Molotov addresses the Soviet people re. German invasion.

Identifier
irn1000646
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 1995.147.1
  • RG-60.0880
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • Russian
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Scope and Content

Title: "Soviet newsreel / 59 / 1941 / M. Fidelevoy"/ "Radio address of the USSR's Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, V.M. Molotov / June 22, 1941" MS of Molotov. Voiceover of Molotov speech: "Today at 4 a.m. ... without declaring war, Germany attacked our country ... the attack was perpetrated despite a pact of non-aggression between the USSR and Germany, which the USSR faithfully abided by ... responsibility for this attack falls entirely upon German fascist rulers ... at 5:30 a.m. the German ambassador in Moscow relayed the message from the German government that the decision to launch war against the USSR was due to Red Army units concentrated near the East German border. I replied on behalf of the USSR, that Germany attacked despite the peace agreement, making Germany the aggressor ... Hitler's declaration today is a lie and a provocation, and he is trying belatedly to invent charges that the Soviet Union failed to observe the Soviet-German pact. Now that the attack on the Soviet Union has already been committed, the Soviet Government has ordered our troops to retaliate and to drive German troops from our country. This war has been forced upon us, not by the German people, not by German workers, peasants and intellectuals, whose sufferings we well understand, but by the clique of bloodthirsty Fascist rulers of Germany who have enslaved Frenchmen, Czechs, Poles, Serbians, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Greece and other nations. The government of the Soviet Union expresses its unshakable confidence that our valiant army and navy and brave falcons of the Soviet Air Force will acquit themselves with honor in performing their duty to the fatherland and to the Soviet people, and will inflict a crushing blow upon the aggressor ... The government of the Soviet Union expresses the firm conviction that the whole population of our country, all workers, peasants and intellectuals, men and women, will conscientiously perform their duties and do their work. Our entire people must now stand solid and united as never before ... The government calls upon you, citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally still more closely around our glorious Bolshevist party, around our Soviet Government, around our great leader and comrade, Stalin. Ours is a righteous cause. The enemy shall be defeated. Victory will be ours." Montage of Molotov's speech juxtaposed over CUs of speakers, coverage shots of masses of people listening attentively, INT shots of radios and wall speakers, shots of moving tanks, flying V's of Russian planes, a battleship at sea, trains, trucks hauling soldiers, weapons and supplies, INT shots of mines, factories, and plants, CU of Stalin. Title: "Ours is a righteous cause / The enemy shall be defeated / Victory will be ours"

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