialist thing, Czar NIkki did it a lot for example. "способом отметить собеседника" (a way to distinguish the interlocutor), to indicates his importance. status and prestige, and to show him respect.
Oddly enough, the association of Georgians with Italians stereotypes is kinda accurate. In the USSR the Georgians - and probably the geographic Caucasians in general - were often portrait as people with fiery personalities, kind of similar to how Italians are portrayed in the American media.
When it comes to Georgian culture, I think one may find a lot of similarities with italy: Georgians are people with ancient recorded history, who inhabit a beautiful mountainous Mediterranean-climate country, and are famous for their wine and khachapuri, in a lot of post-Soviet countries the Georgian cheese covered bread dish is in the same mind space as pizza when it comes the popular comfort food.
Because Italians aren't real. Ask yourself, have you ever met an Italian? All flights to Rome really go to Tiblisi. Roman Empire? I don't think so. It was the Georgian Empire.
@@seihai-kun6726 now it all makes sense!
A film I would love to see you review is this Chinese Korean War film called The Battle of Lake Changjin. You should see how over the top the film portrays the Americans especially General MacArthur.
Is that the one where Duggie Mac appears like a Metal Gear Solid villain? If so, definitely.
49:40 The Germans did, in fact, flood the Berlin subway to prevent the Soviets from using it.
On May 2, two days after Hitler’s death.
Incorrect, it was the Soviet sappers of the 2nd Assault Engineer Brigade. N. Nikiforov talks about this in his 2008 book "Assault Brigades of the Red Army in Battle". It should also be noted that the figure of 10 000+ civilians perishing from the flooding is incredibly incorrect, and the correct amount is less than 200.
Stalin looks like a Disney animatronic come to life
I actually worked with a native Georgian when I was a landscaper!
Nice guy. He grew up during the late Soviet period and of course I asked him if he knew Stalin was Georgian which of course he knew and if he remembered any positive opinions of him from people around him..... no suprise that he said Stalin was scorned and hated. Pretty much called him a disgrace.
He never was able to become a member of the Party but was young enough to be involved in the Young Pioneers youth league and did meet some local Communist Party officials but nothing more. When I asked him about his quality of life in the Soviet Union I was not suprised to hear him say it was "awful" 😆.
Well, that's just one guy's opinion. His saying that "Stalin was scorned and hated" by people around him is entirely misleading. The fact is that, like it or not, Stalin was generally loved in the USSR. That doesn't fit the Western narrative, but it's a fact.
This is your best throat discs ads read yet. I lost it at the X is always with us.
You guys uploaded this while I'm on the plane to boot camp lol. Been watching you two since your Spanish Civil War episode and loved every video you made since. Can't wait to listen to this in 3 months!
God speed. I know you won’t see this for 3 months, but stay strong, you will get through this.
Good luck! I just wanted to say, Talkernate History is always with us. I'm sure you kicked boot camps ass!!!
I clicked this video expecting the title to be a typo
I've noticed a pattern.
Almost all these propaganda films about the Soviet Union had that hilarious Russian dance. This movie has it. Mission to Moscow has it. The North Star has Ukrainians do it. I guess its a real sign your in for a treat.
All this film is missing is Walter Huston.
The most famous dance with this movement In the USSR was probably hopak, a Ukrainian traditional dance. Before scrolling through Wikipedia, I was assuming that it become associated with Russia through Kuban Cossacks, many (if not the majority) of whose ancestors migrated to what is now Southern Russia from Ukraine. After checking a couple of Wikipedia articles, it seems that Russians have a couple of traditional dances with similar moves.
@@D.S.handle Oh wow I didn't know that. Very interesting, I guess several Slavic cultures have similar traditional dances.
@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez the dancing moves are pretty distinct. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the case of borrowing.
We are fully into the "Wacky 20th century propaganda films" era of Talkernate History, and I couldn't be happier.
Babe wake up, Talkernate history has uploaded
It's so funny how Aliosha and Natasha seem to have more chemistry and romantic tension with Stalin than with each other.
