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[Music]
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h
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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at the beginning of
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1917 the Russian Empire is still
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governed by an all powerful
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Zar from his Palace in St Petersburg one
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man answerable only to God rules over
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170 million people
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[Music]
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Nicholas II holds more power than any
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other Monarch in Europe he has resisted
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political
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[Music]
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change but the Zar days unnumbered
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discontented hungry workers go on strike
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in St
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[Music]
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Petersburg Russia has been fighting in
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the first world war for near 3 years and
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the Zar huge armies have become
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demoralized and
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disaffected they've suffered defeat
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after
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defeat 2 million have
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died in February 1917 there was a great
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upheaval a provisional government takes
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over the Zar abdicates and is arrested
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what happens next will change the course
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of
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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history Russians believe they had won
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their freedom at last
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[Applause]
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in the Euphoria soldiers whose Mutiny
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had helped bring down the Zar celebrated
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with
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workers most people expected
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democracy elections and an assembly to
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steer the
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[Music]
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country Vladimir Lenin leader of the
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small bolik party wanted more
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revolutionary
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change a state run by and for the
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working class a dictatorship of the
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proletariat first he built up popular
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support by promising to end the war give
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land to The Peasants and power to the
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workers then in October the Bolsheviks
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were ready to seize power among Lenin's
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supporters was a young poet Alexander
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Boni take to the streets rise up raise
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your Hammer Forge happiness for the
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world end the Bowing and scraping go
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boldly shine
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Rejoice on October 25th
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1917 the Bolsheviks moved on The Winter
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Palace where the provisional government
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was bed
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bony was with
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them on Lenin's advice the sailors put
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on the uniforms of Winter Palace
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employees they worked their way into the
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building through back entrances attics
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and
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rooms on a warship Behind The Winter
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Palace bolik Sailors waited to give a
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signal for the final stages of the coup
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when the Aurora fired everyone rushed
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forward shouting
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hurah we climbed over the gates and
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broke into the Winter
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Palace I was at the front I ran up the
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stairs and stumbled into a big Hall
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where there was a whole Detachment of
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Officer Cadets with their rifles at the
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ready I shouted throw down your rifle
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and they threw down their weapons as if
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to order they seen how angry we
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were the taking of The Winter Palace was
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reconstructed on film by the
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revolutionaries own director Sergey
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eisenstein in a highly dramatized
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version
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[Applause]
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in reality there was Little Resistance
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only five were killed but the film
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version helped establish a key myth for
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the revolution a heroic story of how the
