Paige getting the Soviet perspective on WW2 is interesting.
Claudia's not wrong about the hagiographic way the American school system plays up the USA's role in WW2 to the point of almost excluding even the Western Allies like the UK and France. That said, the Soviets also depended crucially on Lend-Lease aid flowing in through Siberia, and later Soviet leaders implicitly acknowledged this to themselves even if they didn't do so publicly.
The total death count, civilian and military, is over 20 million Soviets. That, in stark numbers, details the horrific personal cost of the Soviet citizenry in World War Two in hurling back the Nazi menace on the eastern front.
The shot of Paige just breathing as the sheer size of that number hits her was very well done, by the way.
That kind of thing leaves marks on a country - any country - and it certainly did for the USSR. It's not surprising both Elizabeth and Claudia have the Great Patriotic War as their common touchstone.
Incidentally, from what little I know of Slavic languages, the book Claudia shows Paige is either Czechoslovak, or Polish.
Watching this part, it almost feels like Paige is getting hammered with a huge dose of reality about the prices paid by some people in the world compared to her own relatively stable life.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Paige and WW2
Date: 2018-04-26 04:21 am (UTC)Claudia's not wrong about the hagiographic way the American school system plays up the USA's role in WW2 to the point of almost excluding even the Western Allies like the UK and France. That said, the Soviets also depended crucially on Lend-Lease aid flowing in through Siberia, and later Soviet leaders implicitly acknowledged this to themselves even if they didn't do so publicly.
The total death count, civilian and military, is over 20 million Soviets. That, in stark numbers, details the horrific personal cost of the Soviet citizenry in World War Two in hurling back the Nazi menace on the eastern front.
The shot of Paige just breathing as the sheer size of that number hits her was very well done, by the way.
That kind of thing leaves marks on a country - any country - and it certainly did for the USSR. It's not surprising both Elizabeth and Claudia have the Great Patriotic War as their common touchstone.
Incidentally, from what little I know of Slavic languages, the book Claudia shows Paige is either Czechoslovak, or Polish.
Watching this part, it almost feels like Paige is getting hammered with a huge dose of reality about the prices paid by some people in the world compared to her own relatively stable life.