Not trying to judge, but it's weird how we are supposed to believe Aliosha completely abandoned his previously life to become a soldier and save his girlfriend, like some kind of Soviet Liam Neeson, but when they are actually together, they just seem kind of bored or indifferent.
I wonder if the weird Anti-Britain taint comes from this being an early Cold War movie where the Soviets and the US technically were still friendly towards one another while Churchill and the Brits were always anti-communism and anti-Stalin even during the war.
There's also the democracy vs monarchy angle between the US and UK. You and I know the King was largely a public figure with no concrete power but would someone who grew up under Stalin and Lenin believe that? Doubtful.
The period between WWII and the Korean War was an interesting time for US-Soviet relations. There was clear tension and machinations under the surface on both sides, but both were trying to put up public pretenses of quasi-friendship. Roosevelt had some clear left leaning tendencies and approved of the PR campaign to turn Stalin into "Uncle Joe" during WWII. The Soviets tested their first atomic bomb in the summer of 1949 and didn't start stockpiling them until well into the 1950s. I think the Soviets initially thought of Truman as being a milder version of Roosevelt until he put his foot down about the clearly Soviet-backed invasion of South Korea by the North. That's when the Cold War as we know it really began in earnest.
are there in fact any real Soviet Union romance stories or did the KGB just censor them for being counter-revolutionary capitalist dreck?
At least there's some decent sci-fi from the soviet union
Saw this notification and I was immediately out loud said "OH YES!"
I love goofing on this film and I LOVE this podcast!
Okay, German here. The Nazis really did flood part of the Berlin subway (Lots of rivers in Berlin, chiefly the River Spree), though I don't know where the order to do it originated from.
I don't think anybody knows. The flood didn't happen until after Hitlers death, so it's entirely possible that there weren't any orders, just some holdouts.
@@Baldwin-iv445 the most logical explanation is just that it was accidental and happened as a result of the mess going on at surface level
52:50 well haven’t you seen Danger 5? Hitler actually survived the war and became American High School student in the 80s!
To quote the NAFO podcast on Mark Felton, "I wish I could get a doctorate for reading Wikipedia on TH-cam." It's really funny when Mark includes blatant misinformation and hearsay in his videos, because it clearly comes from an edit to the wiki page.
What is the name of the pod?
The even rounder table @@D.S.handle
@@Satakarnak thanks!
Wait so is the implication here most Mark Felton videos are blatant misinformation, or that he accuses others of doing so?
He was a steel man, his father was a steel man, and so was 95% of the original audience of this film.
Im glad the algorithm decided to bring you back to my attention, I've been subscribed for a while but had forgotten about you. Good news is I've got plenty of back content to watch now.
You got a new fan of your channel here! You guys kept me laughing 😃
@@JackB733 Thank you! We've got another one coming out in just a few days
@@TalkernateHistory😮😮😮😮 what’s the film
@@jacobnewmanlim2470 Missing in Action 1, 2, and 3 in one big episode. I'll make a community post about it soon, probably tomorrow
1:27 "the USSR was not the source of great acting" - that seems quite stereotypical. Given that acting was greatly about the stage, until the era of TV, this 1950 film is obviously caught up in the exaggerated movements that are done on stage (especially in dance.)
They had top tier directors. But actors? Lets just say Eisenstein was punching above his weight class.
@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez if the acting was awful how did “Moscow doesn’t believe in tears “got the Oscar than?
I think that the production of this Movie was rushed especially how expensive it was i wouldnt be surprised if most of the scenes were first takes.
God, I'm so happy to see this stinker on the podcast. And I'm so, so, so sorry that you put yourselves through it.
"Biden is with us, always" killed me
I’m shocked Stalin himself didn’t star in the movie.
Though it was probably good for the other actors.
If Alyosha was too charismatic on screen with Stalin he would be sent to Siberia
Though as far as Stalins dating advice, I grew up in the Pacific NW and Stalins Grand daughter lives in Portland, Svetlana Stain became a Catholic and defected to the US and died in Wisconsin and her daughter ended up involved with weird Indie Music scenes in Portland and she lives there now
If only Walter Houston could have been in this movie, then we would have a complete Talkernate History trilogy
Great episode as always, guys. I always knew this film was weird going in, but actually part-watching it here, it’s downright freaky.