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workers seized
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[Music]
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power that same night lennin spoke to
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the workers revolutionary councils the
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Soviets setting out his
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vision he told them Russia had turned a
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new page leading to the victory of
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socialism from now on he said the
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oppressed masses will themselves form
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the
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[Music]
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government outside the hall many were
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frightened by what the Bolsheviks might
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do but the early Believers were excited
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by Lenin's message and full of Hope
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[Music]
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I thought that the future of Russia
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would take a different path that the
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people would exercise power through the
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workers and soldiers
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Soviets everyone would work wherever
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they were free from exploitation
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what I liked was the promise of a happy
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classless society in the future in which
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everyone would enjoy all the good
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created by the
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society I was attracted by the idea of
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Justice equality between people acting
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in the name of humanity
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[Music]
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soon after the revolution the bulvik
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became known as the Russian Communist
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party and moved the capital from St
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Petersburg to
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Moscow they took Russia out of the war
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in Europe thear and his family were
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executed and from Moscow they plan to
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extend the revolution to the rest of the
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world
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a forceful message was sent to workers
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everywhere if the proletariat in other
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countries followed the Communist way
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they could kick out Kings and
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capitalists and achieve a world free of
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exploitation and
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War Harry Young went to Moscow in a
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delegation from the tiny British
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Communist
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party and zenov who was the chairman
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said the next speaker will be comrade
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Lenin
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hit a pin
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drop dead silence vast Hall 3,000 people
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from all over the world and uh little
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man or not much bigger than me broader
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shouldered
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with rather Mongolian looking face very
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Baldhead
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little little whiskers there and he got
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up and he um just leaned over the like a
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Podium you know the corner that and he
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just uh talked to him like a Dutch
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[Laughter]
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uncle I thought he had uh set the scene
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for the World Revolution
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and that uh the bevic party would
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successfully lead it that next next
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would be Germany then France and Italy
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in the ferment after the first world war
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others tried to follow the bolik example
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in Berlin Communists tried to seize
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power in Munich they succeeded
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briefly in Hungary a Soviet Republic
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lasted several
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months but the successes were shortlived
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communist Uprising was
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crushed and back in Russia the
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Communists had to fight for their own
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Survival in a vicious civil war against
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supporters of the old
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regime by 1921 the Communists were
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victorious but the party that claimed to
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speak for the people had never had
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majority support
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Lenin had created a large secret police
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force to kill and terrorize his
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[Music]
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opponents after the Civil War the
