American Russian Civil War Intervention: 1918-19 doc on PBS

[Gamburd]

I know this isn't exactly WWI, but it is related to WWI:

A documentary about the American Russian Civil War Intervention: 1918-1919 has been made,

'Voices of a Never Ending Dawn':

In the summer of 1918 President Woodrow Wilson, at the urging of our allies in Britain and France, sent an infantry regiment to north Russia to fight the Bolsheviks (the first Communists) in hopes of persuading Russia to rejoin the war against Germany. The 339th Infantry with the first battalion of the 310th Engineers and the 337th Ambulance and Hospital Companies were chosen from the Detroit and Michigan areas.

Additional units and soldiers were chosen from all 50 states, and from the battlefronts of France.

These men were called to brave the cold arctic snows and fight long battles in temperatures of sixty-degrees below zero, under the midnight sun of arctic Russia.

Those that survived called themselves “The Polar Bears”. When WWI ended, these men expected to be immediately called home, like all other regiments around the world. That call, for these men, never came. They were left to fight a savage enemy in Northern Russia eight long months after WWI had ended.

There has never been a regiment more tested. They became one of the most highly decorated regiments in all of WWI.

This documentary will be shown are various PBS stations throughout the United States through July 4th, 2010:

PBS TV stations, dates, and times (seems to be mainly on at odd hours of the day and night):

http://www.polarbeardocumentary.com/index.html


I was only able to catch the last hour on TV when it was shown a few months back.

It wasn't that good IMO; it has low budget / second rate production standards but it is the only documentary film on the American Intervention in the Russian Civil War that I know about.

There are a lot of scenes with reenactors.

The woman who made the documentary (a relative of hers fought on the American side in the conflict) interviews Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) who makes frequent appearances to comment on the political aspects of the American Intervention and makes connections between the Russian Civil War Intervention and Iraq, so it is that type of documentary.

However, I would recommend watching it on TV and if you miss seeing it on TV, I would say ordering a copy of the documentary for $29.00 would be worth your time and money.

It isn't a great documentary, but if you're interested in the Russian Civil War, or WWI, or if you've never heard of the Polar Bears and would like to learn more through a video format, it would be worth the price.

 

[Peter_Suciu]

I'm going to go out on a limb and make another of my usual heavily opinionated statements. Nine times out of 10 if it is on PBS I'll pass, because I feel there is usually an "agenda" about the topic. And usually I find the production usually is lackluster at best.

I only caught a few minutes of this so far, as I recorded it, and I don't know if I'll bother watching it. It looks to be in standard definition, which immediately tells me that it was either an old documentary brought out again, or it was produced by a PBS station that had no budget. Not to be an HDTV snob, but I hate watching this standard definition documentaries as I have so much fine looking content to watch.

I just usually give up half way through almost all the PBS specials. The worst was the one on Colonial India. The British host/narrator apologized to everyone he interviewed about the Indian Mutiny (aka the Uprising), and basically at one point said the massacre of British woman and children during the event was fully justified, and that the British reprisals were "harsh." And the kicker was when a university professor in India (she was Indian) noted that without the British that India likely would have never been unified, and the narrator goes on to say, "in all likelihood India would be as well off today even if the British never came." I screamed at the set, "that's the opposite of what she just said." Then I turned off the TV and walked away..

 

[joerookery]

I currently know nothing about Siberia or the American intervention. However thanks to Pierre I am watching the BBC series 'The Great War'. this is older I think it was made in the 1960s. It is really fascinating with some of the best footage I've ever seen. In the last episode Lieut. Edward Spears talked about his experiences in 1914. This is not a commentary this was the man himself–author of liaison 1914.–

While the footage is tremendous–truly tremendous–I think that history is badly flawed. It is a regurgitation of what I would call the British view. Unfortunately, it is where many people got their “knowledge” from. It seems as though the American history books bought this hook line and sinker. Recent historians have begun to change some of those views but this is going to die extremely hard. Not PBS–just take it with a grain of salt. rotest: rotest:

 

[Peter_Suciu]

I think the best WWI documentary is The First World War based on Hew Strachan's book. The book is a great read too. Very informative, lots of previously unseen footage, and not all that biased.

Ironically, some of the best documentary stuff I've seen on WWI and many of the figures is in the extras of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. The stories fall into the nonsensical at times, but the bonus features are great.