Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia

During the war the American army commissioned a documentary series to explain to its soldiers why they were fighting; Frank Capra was at its head. This is the fifth film in that series, and its subject is the war between the Soviet Union and Germany. It starts from Napoleon and runs through the history of armies that tried to invade Russia, then comes to 1941: the German attack, the siege of Leningrad, and Stalingrad. The film was made for propaganda and does not hide it. At the time it was made the Soviet Union was America's ally and the account is built accordingly: the Soviet people and army are praised and the Stalin period is presented favourably. Against that, the German-Soviet pact of 1939, the partition of Poland, the war with Finland and the purges of the thirties are absent from the film. Anatole Litvak directed and Anthony Veiller wrote the narration. Eighty-three minutes. It is not a history lesson but the official account of a moment.