A couple of observations, though:
In the 1941 Red Square parade scene, you note how hilariously inaccurate it is that they’re using “IS-2s”, which wouldn’t see service for a couple of years after. In fact, the anachronism is even worse. Those are really *IS-3s,* which didn’t even see service *until the war already ended.* And they also pose as Tiger II proxies in the ReichSTag assault scene despite all the other authentic German equipment, adding to the confusing and conflicting imagery in this fever dream of a movie.
As for the flooding of the U-Bahn scene, this was actually based on a real event, but played out with far more cartoonish melodrama than the real disaster. Also, there’s no solid evidence that the flooding was by German sabotage, with the degrading state of the bombed-out subway and the Soviets being equally culpable. That being said, the crimes of the N@zi regime were often so pointlessly cruel and brutal, especially at its collapse in 1945, that it can be hard to believe it’s not propaganda.
Finally, I personally don’t rate Mark Felton. Apparently he’s an academic, but he never quotes sources and often makes all sorts of ridiculous claims, like accusing the German Tank Museum in Munster of selling their Tiger 1 to a private collector, *which actually got him a stern response from the museum rebuking his claim.* He also once went on a weird rant in ‘Britain’s Vietnam War’, claiming that the British should have stayed longer and should have been a lot more aggressive in Indochina, practically preventing the whole Vietnam war. It was honestly pretty unhinged - straight up calling the French “inferior military units” in comparison to the übermenschen Brits and Japanese POWs - and perhaps deserves a mention in a future video as a wacky alternate history idea.
He doesn't cite his sources cos most of the time his sources are wikipedia
The Tiger 1 at Münster was already owned BY a private collector, who had reassembled it from salvaged parts recovered in Latvia. He had loaned it to the museum as a display piece, but was forced to move it out of not only the museum, but Germany as a whole when legislation on privately owned military vehicles came down that would have essentially forced him to cut huge chunks off the thing and render it immobile if he wanted to keep it.
Iirc it's in the USA at the moment
got this from IHF years ago on dvd
Son: Can we watch downfall?
Soviet mum: we have downfall at home...
"We were well beyond thunder dome Max"🤣
The farce quote is from Marx, in his 18th Brumaire of Napoleon III. He wasn't a fan, so to speak.
Hey there fellers, guy from what's left of Russia's here.
Here's the gig: me and my Dad watched this movie last year, he's the 100% Soviet man born and raised. And he's still said that's a propaganda and the only thing he's liked were Hitler and nazis because they were cringe as f#ck.
Also I've somehow make my Dad to watch "Death of Stalin" movie when he was indisposed in hospital and he literary didn't had anything else to deal with there besides watching his laptop.
He watched that movie entirely. Without falling asleep while we watched *this* movie about Stalin.
He didn't liked the "Death of Stalin" but he's watched it *whole.*
P.S.
You got me lads when you said "Jimmy Carter's spirit is with us".
P.P.S.
Well, please enjoy this brief few months before November, since you yanks *are* risking to befell into the same totalitarian cringe upon cringe upon cringe. What's with Liberal democracy's ending up in Star Wars quote with certain orange Mussolini-typed guy wanting to be king and all.
Cheers from what's left of Russia.
Thank you for your kind words!
Speaking of personality cults, i was at this crappy roadside zoo in Sarasota for spring beak because it had like a dozen tigers their and the tiger show they had during the show featuring appreciably some rescue dogs. The guy who owns and runs the place apparently was praising Ron DeSantis for passing the Florida Wildlife Corridor law and that was one of the most surreal moments in my life.
Roadside big cats in Florida
Oh boy, that wouldn't happen to be tangentially connected to the Tiger King guy right?
@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez They made jokes about it but i don't think they were directly connected.
@@Marylandbrony Oh good. The big cat ecosystem in Florida is big enough to have people absolutely unconnected.
Still sounds absolutely wild.
