Laurence Rees studied Kremlin archival material from the 1930s and 1940s when it became accessible after 1991. His 2008 television series World War II: Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West drew on the archived notes of translators and diplomats in attendance at pre-war, wartime, and post-war meetings, at the Kremlin and elsewhere, of Stalin, his henchmen, Hitler's top henchmen, Churchill and his jesters, and FDR or Truman and their jesters.
The six parts of the Rees series all include some old documentary footage, some brand-new interviews with astounding people, and a good deal of re-enactment. In this case the re-enactment is done well - very well indeed. Each such scene is clearly demarcated; you know what you are looking at. Simultaneously each scene rings with truth. The actors are superbly chosen and know what they are doing. The claimed new material is really new material; it clarifies a great many things.
One of those things concerns the means, method, and machinery Stalin used to ensure that his puppets would be elected in the first national elections in Poland after the war. It was new to me, and it is a shock.
I won't give away what it is; wait until you get to Episode 5. Once you're there, after a review of the history and a viewing of the first four episodes, your stomach will turn properly. I wouldn't want to impede that.
Ashes and Diamonds (1958) is Andrzej Wajda's film set in that nightmare period. Rees's work explains and clarifies its historical context. The final scene, with the Polish puppet citizens dancing a robotic Polonnaise in a circle in a dingy hall, becomes more comprehensible - again, sickeningly so - with this new understanding of how the moves were made.
Quick summary, Yalta:
Churchill: "Do we have . . . your solemn promise . . . that there will be free elections . . . in Poland . . . very soon after Victory?"
Stalin: "Sure, sure."
Molotov: (chortle)
Stalin: "If they don't do their job well, we will shoot them."
Churchill: (cigar falls out of mouth)
FDR: "Ha! Ha! Ha! Well, maybe not all of them, Marshal Stalin. Fewer than all."
Molotov: (chortle)
Quick summary, Teheran:
Churchill: ". . .free elections . . . in Poland . . ."
Stalin: "Sure, sure!"
Truman: " "
The six parts of the Rees series all include some old documentary footage, some brand-new interviews with astounding people, and a good deal of re-enactment. In this case the re-enactment is done well - very well indeed. Each such scene is clearly demarcated; you know what you are looking at. Simultaneously each scene rings with truth. The actors are superbly chosen and know what they are doing. The claimed new material is really new material; it clarifies a great many things.
One of those things concerns the means, method, and machinery Stalin used to ensure that his puppets would be elected in the first national elections in Poland after the war. It was new to me, and it is a shock.
I won't give away what it is; wait until you get to Episode 5. Once you're there, after a review of the history and a viewing of the first four episodes, your stomach will turn properly. I wouldn't want to impede that.
Ashes and Diamonds (1958) is Andrzej Wajda's film set in that nightmare period. Rees's work explains and clarifies its historical context. The final scene, with the Polish puppet citizens dancing a robotic Polonnaise in a circle in a dingy hall, becomes more comprehensible - again, sickeningly so - with this new understanding of how the moves were made.
Quick summary, Yalta:
Churchill: "Do we have . . . your solemn promise . . . that there will be free elections . . . in Poland . . . very soon after Victory?"
Stalin: "Sure, sure."
Molotov: (chortle)
Stalin: "If they don't do their job well, we will shoot them."
Churchill: (cigar falls out of mouth)
FDR: "Ha! Ha! Ha! Well, maybe not all of them, Marshal Stalin. Fewer than all."
Molotov: (chortle)
Quick summary, Teheran:
Churchill: ". . .free elections . . . in Poland . . ."
Stalin: "Sure, sure!"
Truman: " "
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