Talk:The North Star (1943 film)

Communist influence in Hollywood

As the existence of this film, and the two others cited, demonstrate, the idea that pro-Communist Hollywooders were making pro-Communist propaganda was not just a fantasy of HUAC and Sen. Joe McCarthy. In March of 2007, what many consider the definitive refutation of the generations of lies and slanders against McCarthy, will becoming out in Blacklisted By History: The Real Story of Joseph McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies by M. Stanton Evans. A short summary of the book can be found in Ann Coulter's bestseller Slander.

PainMan 12:04, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Destruction of Guerrilla Bases during the Great Terror

Although many guerrilla bases had been set up in the 1930s under the leadership of the Red Army's commander and proponent of modern, armored warfare Mikhail Tukhachevsky (shot after being tortured into making a phoney confession of plotting against Stalin; in the 60's forensically verifiable bloodstains were found on his "confession")--as a contingency against just such an invasion--they were almost all destroyed by Stalin during his murderous purge of the Red Army in 1936-38; this greatly hindered the fight against the German invaders behind the lines during World War II. Again see Conquest, The Great Terror, Chapter 7 "Assault on the Army", second ed. 1990, Oxford Press).

Bases for partisans had to reconstructed after the German invasion in territory under control of Himmler's murderous SS & Gestapo. Even so, Stalin always viewed partisans and guerillas with his "sickly suspicion" (as Khruschev was to put it after the former's death) and, at first, neither much help or encouragement was given to either civilians or Red Army soldiers caught behind German lines. Later, the partisans would be organized, and regular officers infiltrated in to take command of the groups. However, as in France and Yugoslavia (two other areas where partisan effectiveness were both exaggerated and romanticized), Soviet partisans did little to disrupt the German war machine. (An organized chain of well-supplied bases and special forces in place, as Tukhachevsky apparently intended, might have been far more effective against the German onslaught.)

Only the juggernaut of the Red Army, once it had recovered from both Stalin's insane purge (half the officer corps were shot, imprisoned or sent to labor camps in the 1936-38 "Great Terror") and the immense damage done to it by Hitler's legions, was really effective against the Wehrmacht. Hitler's orders to use terror tactics against the local population to discourage aid to partisans only strengthened resistance to the Nazi invaders.

If the partisans were ineffective, the ridiculously stupid refusal of Hitler to use, in particular, Ukrainian hatred of the Soviet regime against it, ensured that the warm welcome his soldiers received was short-lived and the Ukrainians, along with the Great Russians and other peoples of the Soviet Union, were soon enthusiastically fighting the German Army.

Speaking of Tukhachevsky, one shouldn't feel too sorry for him. During the famous peasant rebellion in Tambov province after the Russian Civil War, he used poison gas to crush the last resisters to the Soviet regime. What is appalling, is that Stalin would gut his own military machine when an virulently anti-Communist and anti-Slav (Hitler's untermenschen" or "sub-humans" along with the Jews, Gypsies and most everyone else he hated) and openly expansionist Germany was at his very border.

PainMan 12:04, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Further reading

Those looking for more information about the "Great Terror" of '36-38 and the Ukrainian genocide and terror-famine are directed to Robert Conquest's The Great Terror and The Harvest of Sorrow. Both, as of this writing (Jan 2007) are in print.

For the story of the Stalin's war against Germany (and the Soviet military machine) the best books on the subject (considered, like Conquest on Stalin's purges, to be so by Russians as well as Western scholars) are The Road to Moscow and The Road to Berlin by Scottish Prof. John Erickson. Tho' out of print for years, both have been recently reprinted in very nice trade paperback editions; Erickson's books, in particular, are filled with detailed sources, Soviet, German, English, and American. They are indispensible for any student or anyone interested in the Soviet military and the Soviet-German War. (Even if some consider Erickson's tomes to be overfilled with detail, sometimes down to the platoon level, the books are still the best there are.)

>>>All four books are available on Amazon.com and Amazon UK.<<<

PainMan 12:03, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Validity of the Term Genocide

I admittedly know very little of the circumstances surrounding the Ukrainian famine but some cursory research tells me that the term genocide is not universally accepted (and this is acknowledged on other wikipedia articles dealing with this topic such as Holodomor. Are there any suggestions as to what it could be changed to in this article, I understand this is a charged subject for many people but it is important that the technically correct term be used. 89.18.70.74 (talk) 09:50, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Removal of "needs infobox" tag

This article has had its infobox tag removed by a cleanup using AWB. Any concerns please leave me a message at my talk page. RWardy 17:42, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

So F*cking Biased

This article is so irracionaly McCarthian, I could swear he wrote it himself. That "Soviet Propaganda" thing and the citation to that British moron makes me sick. An Enciclopedia should have critic and neutral content. This article doesn´t even have a plot synopsis! It is only a hysteric attack on Communism/Socialism. I believe this deserves to be properly redone. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.141.189.231 (talk) 18:28, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Historical accuracy (section)

Perhaps this article should have a brief and well-cited section on Historical accuracy similar to the one on Mission to Moscow. My only concern is that it should focus on information available to the screenwriters at the time. ~Eric F 184.76.225.106 (talk) 01:02, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

External links

I added the following External link (per WP:BeBold), but am not sure if it is proper, or properly formatted. Is there a template for Hulu? (Feel free to fix or remove.)

