It's a great movie. Totally worth watching. Thanks for writing about Russia, thought.

Yuri

A positive aspect of the film is the interest it has generated on the subject matter of the Russian Civil War.

http://newsru.com/cinema/28oct2008/admiral.html

Among others, Richard Pipes reasonably observes that the claims of Allied support for the Whites has been exaggerated by official Soviet historiography and some non-Soviet left ideologues (Pipes discusses this in a History Channel aired documentary dealing with the subject).

On this subject, several otherwise key facts and fact based opinions get overlooked in some circles.

The Germans transported Lenin from Zurich to Petrograd and provided financial support for the Reds. The figure I quoted to me was one million in gold, which was of course of greater value back then. I understand that a receipt of this is in the Stanford University archives. Lenin's banker was Parvus/Gelfand. Besides receiving financial support from abroad, the Reds were favorably (at least for a good part of the war) depicted by folks like John Reed, Emma Goldman and Mary Louise Bryant.

Under Josef Pilsudski, the Poles didn't support the Whites. This despite the Whites recognizing Polish independence, while seeking an alliance with Poland. Pilsudski's attack in 1919 was imperial in manner. This included seeking to takeover territory where Poles were in the minority, while propping a pro-Polish Ukrainian state under Symon Petliura's leadership. Bolshevik commander Mikhail Tukhachevsky is on record for saying that a White-Polish alliance might've changed the outcome of the Russian Civil War. Of course, Pilsudski wasn't obligated to support either of the Russian combatants. Likewise, he didn't have to launch his attack in 1919.

As Pipes and some others have noted, the Allied presence in the Russian Civil War era former Russian Empire had much to do with protecting whatever business interests and fellow nationals they had. Allied involvement in the war was limited to instances like either getting attacked or caught in crossfire.

Note that when the Russian Civil War started, WW I was still being fought. The Whites were technically still on the side of the Allies, with the Reds being somewhat allied with the Central Powers (Germany in particular). Hence, it can be said that the Russian Civil War (at least for a good period) had a kind of proxy relationship with WW I.

I've been meaning to watch the Nikita Mikhalkov produced documentary "Russia Without Russians," which focuses on the White movement.

For accuracy sake, sometimes history needs to be rewritten. This is a pointed shot at venues like JRL, Russia Today, Valdai Discussion Club and World Russian Forum. There continues to be a prolonged mantra about improving the former USSR coverage. This can be done by bringing on talented others, who have been very much restricted from some of the higher profile venues.

I'll never see this movie because I'm in the US and don't speak Russian. But if it's modeled on Titanic, then it's not fair to look for a tight coherent plot. Titanic had a ridiculous script (who'd bother to chase and shoot anybody when the damn ship is sinking anyway?), but people overlooked it because the event was so great.

Maybe Admiral is "bad" in the same way? Please send that request to 20th Century!

@Michael Averko

Would youy agree that Communism in Russia was a Jewish political movement?

The fact concerning the so-called revolution and years prior speak for themselves including allied intellegence reports at the time.

Allied Intelligence Reports

"During this period intelligence services throughout the free world were buzzing with reports of Jewish involvement in communism. Since an impeccable Jewish source, the Encyclopedia Judaica, has largely convinced us of the importance of Jews to the success of communism, let us briefly consider a small part of the testimony available from a variety of high-level sources. I will present each without comment, but notice how often they describe Bolshevik leadership in much higher figures than the Encyclopedia Judaica, often to as high as 90 percent.

Report of the American Expeditionary forces to Siberia, March 1, 1919. Captain Montgomery Schyler, speaking of events following the decline of the First Provisional Government, says:

These hopes were frustrated by the gradual gains in power of the more irresponsible and socialistic elements of the population, guided by the Jews and other anti-Russian races. A table made in April 1918 by Robert Wilton, the correspondent of the London Times in Russia, shows that at that time there were 384 “commissars” including 2 Negroes, 13 Russians, 15 Chinamen, 22 Armenians and more than 300 Jews. Of the latter number, 264 had come to Russia from the United States since the downfall of the Imperial government.

Captain Schyler then provides a personal reflection:

It is probably unwise to say this loudly in the United States, but the Bolshevik movement is and has been since its beginning guided and controlled by Russian Jews of the greasiest type, who have been in the United States and there absorbed every one of the worst phases of our civilization without having the least understanding of what we really mean by liberty. 3

The Consul General at Moscow (Summers) to the Secretary of State, Moscow, May 2, 1918:

Jews predominant in local Soviet government, anti-Jewish feeling growing among population which tends to regard oncoming Germans as deliverers. 4

U.S. State Department Report, Foreign Relations, 1918, Russia, Vol. 11, p. 240:

Fifty percent of Soviet government in each town consists of Jews of the worst type, many of whom are anarchists. 5

Scotland Yard Report to the America Secretary of State, July 23, 1919:

There is now definite evidence that Bolshevism is an international movement controlled by Jews; communications are passing between the leaders in America, France, Russia and England, with a view toward concerted action. 6

