Song of Russia

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Song of Russia is a pro-Soviet propaganda film made and distributed by MGM Studios in 1944. The picture was credited as being directed by Gregory Ratoff, though Ratoff collapsed near the end of the five-month production, and was replaced by László Benedek, who completed principal photography; the credited screenwriters were Paul Jarrico and Richard Collins. The film starred Robert Taylor, Susan Peters and Robert Benchley.

The picture was a major studio release, and an unabashed pro-Soviet propaganda film. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) would later use Song of Russia as one of the three noted examples of pro-Soviet propaganda films made by Hollywood, the other two pictures being Warner's Mission to Moscow and RKO's The North Star.

The plot of Song of Russia is stock melodrama, similar to other releases at the time. Robert Taylor plays a conductor who, along with his manager, played by Benchley, goes to Russia shortly before the outbreak of World War II. He falls in love with a beautiful Soviet pianist, played by Peters, while the two of them travel through the country on a 40-city tour, along the way seeing examples of happy, healthy, smiling and free Soviet citizens, blissfully living the Communist dream. This peaceful state is interrupted by the Nazi attack, the lovers horrified as they watch this Soviet Eden destroyed by the yoke of Nazism.

After the fact, Robert Taylor protested that he had had to make the picture under duress, as he was under contract to MGM. This is the rationale he used to explain why he was a friendly witness during the HUAC hearings in the 1950's.