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Communists tried to win over the
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people they became masters of modern
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propaganda from the wagons of special
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agid prop trains partty workers acted
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out political
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[Music]
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dramas on the trains many Russians Saw
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movies for the first time with an
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optimistic message about the
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future posters put across the central
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ideas of Communism as conceived by the
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19th century German KL Marx and adapted
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by
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lenon at the heart was the idea of class
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struggle in the past the capitalists had
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exploited the downtrodden workers now
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the proletariat was to take
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control in the factories workers
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Representatives would make the decisions
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the idea of profit would be abandoned
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the fruits of their labor would be
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hospitals housing and schools and it
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would be for Communist party members the
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true believers
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to lead the way to this radiant
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future mik minland was working in a
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Moscow
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Factory we didn't need special words we
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weren't going to discuss the theory of
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building
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[Music]
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communism setting a personal example we
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considered this the most important thing
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in all our work in the consall in the
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factories so people would say look that
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must be a communist why well look how
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he's
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[Music]
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working Russia's p since 80% of the
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population were the least well off in
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the new
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Society thanks to the revolution many
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now farmed land taken from the land
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owners but their living standards were
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well behind the rest of
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Europe few were literate but in 1920 the
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new government decreed that all Soviet
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citizens were to be taught to
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read teams of young activists were sent
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to the country
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from house to house in search of
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illiterate
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people we made a note of their
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names we then found suitable rooms to
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hold classes
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in learning to ride would open new doors
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for those trapped at the bottom of
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society one woman who couldn't 10
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classes because of her child at home was
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helped by Anastasia
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Dena I said here's a textbook for you
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I'll come to you so you can learn to
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read at
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home I remember vividly that when the
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baby cried she carried on writing with
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one hand while she rocked him with the
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other she was so Keen to study I'll
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always remember her striving for
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knowledge and Enlightenment it was
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immense to produce engineers and
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technicians for the new Society training
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was
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expanded and the Communist said women
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should have equality with men with equal
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pay elista was one of a new generation
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of women
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when Lenin said that communism is Soviet
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power plus electrification I decided
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that I should become an electrical
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engineer that that was my holy
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Duty and I didn't want to just draw up
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plans I wanted to build an electric
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power station that was my mission and I
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had achieved
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it the revolution gave me right to feel
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equal to any man it gave me the right to
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work to study what I wanted to
