Watching a Wartime Propaganda Movie

Mission to Moscow by Warner Brothers 1943




Uncle Joe



I love to watch Turner Classic Movies at night before going to sleep. Last night I watched Mission to Moscow, produced by Warner Brothers in 1943. As we know, Hollywood was a key ally of the war effort during WW2 in making movies that helped provide public and moral support for the troops. Yes, they provided an idealized image of our fighting men, but considering the enemies we were fighting, nobody complains about it now. That's what the home front does during war and all sides do it. Mission to Moscow really deserves some comment because to watch it now is fascinating.

The story is based on the book of the same name by Joseph Davies, who was sent to Moscow as ambassador by Franklin Roosevelt in the years leading up to the start of WW 2. The film opens with an appearance by Davies himself, who talks about the movie.

The purpose of the movie was to build public support for the Soviet Union since they were our ally in fighting Nazi Germany and many in the US had a negative perception of the communist regime. It follows Davies as he arrives in the USSR and travels around the country watching the building of its industrial and economic might. From there, it gets into revisionist history.

Beginning with a supposed sabotage of a plant in Kharkiv, the great purge begins, and the arrests and trials are shown where all of the defendants matter of factly admit their guilt before the court and affirm that no force or pressure was used to get them to confess. In a nutshell, Stalin's great purge is justified.

Stalin himself doesn't appear until the point where Davies is returning home and the two have a meeting. Uncle Joe is portrayed as, well, Uncle Joe, an all-around good egg who is very wise to boot.

Davies then returns to the US and goes on a tour promoting the need for the US to support the forces fighting Hitler. In the meantime, the USSR signs the 1939 non-aggression pact with Germany. Reason? Britain and France had rejected Stalin's overtures and therefore, a desperate and peace-loving USSR had no choice but to sign a pact with Germany. Not mentioned were the secret protocols that resulted in the Soviets carving up Poland with Germany. After the Germans attacked, the Soviets followed suit by taking over Eastern Poland as well as the Baltic states. The protocols were not discovered at the time the movie was made.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact

In the movie, Davies, while speaking before a skeptical crowd in the US, also covers for the Soviets when it came to the war with Finland. He explains that the Soviets had tried to negotiate with the Finns for territory that they needed as security buffers and outposts, but that Hitler's Finnish allies had refused to negotiate and so the Red Army went in. There is some truth to that, but the land in question was mostly land that Russia had lost in the chaos of the Revolution of 1917. Also, at the time, the USSR was still in the non-aggression pact with Germany. The League of Nations condemned the attack and expelled the Soviet Union.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War

It was said that when the movie played in the USSR after the war, Soviet audiences regarded it as a comedy. If you look at it through today's lens, it is. But as I said, this film was made in 1943 while the US and USSR were fighting on the same side for our very survival.