A crawl at the opening seconds of the 1962 film “The Truth About Communism” explains that this film was shown to Alexander Kerensky, a lawyer, politician, Minister of War, and minister-chairman of the Russian Provisional Government overthrown by Communists in the 1917 Russian Revolution. Kerensky introduces the documentary starting at mark 00:35, explains how he had been leader of the provisional government before being overthrown, and notes that the Russian people are victims of Communism. A passage of the Manifesto of the Communist Party (including the proclamation that the “proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains”) flashes on the screen at mark 02:25 before scenes of the revolution (taken by Russian cameraman as they occurred) are shown. Leon Trotsky, a leader of the revolution and a founding member of the Red Army, speaks from the back of a train at mark 03:00, and at mark 03:10 we learn of the film’s narrator — Ronald Reagan — who as United States President nearly 30 years after this film would be influential in the fall of Communism.
Reagan explains that it will be up to the audience to help meet the Communist challenge in the world and we see a map showing the “conspiracy that is communism” (mark 03:50) as well as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (mark 03:56), Chinese Chairman Mao Tse-tung (mark 04:14), Cuban leader Fidel Castro (mark 04:22) — all of whom claim that co-existence with capitalism is impossible. “There target is us. Our institutions, our religions, our families, our children,” Reagan says. He goes on to describe Karl Marx as “a sick man … sick in body and spirit.” We witness the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II at mark 06:00 and the arrival of Vladimir Lenin in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) at mark 06:20 as he speaks before a crowd of onlookers. We see a young Kerensky before the Communists take over the country and are shown executing anyone who stands in their way (mark 07:00). US President Herbert Hoover is shown at mark 08:28 as he pledges aid to Russia and its people. Following Lenin’s death in 1924, Josef Stalin (mark 08:57) takes over as Russia’s leader, changing the course of history.
As the film continues, we learn of the exile and eventual murder of opposition members such as Trotsky, the abolishment of religion, and the rise of atheism. Children are introduced to military training at an early age and independent farms are turned into collectives, with the drama playing out in various scenes beginning at mark 13:47. Secret police forces and slave labor camps are created (and shown at mark 15:10), and some like Soviet writer Maxim Gorky (shown at mark 17:08) mysteriously die. In the wake of these purges, Reagan explains, Khrushchev begins his rise to power. With Adolf Hitler’s (shown at mark 20:55) rise to power in Nazi Germany and the onset of World War II, Stalin and Hitler agree to a non-aggression pact — only to be attacked by Germany (mark 30:05). By the end of WWII, Communists occupy all of Eastern Europe and one-third of Germany. By 1949, “China falls to the Reds,” Reagan says at mark 37:10. “Another 700 million people under Communist control.”
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