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study the 1920s saw an explosion of new
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thinking in every field Architects
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designed public buildings that broke
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with bougeoir Styles and musicians
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experimented too
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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EO dejar was part of a bold experiment
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that took the idea of equality to new
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heights he played in a special Moscow
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Orchestra in which the musicians were so
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equal that no conductor was
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needed to achieve this song solidarity
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and Harmony the musicians sat facing one
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[Music]
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another life was very hard for musicians
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at the beginning of the
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[Music]
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Revolution the conductors didn't treat
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them well at all
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but the founder of the orchestra said
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that it was the musician who mattered
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and that he should liberate himself from
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the fets of the
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[Music]
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conductor in the First Symphony
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Orchestra without an oppressive leader
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musical decisions were made
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collectively if you didn't like
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something you all had a vote
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[Music]
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for instance if you couldn't hear the
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clarinets you tell them the truth you're
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behind you're not coming in on time or
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you have to play this bit like
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[Music]
00:18:16
this who's in favor who's against this
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wouldn't happen in an orchestra with a
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conductor it was a real innovation
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[Music]
00:18:34
but despite all the talk about equality
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the Russian masses did have a conductor
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who directed everything and it was
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[Music]
00:18:45
Lenin by the time he died he had created
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a one party one ideology State and an
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elaborate system of control
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[Music]
00:19:04
but Lenin had not achieved all the goals
00:19:07
of
00:19:11
Communism his successor Joseph Stalin
00:19:14
inherited a society in which much of the
00:19:16
old Russia survived
00:19:23
[Music]
00:19:29
large sectors of the economy were still
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in private
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hands peasants were still able to sell
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the produce they farmed in the
00:19:40
[Music]
00:19:45
markets but Stalin was determined to
00:19:47
make the state the sole economic
00:19:51
power he launched the first 5-year plan
00:19:55
to centralize and modernize the economy
00:20:00
it was a call for
00:20:02
mobilization to create the heavy
00:20:04
Industries the Soviet Union needed to
00:20:06
defend itself in a hostile
00:20:11
World construction worker taana Fodor
00:20:14
over was held up as an example to
00:20:22
others we live so well our hearts are so
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joyful in no other country are such
00:20:28
happy young people as us we're the
00:20:31
happiest young people and on behalf of
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all young people I want to thank our
00:20:36
party and our dear comrade Stalin for
00:20:38
this joy that we
00:20:47
have Stalin set a task build this or
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build
00:20:53
that and thanks to the fact that people
00:20:55
trusted him and this enthusiasm of young
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people people it was
00:20:59
possible remember this was a country
00:21:02
where people were illiterate lived in
00:21:05
Virtual Darkness wore birch bark
00:21:09
shoes even now I think it's like
00:21:11
something out of a fairy
00:21:14
tale how was it possible at one of the
00:21:16
most difficult times to raise these
00:21:19
great construction sites it was only
00:21:22
possible through the unity of the people
00:21:24
and the love of the people for their
00:21:26
Idol because for us
00:21:29
Stalin was an
00:21:45
idol with so much to build so quickly
00:21:48
workers were sent all over the
00:21:50
[Applause]
00:21:51
country tens of thousands went beyond
00:21:54
the Ural Mountains deep into Asia to
00:21:57
start construction of a giant new steel
00:22:00
Works they saw themselves as
00:22:03
[Music]
00:22:05
[Applause]
00:22:09
[Music]
00:22:16
Pioneers for Valentina mikova and mik
00:22:20
aov these were the most fulfilling days
00:22:23
of their lives
00:22:24
[Music]
00:22:35
there was one excavator at the blast
00:22:37
furnace building site and it wasn't
00:22:39
always
00:22:40
reliable so we dug all the foundations
00:22:42
by
00:22:45
hand the trench will be teaming with
00:22:49
people one takes the Earth throws it to
00:22:52
the level above the second person throws
00:22:54
it to the third the third to the fourth
00:22:56
up to five or six levels
00:22:59
that was how we got the Earth out of the
00:23:00
trench then it was taken away in
00:23:09
wheelbarrows Magneto gor was modeled on
00:23:12
a plant in Gary
00:23:13
Indiana among the workers were thousands
00:23:16
of forced laborers and all lived in
00:23:19
terrible
00:23:25
conditions the beds were in one large
00:23:27
room shared by up to 200 people often
00:23:29
whole families
00:23:34
together there were wooden Laboratories
00:23:36
outside and a communal kitchen water was
00:23:39
rationed we had to get that outside as
00:23:48
well I think that we the first
