Soviets

Soviet Reenacting. Why on Earth would I do that? I have been dabbling in Soviet WWII reenactment for years. I love; it's simple, fun and cheap. I can even talk in a cheesy Rooosian accent while shouting propaganda. Soviet indeed.
Soviet reenactors tend to not carry the same baggage as German reenactors do. I really don't know but I have theories. Like any good academic, I have theories.

First, the Soviets have acquired this air of pop culture kitsch about them. Here we can wear Mao hats and Che t-shirts without too many serious questions from the population at large. I translate this into the ability to walk into a Burger King after a reenactment wearing a Soviet Uniform and nobody caring. I know. I've did it.

Second, we were allied with the Soviets during the war. At the 60th Anniversary Parade in Toledo of WWII I wore a M43 Soviet Uniform alongside my friends dressed as the other allies. It looked good and nobody complained. The Soviet people made an awful lot of scarifies during the war... like it or not they were our allies, no matter how distrustful ultimately.

The Eastern Front has a sort of mystique, two armies fighting a battle of annihilation far removed from the rest of the war. It's almost, to the American or British, a entirely separate war that we only had fleeting, minimal contact with. The Soviet reenactor buys into that mystique. We are trying to understand a side o the war that involved absolute hatred and a even further lack of humanity. As reenactors we struggle to understand the ability of the average Soviet soldier to fight and die for a Government we can see as oppressive and dictatorial.

I don't know, in my British impression the culture is similar enough to not be a total stretch. As a Soviet, it is. I suppose it always will be.