Communist/Non-Western Civil Defense Films?

September 3, 2014 10:32 AM

During the Cold War, did Communist countries produce informational films for internal consumption about civil defense or survival in case of nuclear attack, like Duck and Cover or Protect and Survive? What about India and Pakistan? If so, are they available to view anywhere?
posted by Small Dollar to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

I found this example by searching for "soviet civil defense films".

The same search also returned this io9 post, which is the Soviet version of this type of booklet issued in the United States.

Civil defense was a major component of Soviet nuclear war-winning strategy during the Cold War.
Wikipedia has some good articles on this subject.
posted by Pudhoho at 11:02 AM on September 3, 2014

Talking to a friend who grew up in the USSR, during the 80's Civil Emergency was a big part of peoples' day to day lives; everyone having a gas-mask available, every apartment block, school and factory in Villinius having its own bunker, and he and his friends at primary school being taken out in the woods to learn how to shoot.

Meanwhile at the same time here in the "decadent West" the closest we got to nuclear war was flicking through "When the Wind Blows" in the library and after school knitting class!
posted by Middlemarch at 11:41 AM on September 3, 2014

Response by poster: I found a $149 DVD set that includes Soviet civil defense films with English soundtracks, but it's produced by the super-fringey Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. Honestly, that's sort of to be expected.

My favorite title there is "Actions in the Face of Nuclear Attack-The Main Point is Not to Panic ."
posted by Small Dollar at 6:46 PM on September 3, 2014