Authors

Discussion

Nazi cinema is infamous for its ferocious demonization of Bolshevism, which, alongside and often in concert with the “international Jewry,” represented the ultimate nemesis of the Third Reich. Films such as Flüchtlinge (1933), Friesennot (1935), Lockspitzel Asew (1935), Panzerkreuzer Sebastopol (1937), and the wartime G.P.U. (1942) are instantiations of Nazism’s hatred of Soviet communism, uniformly portraying Bolsheviks as sadistic, sexually unrestrained and beastlike fanatics who engage in nihilistic acts of violence. Yet these lurid images do not constitute the totality of Nazi cinema’s relationship to the Russian nation, its history, and its politics. Hitler’s Germany also produced a corpus of films praising, lamenting the destruction of, or otherwise presenting as approachable, imperial Russia and its subjects. Such works include Der Favorit der Kaiserin (1936), Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht (1939), and Der Postmeister (1940). Even films that excoriate Bolshevism, such as Panzerkreuzer Sebastopol, can present tsarism as a morally legitimate alternative to Soviet terror. In giving these films analytical scrutiny, the paper seeks to advance two arguments: first, that pre-1941 Nazism could accommodate a non-Bolshevik version of Russian identity and history; and second, that strands of thought within Nazi discourse gave credence to Russian nationalism as a tolerable and even praiseworthy alternative to the “Bolshevik menace.”