• The North Star can be viewed for free on Hulu.

~Eric F 184.76.225.106 (talk) 01:24, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Public domain

According to IMDB:

The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.

Shouldn't it be mentioned? --Error (talk) 18:30, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Plot from TCM

In June 1941, in the small Russian farming village of North Star, pig farmer Karp briefly visits the home of Dr. Kurin, his cousin Anna and her children Clavdia and Grisha. Later, Karp chats with teenager Damian, who is enthusiastic about the next day's planned walking trip into the city of Kiev with Clavdia, Grisha, Damian's girl friend Marina and his older brother Kolya, an air pilot on leave. At Marina's home, her little sister Olga and parents, Rodion and Sophia, discuss that evening's plans for the village feast. Meanwhile, at Damian's home, his parents, Boris and Nadya, and Kolya are disturbed to hear news over the radio of German troop movements within Poland and the recent bombing of London. That evening the entire village takes part in unloading the supply train and celebrates the season in song and dance. The next morning the young people set out in high spirits on their hike to Kiev and soon meet up with Karp, who offers them a ride on his cart. They join a long line of carts headed for the city, but soon Karp and Kolya hear a distinctive sound, and when Kolya realizes it is the buzz of aircraft, he stops the caravan and tries to get everyone into the ditch as bombs rain down on them. After the planes pass over, the hikers discover several people have been killed and their own cart destroyed. In North Star, the villagers are going about their daily routine when the dive bombers abruptly attack, and Sophia watches with horror as Olga is caught in the strafing gunfire. As the planes depart, the village radio announces that the Germans have invaded Russia and the two countries are now officially at war. Boris, the village leader, gathers the survivors together and declares that the men must depart for the hills to take up guerrilla activities and the women and older people must remain behind to burn the village before the German army arrives. Rodion gives the village the oath of guerrillas before the men ride away. Boris then goes to the nearest army post to retrieve munitions for the guerrillas, but on his return he is strafed by another wave of planes. His truck turns over near where Damian, Kolya and the others are regrouping. Before dying, Boris instructs his sons to deliver the munitions to the guerrillas or North Star will be lost. After burying his father, Kolya helps load the gun supply onto two wagons, then departs to rejoin his air group. A village scout on horseback sees the advancing German army and reports to the women, who begin burning their houses. The Germans soon arrive in North Star and shoot several villagers to stop the burning, then question the survivors about Rodion's whereabouts. When none of the villagers respond, the soldiers torture Sophia, prompting Kurin to protest to the medical officer, Colonel von Harden, who explains that there are many unpleasant Nazi policies that must be acted upon. Meanwhile, as night falls, the hikers rest by the roadside, and as German scouts drive by, Grisha's dog darts out barking and three soldiers are dispatched to investigate. Damian and Karp send the others to harness the horses while they ambush the German soldiers and set off again. Early the next morning an exhausted Kolya is on his fourth bombing run with a novice pilot, who decides to strafe a German armoured division, but the plane is shot up and the pilot and co-pilot killed, forcing Kolya to take over. Realizing the plane is too damaged to land, Kolya crashes it into the tank line. Meanwhile, in North Star, the Germans have converted one remaining building into a hospital, where they force the village children to make blood transfusions for their wounded soldiers. Kurin, watching von Harden's cold efficiency, is bitterly shocked and attempts to save a young boy, who later dies in his arms. He takes the child's body to his father in the guerrilla hideout. Out in the forest, the hikers realize that the only route into North Star is across the road and they must cause a diversion to halt the German transport. Damian volunteers and, unknown to him, Clavdia follows, determined to overcome her fear. Both successfully bring the transport to a halt, allowing the carts to dash across further up the road, but when the Germans fire on the fleeing youths, Clavdia is mortally wounded. Damian is stunned by an exploding grenade and when he comes to, discovers he has been blinded. When Damian and Clavdia fail to return to the carts, Marina insists on looking for them, and she and Karp soon find the distraught Damian. Incensed by the murder of the village children who died as a result of the blood transfusions, the guerrillas decide they can no longer wait for the munitions and must attack. Rodion and a handful of guerrillas slip into North Star undetected and into a warehouse that stores barrels of gasoline, which they silently pour into the river and then ignite with grenades. As the guerrillas storm the town on horseback, armed only with clubs, the weary hikers reach the edge of town with the guncarts. A sentry rushes them into town, where the guerrillas immediately arm themselves and continue their attack. At the hospital Kurin berates von Harden for claiming to despise those he nevertheless serves, then kills him. Later, after driving the Germans out, the surviving villagers leave the smoking remains of North Star, vowing to make this the last war and to fight for a free world. 96.241.213.146 (talk) 04:15, 26 January 2024 (UTC)