Red Army prepared for WW2?

I chose the piece “If Tomorrow Brings War” by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach and the Pokrass Brothers on pages 316-318 in the Mass Culture Book. This piece is from the movie of the same name, it was very popular because of its “self-congratulatory bravura” (Mass Culture, p.317), this ideology eventually led to the initial losses in the war with the Nazis.

This piece relates to the Seventeen Moments by the film section: 1939 Tractor Drivers. IT relates in the way that it works to accomplish the opposite affect on its audience that this section of the seventeen moments. The piece “If Tomorrow Brings War” attempts to show the military in an undefeatable position, and praises one of the Red Army’s Commanders Voroshilov. Where as the section of Seventeen Moments says that the Red Army’s Commanders [Vorshilov and Budennyi] came to command after all of the previous Commanders were “purged” for suspected conspiracies with the Facists. These new commanders were completely against the modern tank warfare. So this Seventeen Moments section says that the Red Army was very ill prepared for the war on fascism [in World War 2]. This Seventeen Moments section talks about the film “Tractor Drivers,” this film discusses the need for military preparedness, and the propaganda on how the military is prepared for war [when its not].  The two pieces (seventeen moments 1939 tractor drivers and “If Tomorrow Brings War”) says to different things on how prepared the Red Army is for war.If Tomorrow Brings War says that the military cannot be defeated because of Voroshilov’s great tactics and leadership. The Seventeen Moments Section says that because of the purges that killed all of the upper leadership and the subsequent promotions of Vorshilov and Buddenyi the Red Army is not at all prepared for war, and will lose because of the new commanders negative outlook on using modern tactics like the Tank.

This is the Song “If Tomorrow Brings War,” though it is an updated version. The song was updated during World War 2 to be focused on the fight against Fascism instead of a general focus on all enemies.