author: Luc
Communism in Video Games: absurdity, Controversies and Propaganda
We are pretty much used to certain way Nazism is shown in video games. What about communism and Stalinism? How was the sinister system depicted throughout the years?
Table of Contents
- Communism in Video Games: absurdity, Controversies and Propaganda
- We can all be Zhukovs
- Smile tovarishch, smile!
- The bad, the ugly, and the cruel
We can all be Zhukovs
Another example of neutral depiction can be observed in World of Tanks focused solely on the machines present in World War II. Neither politics nor depiction of certain characters are present, despite historical scenarios gaining in popularity, everything is based solely on military basis. However lately War Thunder - the main competition of World of Tanks fell prey to a known pattern, releasing a trailer openly glorifying the Red Army.
The other category is much less neutral politically. That is the one that certainly had the most attention in the recent years – a view of communists and those fighting for the ideas of communism as heroic soldiers. The Call of Duty series is mostly responsible for popularizing such an image. Despite being known for modern secret ops, the series roots are in the fronts of World War II. The first Call of Duty, apart from the compulsory campaign involving the American side, was offering us an opportunity to play as a soldier of the Red Army. Even though already in the first missions we catch a glimpse of cruelty of the soviet command brought on their underlings ( a shooting of deserters, carrying out of the Order 227 on the Red Square) the undertone of the game is quite clear. The system is at fault, not the people – despite a few individuals with higher ranks, communist soldiers are full of heroism and fortitude.
Such an image has probably reached its apogee in 2008’s Call of Duty: World at War. It was there, where in the Soviet campaign, as Dimitri, we did everything in our power to bring glory to the USSR. The opening scene of that chapter of the campaign is regarded as one of the most dramatic and memorable sequences in the history of FPS games. Being wounded, Dimitri regains consciousness and opens his eyes only to realize that he has miraculously survived amongst the numerous corpses of his comrades. An airstrike continues, ashes and blood fill the landscape – that view just had to impress and from the get-go got the gamers to emphasize with the protagonist. The bond with the hero strengthened especially when moments later, upon meeting sergeant Reznov and following his orders, we delivered justice to Nazi soldiers with a help of a sniper rifle. Every next mission is another reason to hate the Third Reich and another proof that in fact, communist soldiers reacted with crime to prior harm by German hands. Such an finale was overflowing with heroism, almost to being unbearable and resembling that of propaganda films of the Stalinist era. After a fierce battle, Dimirti and Reznov get to the roof of the Reichstag and along patriotic music, stick in a red flag… Almost through the entire campaign the creators presented the red army men as heroes, without whom defeating the Nazis would have been impossible. The fact that before ( and after ) they have caused many tragedies, or that Stalin and Hitler were allies for a long while, didn’t matter to anyone in the West. Sadly, those motives are omitted in every Call of Duty about World War II.