Our Russian Front is a 1942 American documentary film directed by Joris Ivens and Lewis Milestone, and narrated by Walter Huston to promote support for the Soviet Union’s war effort. It was made by Artkino Pictures and Russian War Relief
In production before America entered World War II, the film was completed several weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, having gone through frantic last minute updates to ensure it meeting its February 1942 release date. Joris Ivens anticipated that editing might take a week, but stated that Hollywood [sic] “fiddled with it for two months and unrecognizably altered the original version.” Walter Huston narrates a World War II documentary intended to bolster United States support for the USSR’s war efforts. Created using front line footage taken by Russian battlefield cameramen, and archive footage of Averell Harriman, Joseph Stalin, and Semyon Timoshenko, the film was edited in the US. Upon release, the film screened for more than 20 hours a day and broke all previous box office records at the Rialto Theater in Times Square.
Artkino Pictures was the official distributor of Soviet film: newsreels, shorts, documentaries, and features in North America and South America from 1940 to 1980.