The Soviet Story (2008)

The Soviet Story is a 2008 documentary film about Soviet Communism and Soviet-German collaboration before 1941 written and directed by Edvīns Šnore and sponsored by the UEN Group in the European Parliament.

The film features interviews with western and Russian historians such as Norman Davies and Boris Sokolov, Russian writer Viktor Suvorov, Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, members of the European Parliament and the participants, as well as the victims of Soviet terror.

The film argues that there were close philosophical, political and organizational connections between the Nazi and Soviet systems before and during the early stages of World War II. It highlights the Great Purge as well as the Great Famine, Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Katyn massacre, Gestapo-NKVD collaboration, Soviet mass deportations and medical experiments in the GULAG.
The film has attracted praise and criticism from academic historiansand political commentators.

The Economist review of The Soviet Story praises the film by saying

"Soviet Story" is the most powerful antidote yet to the sanitisation of the past. The film is gripping, audacious and uncompromising. [...] The main aim of the film is to show the close connections—philosophical, political and organisational—between the Nazi and Soviet systems.

It concludes its review by calling the documentary "a sharply provocative work".

Various Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who were interviewed for the film, have expressed views in favour of it. According to the Latvian MEPs Inese Vaidere and Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis writing in Parliament Magazine:

The Soviet Story makes a significant contribution to the establishment of a common understanding of history and brings us closer to the truth about the tragic events of the 20th century. A common understanding of history among the member states is crucial for the future of the whole EU.

Both Vaidere and Kristovskis represent the UEN group which actively supported the production of the film.

After watching the film, Finnish MEP Ari Vatanen gave the following comment:

It is a powerful message. Thank you for telling the truth. It will awaken people. ... We cannot build a humanity if we close our eyes to this kind of massacres. Our possibility is to serve justice to those people.

British MEP Christopher Beazley commented:

This film is very important. It's a very powerful representation of what took place in Poland, in Latvia and the other Central European countries.

Vytautas Landsbergis, MEP and the former Head of the Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament), assessed The Soviet Story as

a world class film, which should be shown to the world