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An Outstanding Work in the Service of Propaganda: the Case of Mikhail Romm's The Dream Prof. Andrzej Zawistowski Can the story of September 1939 be told without mentioning soldiers, weapons or war? Can aggression be shown as historical justice? Can a propaganda film using the narrative of Stalinist propaganda, move and enchant an audience today? Historians wish to believe that they have a monopoly on speaking about the past. In reality, however, it is popular culture that has the greatest influence on creating an image of past years. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people reach for the works of historians. At the same time, a picture created by a novel or a film reaches tens or even hundreds of millions of people. That is why today the most famous of the 'Righteous Among the Nations' is Oskar Schindler, the protagonist of Steven Spielberg's film. For many Poles who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, the Second World War is associated with television characters from that era: a tank crew identified by tactical number 102 and an agent codenamed J-23. Such examples are numerous. Films give history a face. They are evocative, arouse sympathy or antipathy and remain in the memory as a symbol. Cinema and history In 2016 the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation recommended that schools take part in '100 lectures: the history of home cinema for school pupils'. For this project, a list of 100 Soviet and Russian feature films recognized as classics was prepared. Each of these films was enriched with a brief introduction in which people from contemporary Russian cinema, such as directors, actors and critics, introduced students to the world of a particular film. They talked about its creators, its history and the circumstances of its making. On that basis, as the project was advertised, pupils could learn not only about the history of their native cinema but also about their own country. The audience was invited to the cinema, and all the material (films and © Institute of European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, 2021. This article may be downloaded and printed in an unchanged form (citing its source) only for educational and not-for-profit purposes. https://hi-storylessons.eu 1 lectures) was also posted on a website. Therefore, even away from a big screen, a teacher could take advantage of the Ministry of Culture's proposal. ' pupils culture.ru: ailable on on ailable '100 cinemaschool '100 home History for lectures. of Website presenting Website May 04 2021]. Av [accessed https://www.culture.ru/live/lectures/movies/cinema/100 '100 lectures: the history of home cinema for school pupils' project website. These films were selected very carefully. Among them were such classics of the world cinema as Alexander Nevsky (1938), War and Peace (1965), Repentance (1984), Little Vera (1988) and Burnt by the Sun (1994). The list also includes films about the Second World War's great battlefields, for which Soviet cinematography is famous. Among others, a viewer has access to a digitally reconstructed Liberation (1971–75), which is over seven-hours long. The proposed set included the eye-catching film The Dream (1941) directed by Mikhail Romm, one of the most famous Soviet directors of the mid-20th century. It is by far the most important of the films shot after the Soviet aggression on Poland on 17 September 1939. Totalitarianism on film The outbreak of the Second World War and the Red Army's victorious march through the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic was a dream subject for Soviet © Institute of European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, 2021. This article may be downloaded and printed in an unchanged form (citing its source) only for educational and not-for-profit purposes. https://hi-storylessons.eu 2 propaganda. That is why Red Army soldiers were also accompanied by specially created film crews. They included the famous directors Alexander Dovzhenko and Mikhail Romm. The latter was in Bialystok (where he met the screenwriter Yevgeny Gabrilovich), Grodno, Brest, Vilnius and elsewhere. At the same time, individual military units recorded their activities on film. The result of these works was a series of documentaries, feature and even animated films. Carefully prepared, they justified the steps taken against Poland, proclaimed the glory of the Red Army and, finally, showed the joy of incorporating the Polish Eastern Borderlands region into the Soviet Union. The best-known propaganda film of this type is a documentary by Alexander Dovzhenko entitled Liberation. The full title of the picture further specifies its subject: Liberation of Ukrainian and Belarusian lands from the oppression of Polish lords and unification of brotherly nations into one family: a historical chronicle. It is a film full of propaganda clichés, stereotypes and blatant lies. The Second Polish Republic is presented as a backward prison state, the Polish authorities as cowards and the aggression of 17 September is given the title 'liberation'. What can be seen in Dovzhenko's documentary is a universal propaganda code used by many filmmakers. This was the case, for example, with the plot in Wind from the East. It was directed by Abram Room and the script's consultant was Wanda Wasilewska, trusted by Stalin and later the leader of Poland’s incipient communist rulers. The structure of the film is almost identical to that of the documentary Liberation. The first part is a story about miserable Ukrainians in the Second Polish Republic. The second part focuses on a time of war and the complete bankruptcy of the Polish state. The third part is about historical justice: the arrival of Soviet power. In the children's cartoon Iwaś, a Belarusian peasant living in Poland and the inhabitants of his native village are constantly terrorized by the army. However, the proud officers flee as fast as they can when by the Red Army crosses the borders of the Second Polish Republic. Tormented and persecuted by the Poles, Iwaś himself finally begins to breathe freely under the protection of the Soviet authorities. In terms of artistic value, most anti-Polish Soviet film propaganda was very poor. Sometimes the films were not allowed to be shown in public for that very reason. This © Institute of European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, 2021. This article may be downloaded and printed in an unchanged form (citing its source) only for educational and not-for-profit purposes. https://hi-storylessons.eu 3 was the case, for example, with a film entitled The Janusz Family. It is set in a Belarusian collective farm located on the border with Poland. After 17 September, its workers celebrated the liberation of their brothers from the power of 'lordly Poland'. A young man even brings a torn Polish border post to the village. Some of the propaganda lost its relevance in 1941 when the Germans attacked the Soviet Union. The former ally now became an enemy and encouraging the memory of former cooperation was inadvisable. Only one feature film, Mikhail Romm's The Dream, survived that propagandist-historical turmoil as a recognized work of art. The Dream Mikhail Romm is considered to be one of the most prominent artists of Soviet cinema. A five-time winner of the Stalin Prize, he has also won awards at film festivals in Venice and Cannes, among others. When he made The Dream, he held the influential position of artistic director of the Committee for USSR Cinematography. The co-writer of The Dream was Yevgeny Gabrilovich with whom Romm visited the Polish Eastern Borderlands occupied by the Red Army. It was during that trip that the film's concept was born. It involved a plethora of the best Soviet actors of the time, and interestingly there were many Poles among them. Stanisław Wohl worked as a stills photographer, whereas director and screenwriter Leon Jeannot was a co-creator. One of the most talented Polish composers at the time, Henryk Wars composed the film's musical score. It is quite possible that his involvement in this anti-Polish production saved the life of his family. His wife and two children were taken to the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940. However, in the spring of 1941, the three of them were able to officially leave Warsaw for Lviv as they had Soviet passports. Wars later managed to leave the Soviet Union with the Anders’ Army and worked in Hollywood after the war. The Dream's plot revolved around the life of Anna, a young Ukrainian woman (played by Romm's wife Yelena Kuzmina). Poverty pushed her to leave her village for the city, where she worked in a restaurant and was exploited and humiliated. In the film, the viewer usually sees proud, old-fashioned and unlikeable Poles alongside noble and © Institute of European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, 2021. This article may be downloaded and printed in an unchanged form (citing its source) only for educational and not-for-profit purposes. https://hi-storylessons.eu 4 tragic Ukrainians and Jews. It must be acknowledged, however, that many characters are multidimensional. Persecuted by Polish 'lords', Anna has no prospects in life. She learns from the communists that there is another world on the eastern border: prosperous, fair and friendly. She therefore tries to cross to the USSR, but is arrested, beaten and tortured by the Polish police. Her beloved man is executed for his communist activities. Several years later, in the autumn of 1939, Anna returns to the city. However, the situation is different as the Polish lands have now been incorporated into the USSR and happiness is widespread. One of the Poles even regrets that 'the Soviets came so late'.