Featured Essay

Ninotchka Miscellany

Ironical Chronicle graphic The filming and release of the film Ninotchka in the context of the rapidly changing international situation.

Ninotchka was released at a time when the international situation was changing very rapidly. In fact the changes were so rapid that the ten writers that worked on the script could not keep up and one scene, to be described below, a relic from the period when both Hitler Germany and the US were pursuing a common anti-Soviet strategy, remained in the film when it was released on November 9, 1939.

The International Situation

The diagram at the right singles out two countries, Germany and the US, and in particular it emphasizes their foreign policy relative to the Soviet Union. It is shown as anti- or pro-Soviet by plotting a line below or above the central horizontal time axis which is labeled in years in the 20^th century from 1933 to 1949. Overlaid on the chart are three eras, the era of the Great Depression, World War 2 (Europe), and the Cold war. The era of Germany's Third Reich (1933-1945) is shown by a spanning arrow.

Two specific events are plotted in the main time line: The release of the MGM film Ninotchka and the Italian elections of 1948, in which this film was used as a propaganda weapon to affect the outcome. In the expanded section, covering 1939, the beginning of filming, the invasion of Poland, and the film's release are shown.

The really striking thing that this diagram shows is that during the WW2 era US policy vis-à-vis the Soviet Union was the mirror image of that of the Third Reich. Given the US anti-Soviet policy in the eras before and after WW2, the inevitable conclusion is that US policy vis-à-vis the Soviet Union during WW2 was purely opportunistic and not in the least driven by humanitarian concerns for the people of the Soviet Union.

The contemporary propaganda rationalization that accompanied the US policy switch from pro- to anti-Sovietism that occurred in 1945 is that at the beginning of the post-war era the Soviet Union was failing to live up to the high ideals of Democracy which the US ostensibly stood for. It is hardly necessary to take this rationalization seriously in the light of subsequent US behavior as it pursued its interests in the Korean, Vietnam, and Iraq wars as well as its discreet toleration of brutal dictatorships and monarchies when it was in its interest to do so.

Ninotchka and the Italian Elections of 1948

Historically, nations which lose wars are prime candidates for Communist revolutions since wars expose the normally concealed class character of the State and the brutality and mendacity of its ruling elite. This lesson was made clear to international Capitalism by the Bolshevik Revolution in the last year of WW1 and the US was determined to prevent a repetition after the close of WW2.

In the Italian elections of 1946, the votes for the separate Communist (PCI) and the Socialist (PSI) candidates indicated that if the two Leftist parties combined forces they could win against the dominant Capitalist party, the Christian Democrats (CD), in the next election.

In the immediate post-war period Italians knew that the CD was riddled with Fascists, Nazi collaborators, and general opportunists who had facilitated Italy's slide into Fascism and a disastrous war while the Leftist parties had been the principled opponents of Fascism. The US fully appreciated this fact and that virtually all Europe's anti-Communist political parties, its natural allies in its crusade against the Soviet Union, were Fascist sympathizers and that it would take a full-scale effort to reverse the tide of public opinion. The Italian elections of 1948 were a test case for the ability of the US to do this.

The following are some of the tactics used by the US (Ref.: William Blum, Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since WW2, Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine, 1995).

• A mass mail campaign with letters mailed from the US to Italian addresses with messages such as, "A communist victory would ruin Italy. The United States would withdraw aid and a world war would probably result."
• The US State Department announced, "If the Communists should win ... there would be no further question of assistance from the United States."
• The Voice of America short wave broadcast facility instituted daily programs beamed to Italy telling Italians theirs was a "choice between democracy and communism, between God and godlessness, between order and chaos." and that under a communist dictatorship many of the "nation's industrial plants would be dismantled and shipped to Russia and millions of Italy's workers would be deported to Russia for forced labor."
• A conference of over 200 US labor leaders of Italian origin issued a message to the Italian people urging them to vote against the Left candidates. This message was sent to 23 daily newspapers in Italy.
• The CIA donated cash variously reported between $1 and $10 million to anti-Communist labor organizations in Italy and forged poison-pen letters designed to discredit the Communist-Socialist candidates.
• A large number of copies of the film Ninotchka were ordered and distributed in Italy to cinemas in working class neighborhoods.

Ninotchka: The Nazi Scene

Screen snap This arriving gentleman…

Screen snap …is met by his party and… Heil Hitler!

The above two screen snaps are from a curious scene in Ninotchka. The context of this brief scene is as follows. The three Soviet officials Buljanoff, Iranoff, and Kopalski, whose roles are used for a continuous ridicule of the Soviet Union, have been advised by telegram from Moscow that their authority has been suspended and that a special envoy will arrive in Paris to take over their official duty. Crucially, the telegram omits to identify the new arrival.

On the arriving train platform the trio are trying to guess which of the arriving passengers is the special envoy. They see the gentleman in the left frame above and the following dialog (taken from the script) ensues:

IRANOFF: That must be the one!

BULJANOFF: Yes, he looks like a comrade!

[They follow the man, but just as they are ready to approach him he is greeted by a German Girl. Both raise their hands in the Nazi salute.]

BEARDED MAN AND GIRL: Heil Hitler!

[As the two embrace, the Three Russians stop in their tracks.]

KOPALSKI: No, that's not him...

BULJANOFF: Positively not!

The curious fact is that the script chose not to ridicule the two Nazis while the Soviet Union is ridiculed throughout the film.

Referring to the expanded portion of the historical diagram it would appear that the most likely explanation is that the film's political slant is consistent with the period before Hitler Germany invaded Poland when the US and Germany were both committed to an anti-Soviet policy. This interpretation is supported by the existence of the America First movement in the US which advocated, along with its anti-Communism, non-involvement in a European war and friendship toward the Third Reich. Its most prominent advocate was Charles Lindbergh.