In November 1945, the Moscow Central Documentary Film Studio (CSDF; hereafter “the Studio”) sent its operators to Nuremberg to film the trial of the major Nazi criminals. At the end of the eleven-month trial, the feature film Sud Narodov (The judgment of the peoples) was released first, in 1946, on Soviet and then on American screens (The Nuremberg Trial, 1947). About one hour long, this documentary was meant to serve as an educational and political reflection on the participation of the USSR in the trial. The film’s production process met the needs of a key historiographical moment for Soviet state news. According to Roman Karmen, the film’s shooting manager, director, and editor, the documentary brought to a close the cycle of films that retold the story of the “Great Patriotic War,” which had begun to be elaborated by historians and Party officials beginning in 1941. For Karmen, the national and international ambitions of the “great topic on punishment” involved the opportunity to settle accounts with the fascist enemy, but also to draw the world’s attention to the tribute paid by his country. The film was intended to communicate the “lessons” of a Soviet Nuremberg.
When it aired in 1946–47, and despite some critical success across the Atlantic, the film aroused uncomfortable reactions. In the United States, while the trade press deplored an absence of any national competitor for the theme, a journalist from the New York Times expressed confusion about the film’s discourse of victimization as well as its political aims. In the Soviet Union, meanwhile, apart from the self-promotion campaign led by Karmen and his friends, the response was scarcely more enthusiastic. Critics remained content to salute the work of the filmmakers and the film’s “historical significance.” The Kremlin reversed its policy on the heels of the revelations of the Katyn massacre in the spring of 1946, subsequently resolving to keep its distance from media coverage of events. After a few weeks of modest release, the film left theaters, only to be updated and reissued in 1962 as part of an anti-American campaign.