Okay, but can we talk about how fucking excellent the casting is, though? EVERYONE is recognisable as the historical figure they're playing. That's a huge achievement for 1950, especially for the Soviet film industry.
Its impressive for today. Most American films dont ever get close to this.
Just found your channel. Please keep up the great work!
How did you like the initial cut, Comrade Stalin?
“I have notes.”
Three scariest words in the English language.
Beria. Has. Suggestions.
I can just imagine Stalin laying on his bed waiting for that letter from Alyosha so he can swoop in and give him the love that callous Natasha wouldn't.
if you guys would consider Second Civil War (1997) for a vote. It is a black comedy that was made on HBO about a second US civil war. tens of millions of immigrants and refugees come into the US with a huge amount of chaos around the world like a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, ecological collapse in China, and Russia invading the balkans. Idaho starts to refuse to accept anymore refugees which leads to a standoff pulling states into both sides. The alamo gets burned down, the statue of liberty is blown up. might make for an interesting choice.
I stopped the video about 10 minutes in to write an essay about Soviet hero worship specifically because I find it fascinating and multifaceted. However, I will delve more into philosophy/mentality than history.
Part of the "deification effect" of historical figures isn't unique to communism; we see its effect in capitalist societies with figures like Otto von Bismarck, Napoleon Bonaparte, _especially_ George Washington, and even our legacy of more ancient figures like Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar. All real flesh and blood individuals with their faults and victories, yet often treated as the prime movers of history. They, however, are part of "normal" historiography, either foundational or acceptable to the prevailing social forces, and thus, posterity enlarges the great things they have done and diminishes their failings, but that becomes weird when the same effect is applied to something by social forces outside of what's considered to be, "the normal world."
George Washington didn't personally make or break the colonies' independence from the British Empire, nor did Stalin make or break Soviet victory over Germany on the Eastern Front. Yet pop history compels us to ascribe much of the outcomes of these historical episodes to the people in charge.
Various schools of communism have invented internal terms to critique this form of personality worship within communism, such as leaderism/commandism. A converse term exists, "tailism," referring to merely tailing the prevailing sentiment of the masses.
But part of why communists fall so easily into this trap of ascribing mystical qualities to Marx or Lenin is, in one sense, fanboy mentality; in another sense, the internal politics of a siege mentality the Soviet state adopted in the wake of the objective failure of the world revolution of 1917-1923, and, finally, a product of the ideal rubbing up against reality.
Suppose one reads and comprehends the works of Marx and Engels beyond the Manifesto. It can awe you that human beings were capable of such profound insights into social relations and world-history at such a time when the Industrial Revolution was so recent, passionately falling into the idea that they were visionaries, building off of Hegelian language to attempt to describe the historically deterministic laws of capitalist production and class relations; pioneering, in a sense, the intellectual tools to ascend beyond the current historical epoch of capitalism in the same way that capitalist history ascended beyond the epoch of feudalism.
It becomes inconceivable for many people not to fall into the trap of hero worship, even when the founders of the communist movement at its inception rooted its propagation in the "rigorous critique of reality," attempting to minimize all subjective emotional appeal. Yet we are still human, and if we strongly value someone's insights, then we can easily make the mistake of accepting their insight unconditionally and uncritically, which, ironically, you aren't supposed to do if you consider yourself Marxist or communist: You're supposed to challenge everything, absolutely everything, in the ultimate pursuit of truth and universal human freedom.
Sorry, this was long and rambling. I find communism a fascinating subject.
Fear not my friend you are not alone in this facination
The notification for this video is my fastest click.
Hah, Churchill looks like Vladimir Harkonnen :’D
«My Desert My Iraq and Iran My Dune.»
-Winston Churchill 1941
Seeing this makes me want to see you cover downfall for some reason.
I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time, and now I need to ask one thing
Can I please kiss you, Talkernate History?
I would argue that the American equivalent of the Urals would be the Appalachians.
The Russians seem to have a soft spot for Americans. I suppose it's because of the parallels between the two nations. Both America and the Soviet Union are continent-sized, revolutionary republics on the edge of Western civilisation.
