The Unknown War
On June 22nd, 1941, the Blitzkrieg into Soviet territory began in the early morning as Nazi forces steamrolled into the western edges of the Soviet Union. The series begins here, and ends with the Russian involvement in the final battles of WWII in Japan. Along the way episodes focus on a variety of battles and of the people in the Soviet Union, too. Episodes in the series:
–June 22nd, 1941: The German assault begins.
–The Battle For Moscow: The desperate struggle to keep Moscow from falling.
–The Siege of Leningrad: Surrounded and cut off from the outside, Leningraders fight on.
–To The East: The Soviets moved factories to remote locations and its people sacrificed heavily to build supplies.
(Disc 2)
–The Defense of Stalingrad: 200+ days in 1942 of constant battle between the Germans and Soviets.
–Survival At Stalingrad: Saving Stalingrad from the Germans proved inspirational to the Soviets and Allies alike.
–The World’s Greatest Tank Battle: The July, 1943 battle at Kursk.
–War In the Arctic: The harrowing tales of supply ships trying to avoid German submarines near the Arctic Circle.
(Disc 3)
–War In the Air: Most Soviet air power was destroyed on June 22nd, 1941, but this episode talks about the recovery of the Soviet air force.
–Partisans: The Guerrilla War: Partisan efforts that made operations difficult for the Germans inside Soviet lines.
–The Battle of the Seas: Sea-based battles between the Soviet marines nicknamed “The Black Death” and the Nazis.
–Battle For the Caucasus: Fierce fighting lasting nearly fourteen months near India.
(Disc 4)
–The Liberation of the Ukraine: Nazis had a hold of Ukraine after the summer attacks in 1941, but over two years later, the Soviets reclaimed it.
–The Liberation of Belorussia: The Nazis held this area longer than the Ukraine but the Soviets managed to reclaim it in 1944.
–From the Balkans To Vienna: The battle for Budapest and other neighboring areas such as Romania and Bulgaria.
–The Liberation of Poland: Poland was a critical area in the War that was under Nazi control for several years. In 1945, the Soviets forced the Nazis out.
(Disc 5)
–The Allies: Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin are featured here.
–The Battle of Berlin: The battle that finally finished the Nazi reign.
–The Last Battle of The Unknown War: The War in Europe over, the Soviets provide assistance in Japan.
–A Soldier of The Unknown War: The monument known as The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is featured.
Each episode is chock full of intriguing historical footage taken by Soviet cameramen, much of which is right in the heat of battle. Most of this footage has not been seen outside of this series, either, and this series has not been readily available since it first aired in 1978. The footage is, for me, what makes this series click. The narration by Burt Lancaster is great, but you have to be constantly mindful that you are not getting the full story here. This series has lots of omissions and the War is presented in such a way as to make the Soviets look nearly innocent, which is not historically accurate.
On DVD
The Unknown War: WWII and the Epic Battles of the Russian Front on DVD is a nicely put together set. The box includes five slim line DVD cases, each with their own unique artwork. The back side of each case also has an episode summary, too. A common theme exists on all of the individual cases, disc labels, and the menu system for each disc. The menus are in color, feature the series’ theme song, and are easy to navigate. Options include Play All and individual episode selections, and on discs 1, 4, and 5, there are bonus features I will detail shortly.
As for presentation quality, it’s about what you would expect given that over 90% of each episode is historical footage. There are scenes with Burt Lancaster in Russia where he introduces the episode, and these scenes are in color. All episodes are in full frame with “standard” audio — 2.0 at best, which, again, is understandable. That said, I would have appreciated an option for subtitles, but alas, they are not included.
There are three bonus features, two of them are connected but split across discs four and five. The first bonus feature can be found on the first disc and it runs about twenty-three minutes. It is an interview with Rod McKuen, who did the script adaptation and also wrote the score for the series. It’s a fairly recent interview in which he talks about the series and his memories of filming it and who he worked with, and so forth. It’s pretty interesting, and some images of the script are also shown.
The second extra feature, which is split into a nineteen and thirty-two minute segment on discs four and five, is an interview, or analysis of The Unknown War by Associate Professor of Russian History Willard Sunderland of the University of Cincinnati. I found his analysis very interesting and eye-opening — he makes it very clear that The Unknown War omitted a lot of pertinent details about the Soviet government, its people, and the numerous details and complexities of the War on the Eastern Front. Whether you watch this feature before or after the series itself, it is quite revealing and I think it’s great that his analysis was included on this set.
To the summary…