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Show Russian Side Of World War II By STEVE CASEY Copley News Service "I find that over the years the appetite for world war II material has been insatiable," insatia-ble," producer Isaac Kleiner-man Kleiner-man was saying. "I don't know why, unless it was the last good war that anybody's been involved in, and we can all take pride in our accomplishments." ac-complishments." KLEINERMAN fed part of that appetite with the stirring "Victory at Sea" television series years ago, on which he toiled as film editor. He is feeding it again, this time as executive producer and director of 'The Unknown Un-known War," a series of 20 one-hour documentaries of world war H's Eastern European front. THE SERIES, which will be sold into syndication for fall 1978, uses mostly hitherto unreleased film footage from Soviet archives and the narration of Burt Lancaster to tell the story of a war claiming claim-ing the lives of 30 million people, while passing all but unnoticed in the United States. lWe will try," he said, "to give it that same sweep and lyricism that "Victory at Sea' had." THE PROJECT, Kleiner-man Kleiner-man said, began last year when Fred Weiner, of the syndication company Air Time Inc., went to the Soviet Union on other business and became impressed with "the living quality of the second world war as far as the Russians Rus-sians are concerned. "It's an everyday thing for them," Kleinerman said. "As far as they're concerned, the war ended yesterday." 'THE SOVIETS, he said, officially acknowledge losing 20 million people, while Pul-tizer Pul-tizer Prize winning journalist and historian Harrison Salisbury Salis-bury places the figure at 30 million. Salisbury, late of The New York Times, has been retained as script consultant . to the project, and it is his job to ensure historical accuracy. "There isn't a Soviet family," said Kleinerman, "that hasn't lost at least one person in that war, and they continue to pay their respects to the dead. "WEINER WAS impressed with this, and he came back to the U.S., and thought that in spite of all his education in this country he hadn't learned much about this war. So ht tf went back to Russia and ww k" to work." , i Kleinerman wants to con t bat what he calls Americaai "colossal ignorance" of H I war on the Russian front i "WE WERE pretty well n cupied after December M with our own problems," It said, "and there was just a much space the press couN devote to what the Russian were doing." As with any series el programs involving the Soviel government, 'The Uokiwn War" raises questions ol hi torical accuracy competin with state propaganda. |