The Soviet campaign in support of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the Vietnam War saturated Soviet public culture in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was the longest solidarity action in Soviet history and the first to reach mass television audiences. This article examines the production and reception of a televised documentary film about the Vietnam War made by Konstantin Simonov – a celebrity writer who played a crucial role in Soviet culture during World War II, and then, in the post-war period, in the struggle to come to terms with terrible truths about Stalinism and the chaos and trauma that war had rendered. Simonov's film presented the Vietnam War in lyrical rather than analytical terms, calling upon viewers to draw connections between the suffering of the Vietnamese and the Soviet wartime experience and to enact their solidarity with the Vietnamese in terms of feeling. The film proposes a solidarity of pain and an understanding of war and wartime suffering as elemental and overwhelming. In dozens of letters to Simonov, we find an understanding and appreciation of this vision, which decentres Vietnam and instead sends viewers on a journey back to Soviet history and trauma.

苏联在越南战争中支持越南民主共和国的运动在 20 世纪 60 年代末和 1970 年代初渗透到苏联公共文化中。这是苏联历史上持续时间最长的团结行动，也是第一次吸引大众电视观众的行动。本文探讨了康斯坦丁·西蒙诺夫 (Konstantin Simonov) 制作的一部有关越南战争的电视纪录片的制作和接受情况。西蒙诺夫是一位名人作家，在二战期间的苏联文化以及战后的斗争中发挥了至关重要的作用接受斯大林主义的可怕真相以及战争造成的混乱和创伤。西蒙诺夫的电影以抒情而非分析的方式呈现越南战争，呼吁观众将越南人的苦难与苏联战时经历联系起来，并在情感上表达对越南人的声援。这部电影提出了一种对痛苦的团结，以及对战争和战时苦难的理解，认为这是基本的和压倒性的。在写给西蒙诺夫的数十封信中，我们发现了对这一愿景的理解和欣赏，它使越南去中心化，反而让观众踏上回到苏联历史和创伤的旅程。