Resources to Aid the Change in Our Narratives
Select from these items that I have hand chosen for you.
Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that I have viewed or read all of these personally and recommend them as valuable and unique perspectives that helped shape my own understanding of myself and the world around me and could do for you, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you are truly interested in learning more about a given subject after I have written or spoken in regards to them..
My Perestroika: Olga, Boris, Andrei, Ruslan, and Lyuba were part of the last generations of Soviets in Moscow, this film asks the question, “what was life in the Soviet Union really like?” and how they navigated the crumbling of social norms in the 1980s as the Union began to fade, the experience of the transition to democracy in the 90s, and their thoughts on Russia’s future given their unique generational perspective
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman: Biography of Catherine the Great that examines her life from her childhood in Germany to her death, in amazing story-like detail.
The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg: Features personality profile of each family member of the last Romanov ruling family and accounts for their last month in captivity in Ekaterinburg before they were assassinated, drawn from dairies of the family as well as accounts and reports of guards and commandants.
Russian Revolution in Color: Follow the transition, from the St. Petersburg naval sailors’ perspective, from autocracy to Socialist idyll in the immediate aftermath of the overthrow of the dynasty to the Civil War after Lenin’s Bolshevik Communists took power in a coup. Shifting political and personal beliefs cause reflection among the sailors who helped Lenin come to power after they start to hear stories from family and friends of the Security State’s establishment’s effects.
Ekaterina: The Rise of Catherine the Great: Russian produced 2 season series on Catherine the Great's life, from selection by Elizabeth as her heir Peter III's wife and navigating court life to impress Elizabeth before the wedding to her ascension to the throne and early rule, English subtitles.
Attack on Leningrad: Historical fiction on the experience in Leningrad during the Siege in World War 2. Follows a British news reporter, hiding the fact that she’s the daughter of an Imperial Russia military commander therefore a state enemy of the Soviet Union, who gets caught in Leningrad before she’s able to evacuate. She befriends a young female police officer and the film follows their efforts to survive the siege.
Battle of Sevastopol (Битва за севастополь): True story of Soviet female sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko’s war experiences defending Sevastopol and told from the perspective of Eleanor Roosevelt who befriended Lyudmila when she was on a state visit to the White House with the Soviet delegation.
Gorbachev: On My Country and the World: Examines his own policies (successes and failures), the social achievements of the Soviet Union overall, along with what led to the demise of the USSR and his various efforts to reform Soviet society and keep the Union intact. He examines the break away of the Baltic states and analyzes what went wrong in the bloody crackdown in Lithuania and offers his take on the standing of human equality in today’s world with his efforts through his various global organizations.
Anthropoid: True story of the Czech Resistance operation to assassinate Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich and the resulting fallout of the betrayal of the operatives and their final resistance to the Nazis in a church hideout, effectively ended Czech resistance to Nazi rule.
A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra in Their Own Words: Collection of translated correspondence between Romanov family members from 1881-1918 that paints a very intimate picture of their home life, their struggles, their beliefs, and the internal family strife when Alexandra and Nicholas go to extreme lengths to ensure a son is born.
The King's Choice: Norwegian film on the King of Norway’s escape from Nazi capture after the surprise invasion and his negotiations with the Nazi government representative who was trying to secure his capitulation, all the while learning what makes him “Norwegian” rather than the Danish-born elected ruler of the re-established Norwegian monarchy.
12: A Russian remake of the American classic "12 Angry Men," pitting 12 Russian jurors all from varying backgrounds to decide the verdict in a murder trial with a Chechen defendant while reliving experiences in their own lives that mirror the life of the defendant.
The Singing Revolution: A story of a culture that persevered against all odds due to a national pastime ultimately uniting a nation peacefully in a revolutionary bid for freedom that resulted in not one shot fired or life lost.
The Zookeeper's Wife: The efforts to save Polish Jews by the husband and wife who run the Warsaw Zoo after invasion in 1939. After the animals are either killed or sent to Germany, they use the facilities to secretly house Jews while the German's use the zoo for military purposes.
A Woman in Berlin: The, now, anonymous experiences of a Berlin-native journalist who has to navigate a torn defeated capital, occupation, and brutality from occupying soldiers. Eye-opening account of the experience of occupation.
Korczak: Polish film detailing the efforts and experiences of a man, revered by many and who turned down offers of escape numerous times, going to extraordinary lengths to provide for his Jewish orphans in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Germans & Jews: An introspective look at what it means to be German and live in modern day society with your culture's past always looming behind you. Interestingly enough, Berlin hosts one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe, poses interesting questions to how cultures so inextricably linked can coexist.
Amazon Prime offering on the Polish Resistance against Nazi Germany, little known stories of Polish efforts to help win the war and save lives
Stalin: Inside the Terror: A personal portrait of the Soviet leader behind the official history and politics to show how even those around him, family included, were not immune from his terror.
The Romanovs: Russian produced 8 episode television drama-type presentation of the history of the Romanov dynasty with incredible personal detail of each Tsar and Tsarina, the efforts undertaken by the ruler for the populous, and their legacy overall; link narrated in English, Russian available through StarMedia's channel.
Romanovs: An Imperial Family (Романовы: Венценосная Семья): Russian film from 2001 chronicling the last year and a half of the family's life from the February Revolution of 1917 to their assassination in July 1918. Youtube captions for English, 13 part movie in the link.
Bloody Foreigners: The Untold Battle of Britain: The true story of Polish air force pilots who escaped the invasion of Germany and Russia to fight in the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain and helped turn the tide of the war through superior skills while facing discrimination and doubt from their British commanders and ultimate betrayal at the hands of the Allies themselves.
Gladiators of WW2: The Polish Free Forces: An overview of the Polish strife during World War 2 from the surprise invasion of Russia and Germany and deportation to Soviet gulags, their escape to the west, and the various combat operations they engaged in with the Allies against Germany.
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