Extract of Report from the Netherlands Minister at Petrograd on the 6th of September, 1918, forwarded by Sir M. Findlay, at Christiana, to Mr. Balfour:

I consider that the immediate suppression of Bolshevism is the greatest issue now before the world, not even excluding the war that is still raging, and unless, as above stated, Bolshevism is nipped in the bud immediately, it is bound to spread in one form or another over Europe and the whole world, as it is organized and worked by Jews who have no nationality, and whose one object is to destroy for their own ends the existing order of things. 7

Mr. Aleston to Lord Curzon, forwarding Report from Consul at Ekaterinburg of February 6, 1919:

From examination of several labourers and peasant witnesses, I have evidence to the effect that the very smallest percentage of this district were pro-Bolshevik, majority of labourers sympathizing with summoning of Constituent Assembly. Witnesses further stated that Bolshevik leaders did not represent Russian working classes, most of them being Jews. 8

The Rev. B.S. Lombard to Lord Curzon, March 23, 1919:

I have been for ten years in Russia, and have been in Petrograd through the whole of the revolution. . . .I had ample opportunity of studying Bolshevik methods. It originated in German propaganda, and was, and is being, carried out by international Jews. . . .All business became paralyzed, shops were closed, Jews became possessors of most of the business houses, and horrible scenes of starvation became common in country districts. 9

Sir Winston Churchill, writing in the Illustrated Sunday Herald of February 8, 1920 agrees with the previous testimony.

There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution by these international and for the most part atheistical Jews. It is certainly a very great one; it probably outweighs all others. With the notable exception of Lenin, the majority of the leading figures are Jews. Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from the Jewish leaders.

But to be fair, let the Jews have the last word - words written after millions of “goyim” had already been slaughtered in Russia. Quoting from the American Hebrew of September 8, 1920:

The Bolshevist revolution in Russia was the work of Jewish brains, of Jewish dissatisfaction, of Jewish planning, whose goal is to create a new order in the world. What was performed in so excellent a way in Russia, thanks to Jewish brains, and because of Jewish dissatisfaction, and by Jewish planning, shall also, through the same Jewish mental and physical forces, became a reality all over the world."

WILLIAM DUDLEY PELLEY reporting on the revolution.

He learned first-hand that communism was not an ideology, it was simply the organization of the worst criminal elements led by Jews to destroy society. This was no speculation. Virtually all the commissars he knew (some of whom he interviewed) where Jewish, while the majority of their activists where common murderers and perverts "liberated" from prison. They were motivated by hatred, power and revenge, nothing else. All their slogans about "Equality" and "Peace" where transparent rues to dupe thoughtless liberals among the Russian people, their victims. Drunk with success, the Jews boasted openly of their plans for world conquest by fomenting the same kind of divisiveness in other countries. They told Pelley that Russia was just a stepping stone, a base for international subversion. Even their phony "communism" was utterly dispensable, just like their own followers, who they never hesitated to massacre on the slightest whim. Their long-range goal was one-world government, in which the masses became willing slaves, fueling an international economy with their genius and labor, while the Jewish people dominated all important positions of power. "After Russia," one greasy commissar smirked at Pelley, "then Europe and later, America!"

http://www.geocities.com/integral_tradition/pelley.html

And how do you explain Barodajin(spellings not right) an exclusive Jewish state created by Stalin in Russia.

The Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet Union involved a multiethnic group of folks. It's therefore incorrect to label it as geared exclusively to one ethno-religious group. Some groups were proportionately better represented than others. At the same time, the majority of each group weren't Communist Party members.

Not all Jews supported the October Revolution. If I correctly recall, the editor of the left leaning Canadian based Global Research noted how his Jewish family relations left the former Russian Empire in opposition to the Bolsheviks.

Note that before it became a oligarch owned tabloid, the New York based Russian language newspaper Novoye Russkoye Slovo had a Cold War era anti-Communist/pro-Russian slant, while being staffed with a good number of Jews. My point being that things aren't always what some suggest.

The mentioned Soviet created Jewish "autonomous" oblast called Birobidzhan in Russia's far east never attracted the majority of Soviet Jews. Jews remain the minority in that territory. I suspect it was created to reach out to Jews sympathetic to Zionism (the idea of Jews having a homeland of their own).

Regarding Churchill, he favored an active support for the Whites during the Russian Civil War. Lloyd George successfully argued against this desire on the basis that he saw the Whites as seeking a strong Russia, which in his view would put Russia as a greater geopolitical rival to Britain.

I see you didn't post my response to the follow up question of Michael Averko. More censorship on the Jewish issue.

I am sick of this movie made by grandchildren of Bolsheviks, my family kept fighting these devils all through Civil War and WWII. My father was born 1950, when my grandpa - Russian peasant was officially dead with assistance from relatives who were employed in hospital (though hiding in forests of Latvia after a short leave from POW camp in Ukraine). And now these soviet bastards rewrite the history. Kolchak was not a hero; he failed (without right to fail) to save Russia, though it was possible. That is why they- red bastards love him so much.