That's probably why this film, despite being made during the Cold War when Britain had been eclipsed by America, is more anti-British than anti-American.
it also has to do with a historical animosity towards the British. We didnt like the brits and the brits didnt like us.
Fantastic episode, you both knocked it out of the park. Haven't laughed that hard in ages. On a side note, I checked out the site at 1:14:38 to find a 20-year passion project by a man dedicated to appearing in a photo alongside as many celebrities as possible...and sleuthing out their true, shoe-less heights. A modern Stakhanovite if ever there was one.
We are overwhelmed by Wiget A in the form of celebrity photos. We cannot find enough Wiget B picture frames!!!
Thanks for doing these movie reviews! I could listen to you guys for hours talk about anything!
Definitely excited for any works from y'all where you two are having fun. And you're both clearly having a blast on this one.
This is the earliest I've ever gotten to an episode. 39 minutes \0/
I'm so happy for a new episode of the greatest podcast of all time
Easily the best alt hist channel on youtube
I'm really liking the new trend of videos so far! I laughed hard with this one, its really amazing to see these kinds of movies and try to understand a bit of the people mindset back then. Cant wait for the next video and im going to make it a special "Self care day" when yall upload missing in action! Steak and some Beer. Thanks guys for another great episode!
Watched this while making dinner for my family, burnt the food, no food more work family
30:20 Goering actually did have a swedish friend who helped communicate with the British Foreign Office during the Munich Crisis called Birgir Dahlerus. By all accounts he was used by Goering to push for the abandonment of the Czechs which in the soviet mind could be construed as capitalist collaboration with fascism against communism.
Göring's first wife was Swedish and apparently he always had a soft spot for that country.
I think that the heavy anti-british sentiment with only mild anti-americanism is emblematic of the specific point in time when this movie was made (after WW2 but before proper decolonization and especially before the Suez Crisis), during which Britain was still considered a superpower, with the US at most the UK's equal. When Ike got the British and French to stand down in Egypt, it became apparent that this wasn't the case.
Great video guys!
The metro flooding scenes are based on real history. It took place on the 2nd of may 1945.
Tbh my head canon of what max looks like is literally Paul dano.
Speaking of russian war movies. DEFINITELY check out come and see 1985, not only does it show the horrors of ww2 eastern front, but also there is a small segment where the main protagonist is symbolically "shooting hitler back through time".
We're getting spoiled this year, oh my God.
12:18 Reminded me, if you write alternate history stories about living people you ought to send it to them so they can see it. Probably print and mail it to them too.
Jimmy Carter is still alive. He put out a statement this week about Trump surviving.
Maybe one of his kids would like the Killer Carter tale.
This is hands down one of your funniest videos! 🤣
They back
Indeed this is a movie of all time
It’s nice to see a new video it’s been a long time.
Disregard earlier comment
Please do a video on Wild Geese 2
Thank you
Haha, it's in the queue!
you guys are my favorite. Wish I could've found about you guys years ago!
42 seconds ago I've never hit a button so fast
I clicked on it the second it appeared on my feed
Hitler being supportive of “we should open wide in the west so the American can come to us first and they can fight Russia with us” idea has to be the funniest thing in the movie since that’s basically what the July 20 plotter in 1944 wanted lol.
You should check out The film series Liberation. It's the USSR fighting Nazi Germany. Acting is better than this film but still pretty bad.
Nothing shall ever top this 1950 flick !
In that 1975 epic, they couldn’t even find a correct Yak 1,3,9 for the movie.
The only part I enjoyed was the relation of the Stauffenberg bomb plot against Hitler.
It was East-German-made.
Apparently the largest Georgian community is in Brooklyn according to the New York Times in 2008 following the Russo Georgian War. Most seem to be into construction. About 5000 strong.
Cleveland also has a decent sized Georgian population. Amusing since it also has a large Ukrainian and Russian population, as seen in the beloved 1970s film The Deer Hunter.
