A reading of Vladimir Putin's speech announcing and justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine provides educators with several starting points for exploring and discussing the Russia-Ukraine war in the classroom.

These releases from Bullfrog Films investigate both the use of shared history as justification, hinted at in Putin's speech, and a history of policy choices made by world governments related to nuclear weapons that have made Putin's words of warning to the international community so ominous.

Both documentaries featured here are available on DVD with public performance rights from Bullfrog Films. Academic streaming can be licensed from Docuseek. Campus and community groups can book in-person and virtual group screenings through Bullfrog Communities.
As we read Putin's speech announcing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with its invocation of Russian sacrifice during World War II and the marginalization of Russia on the world stage after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we're reminded of Dr. Vamik Volkan, whose pioneering fieldwork and theories on peacemaking between nations hinges on the concept of "shared trauma" and its use by authoritarian regimes to build and mobilize support towards often violent ends.

Volkan's life and work is celebrated in the Bullfrog Films release Blind Trust: Leaders and Followers in Times of Crisis, directed by Molly Castelloe. This five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee has spent over four decades bringing enemy groups together in areas of conflict all over the world.
"Blind Trust examines Dr. Vamik Volkan's key insight that collective trauma underlies many of today's most intractable civil wars and international conflicts. The activation of collective grievances by populist and authoritarian political leaders can undermine democracy and promote violence. Understanding the collective psychology of communal conflict and its political effects is a key prerequisite for diplomacy and peacemaking. Blind Trust illustrates these ideas through real world examples, including Volkan's own on-the-ground work in Estonia and Georgia. An important resource for instructors and students of international relations."
—David Skidmore, Professor of Politics, Drake University
The UN's Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, first presented for negotiations in 2017 and finally entering into force in January of 2021, garnered no support from the UN's nuclear-armed state members, including the United States and Russia, during its development. The veiled threat of nuclear retaliation that appeared in Putin's invasion speech has been widely reported and analyzed in the media, but this aspect of recent history and it's relevance is largely ignored in the press.

Instrumental in the introduction and eventual adoption of the Ban Treaty was the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. The public face of ICAN's efforts was a passionate octogenarian peace activist and Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow, the subject of the Bullfrog release The Vow From Hiroshima. Setsuko's moving story is told through the lens of her growing friendship with a second generation survivor, Mitchie Takeuchi.
"Setsuko Thurlow is a true hero, an extraordinary figure in the decades-long effort to ban nuclear weapons. The Vow from Hiroshima tells her story with great compassion. At a time when the nuclear threat is greater than in any other year since the destruction of Hiroshima, the issues this film addresses could not be more timely and important."
—Eric Schlosser, Journalist, Author, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
To order Blind Trust and The Vow From Hiroshima
on DVD with public performance rights,
Order by phone at (610) 779-8226
or email us at info@bullfrogfilms.com
Bullfrog Films is the oldest and largest publisher of documentary films about the environment in the United States. We define "environment" broadly, and our catalog includes programs on ecology, energy, world history, indigenous peoples, women's studies, peace studies, social psychology, international relations, community regeneration, economics, ethics, and conflict resolution.