ID

FBW002869      Documentary

Country / Year

Russia, 1991

Original Title

Bolsoj Koncert Narodov il Dychanie Cejn-Stoska

Other Title(s)

Das große Konzert der Völker oder die Cheyne-Stokessche Atmung (German)
The Great Concert of Nations

Directed by

Semjon Dawidowitsch Aranowitsch

Produced by

ASK (Amerikanisch-Sowjetische Filminitiative); in partnership with Leninfilmstudio

Staff

Script: Pawel Finn, Semjon Dawidowitsch Aranowitsch; Script supervision: Frisheta Gukasian; Camera: Sergej Sidorow, Lew Kolganow, Ljudmila Krasnowa, Oleg Plaksin; Camera, var: Alexander Gussewa (Videoaufnahme); Editing: Tamara Gussewa; Sound: Galina Gorbonossowa; Music: Alexander Knaifel

Length

145'

Format

35mm/farbe/1:1,37

Dates

- 06 Dec 1991: Premiere, Moskau (Moskowskij Dom Filmow)
- 20 Feb 1992: First run, GFR, Berlin (42. Internationale Filmfestspiele, Delphi, 22. Internationales Forum des Jungen Films)

Abstract

The documentary footage of this film comes from soviet film archives - also from the KGB archives - and is supplemented by interviews with descendants of the victims as well as conversations with perpretators such as one of Stalin's bodyguards and a guard from the infamous Butyrki prison. Leitmotiv is the gala concert from a 1952 film dedicated to the peaceful co-existence of all nationalities in the soviet confederation. Semjon Aranovich's intention with this two-part documentary is to reconstruct the history of the persecution of the Jewish people in the USSR. It is an embarrassing chapter of soviet history, which has been kept secret, because the racist politics lay in the hands of a state, which was paid homage to as victor over the german fascism and ist racial doctrine. Victims of the first antiseptic campaign of 1948-1949 were members of the anti-fascist Jewish committee, distinguished artists and scientists. The Jewish state theatre GOSET and the Jewish publishing house were closed and the black book about the genocide of the russian Jews by the nazis was destroyed. A second wave of persecution in 1951-1952 was especially aiming at the extermination of doctors.

Subject Terms

1940-1949; 1950-1959; 1990-1999; American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; Antifascism; Anti-Semitism; Anti-Semitism after World War II; Prisons; Persecution of the Jews; Pogroms; Soviet Union