8:10 I'm sure you'd age 20 years just from living on the eastern front for more than 4 years
The makeup in this movie is so odd and makes FDR look like a lich. Couple that with the fact he teleported, and I'm convinced he is one in this movie, lol
I think the guns and Artillery didnt have any sounds in order to prevent PTSD since a vast amount of the audience would have experienced the War also i wouldnt be surprised if this Movie was simply rushed to get it out as soon as possible.
27:30 fun fact! All of the german extras you see playing german soldier ARE ACTUAL GERMAN POW'S They were allowed to participate in the movie as long as they still have their original uniforms.
Let me guess Russian casualties 5 people and Germans 2 billion?
Always forgetting that without the lend lease act russia/soviet union wouldve lost stalingrad in a couple of days and the union would've been done for
12:07 Wait, is this part alt-history or real? I'm having trouble finding lore on Jimmy Carter's ww2 service so I can't tell.
Edit: Ah, nevermind that post-war bit is clearly not real, right?
Its Matts amazing story from the AI generated episode where Jimmy is basically a mass murderering Japanese machine. Its a classic.
IRL he was a submariner in the navy post WW2. Although I think he graduated summer 1946, which is actually before the cut off date for anyone claiming to be a WW2 vet.
Still a heroic guy, stepped into a nuclear reactor to fix in it 1952.
35:30 to be fair I think something like that could work for presidents like Washington or Lincoln during the revolution and civil war.
Babe! Babe, wake up! Talkernate History dropped another vid about WW2 propaganda films!!!!
only a couple of minutes since the release getting my History Talkernated fresh
edit: is it just me or does Alyosha look like communist Fred Flinstone from the live action Flinstones movie?
Alyosha in, Viva Rock Stalin.
Hey fellas! I got a collection of alt history stories for you guys! I recently passed through a brand new microcenter that opened up in south Florida and at checkout I saw a big beautiful book called “What if…Book of Alternative History”. It’s awesome, it’s got full page illustrations and really cool timeline graphics to make it easy to see point of divergences and how it reflects against our real lives. Some of the stories include: what if Hitler invaded Britain? What if the soviets had won the space race? What if China had found America first? And the big one that’s got a full page illustration is: what if JFK wasn’t assassinated? (It’s got an edited picture of JFK wherein he looks to be around 60ish years old.) Very cool and very high quality book. I highly recommend picking it up!
Your movie reviews are fantastic.
I love "Gods and Generals," one of my favorite movies but understand its flaws and respect the criticism. It is certainly meant for a pro-Confederate audience.
I hope to see more movie reviews like this of one of the more well know terrible Soviet movies, they're great. Not sure what the other videos are about, but I'm sure they're ok too.
1:03 ->
The Germans won’t ever be able to Downfall this version.
Despite the awkward acting in this awful propaganda film they had spectacular scenes of battle and I loved the fact that they got people who really look like those historical personalities. Like they even had the balls to include Stalin's poc-marks that he had when you look up-close, which is why I didn't understand the complaining about his "smooth skin".
Mr. Talkernate History,
can you download the whole movie ?
15:40 love his videos!!!!!
I watched a documentary on Soviet made films and the guy who played Stalin, that was the only part he was supposed to play! Not allowed to play any other part in movies!
The other crazy thing is the director was so worried about this movie he watched Stalin while Stalin watched the movie and when he saw him smiling he knew he was safe from being sent to prison!
It's scary to suggest Trump making a movie like this because if he becomes president again he would definitely have something this self-aggrandizing made about him. And no one would be allowed to laugh.
Your not wrong but Ghey comment
46:54 This is actually taken from history, kind of? At very late stage of the war Hitler desperately began hoping Allies would turn against the Soviets as a bigger threat and allow him to survive. When relatively pro-Soviet Roosevelt died, he absurdely proclaimed God had not abanded them and that the war was won. Two weeks later he meet said God eye to eye.
yes no plot and terrible acting but excellent uniforms, armored vehicles and set designs
This channel is a great random find, you got a new fan!
Also are you interested in watching Abdul Nasser era Egypt propaganda movies?
@@ardiankk2949 Sure!
The main Russian looks like Ray Winstone.
This was one of the first WW2 movies that depicted the Eastern Front I found on TH-cam. lol back when you could find full fledge moves on here