00:23:50
construction workers of Magneto Goos
00:23:53
were United by the difficulties we all
00:23:54
faced
00:23:59
we were already School in our Soviet
00:24:03
traditions we felt the whole economy was
00:24:06
ours that we were the bosses that we
00:24:08
were working for ourselves
00:24:13
[Applause]
00:24:29
[Music]
00:24:33
[Applause]
00:24:33
[Music]
00:24:35
[Applause]
00:24:37
[Music]
00:24:37
[Applause]
00:24:43
[Music]
00:24:48
the burst of construction and spending
00:24:50
in the Soviet Union came during the
00:24:53
Great Depression in the west many of the
00:24:55
jobless likeed what they heard about
00:24:57
communism
00:24:59
it sounded like a worker's
00:25:01
Paradise I became a communist in short
00:25:04
because of what I saw around me here in
00:25:05
the United States of
00:25:07
America there was misery there children
00:25:10
going to bed hungry there was poverty
00:25:13
and there was no reason for it we were
00:25:15
the richest country in the world and I
00:25:17
saw Communists out on the streets
00:25:19
demonstrating and trying to do something
00:25:21
about it and that's that would sum up
00:25:23
why I joined the Communist
00:25:26
Party why I believe what was going on in
00:25:30
the Soviet Union was a noble experiment
00:25:34
you stop and think for a moment of what
00:25:36
what is the aim of socialism it's to end
00:25:40
all exploitation it's to put an end to
00:25:43
Wars It's to build a system of
00:25:46
cooperation instead of Confrontation
00:25:48
it's to do away with the extremely rich
00:25:51
on one side and the extremely poor on
00:25:53
the other side
00:25:59
the Irish playright George Bernard Shaw
00:26:01
toured the Soviet Union visiting
00:26:04
factories and Farms with Lady
00:26:07
Aster Shaw wrote in a hotel guest book
00:26:11
tomorrow I leave this Land of Hope and
00:26:14
return to our Western countries of
00:26:16
Despair when he got back he claimed
00:26:19
Russia had been
00:26:20
malign we have rebuked her
00:26:24
ungodliness and now the Sun Shines on
00:26:27
Russia as on a country with which God is
00:26:30
well pleased whilst his wroth is heavy
00:26:33
on us and we don't know where to turn
00:26:36
for comfor on
00:26:37
[Applause]
00:26:43
approv Soviet news re showed Stalin as a
00:26:47
genial Figure Head of the family of
00:26:49
nationalities that made up the new
00:26:51
worker
00:26:55
state but he was ruthless with anyone
00:26:57
who ch challenged him he demanded
00:26:59
obedience at all
00:27:01
[Applause]
00:27:04
[Music]
00:27:09
levels the church was a challenge to the
00:27:12
Communists for millions of Russians it
00:27:14
was still a source of strength and
00:27:17
offered the only alternative system of
00:27:19
beliefs
00:27:21
[Music]
00:27:29
but the Communists were atheists and
00:27:31
sought to remove the challenge by
00:27:33
abolishing the church
00:27:36
[Music]
00:27:53
[Music]
00:28:13
Village priests were ridiculed and
00:28:15
harassed and forced to renounce their
00:28:20
faith Israel chernitsky was a communist
00:28:23
activist in his village in the Ukraine
00:28:33
the priest came in took off his Cass and
00:28:35
put it on the table they called The
00:28:37
Barber and he cut off his
00:28:40
hair and the priest announced there is
00:28:43
no God I've lied to
00:28:45
you a peasant sitting there cried out
00:28:48
how could you we built you a house and
00:28:51
now you're saying there's no God
00:29:00
the greatest threat to the life of the
00:29:01
peasants came when Stalin decided to end
00:29:04
private farming he thought their methods
00:29:07
were too inefficient to raise the food
00:29:09
the country
00:29:11
needed a campaign was organized against
00:29:14
the rich of peasants the so-called
00:29:16
kulacs who were said to be opposing
00:29:18
Stalin's
00:29:19
[Music]
00:29:22
plans kulok farmers were rounded
00:29:26
up the
00:29:34
we went into the house the commission of
00:29:36
five or six people and the secretary of
00:29:39
the party organization announced
00:29:41
according to the decision of our meeting
00:29:43
your family is
00:29:45
deed put all your valuables on the table
00:29:48
I warn you no hysterics have got strong
00:29:50
nerves we'll stand firm a woman burst
00:29:53
into tears and cursed the authorities
00:29:57
[Music]
00:30:02
was Stalin said the kulok should be
00:30:05
liquidated as a class over 3 million
00:30:08
were shot or died in Exile or in the
00:30:14
camps the state seized the peasants farm
00:30:20
implements and they took over all the
00:30:23
land which was now to be farmed
00:30:26
collectively but the peasants didn't
00:30:28
want collectivization they killed their
00:30:30
livestock rather than give them up and
00:30:33
the state took the
00:30:35
[Music]
00:30:42
grain the result was
00:30:46
famine over 5 years 7 million died of
00:30:51
starvation these were scenes that
00:30:53
Bernard Shaw and other Western visitors
00:30:56
did not see
00:31:00
pelaya oeno was almost taken by the body
00:31:04
[Music]
00:31:06
collectors three people came to the
00:31:08
house one tended the
00:31:11
horses two were piling up corpses on the
00:31:18
cart they threw on my mother they threw
00:31:20
on my father my father gestured to me
00:31:24
the man said he's almost ready he's
00:31:26
almost dead
00:31:29
[Music]
00:31:31
when my father gestured I knew I had to
00:31:33
go and
00:31:40
hide the men swore couldn't find me
00:31:43
because I'd crawled away on my hands and
00:31:45
knees and hidden
00:31:49
[Music]
00:31:53
myself corpses were piled up like bales
00:31:56
of straw
00:32:00
the men took the cart to a big hole and
00:32:02
tipped the bodies in regardless of
00:32:05
whether they were dead or alive
00:32:12
[Music]
00:32:13
[Applause]
00:32:22
[Applause]
00:32:36
the terrible price was not mentioned
00:32:39
when Stalin listed socialism's
00:32:41
achievements in 1937
00:32:43
[Applause]
00:33:24
if you said Stalin's Ovations were so
00:33:26
long because no one dared to be seen as
00:33:29
the first to stop
00:33:31
clapping for Stalin was not just using
00:33:34
harsh methods to push through changes he
00:33:36
thought were essential he was obsessed
00:33:39
with destroying all potential
00:33:42
[Applause]
00:33:43
[Music]
00:33:45
opponents Stalin the leader of the first
00:33:48
worker State lived in reclusive
00:33:51
[Music]
00:33:56
comfort and he felt in Secure to
00:34:01
him one by one the most senior communs
00:34:07
who became his
00:34:11
victims Nikolai buar St into power but
00:34:15
then dared to criticize
00:34:18
him at first bararan was isolated in his
00:34:21
Kremlin flat with his young
00:34:25
wife he remained a loyal communist even
00:34:28
when the moment of arrest
00:34:30
[Music]
00:34:36
came it was terrifying tragic he
00:34:40
literally fell down on his knees before
00:34:41
me and asked forgiveness for ruining my
00:34:51
life he said that if he could ever have
00:34:53
imagined that his life would end this
00:34:55
way he would have run as far as possible
00:34:57
away from
00:34:58
no matter how strong his love he would
00:35:00
have suppressed
00:35:02
it he asked me never to forget his
00:35:04
letter which is now called his Testament
00:35:07
and without fail to bring up his son a
00:35:10
bolik that's the kind of Faith he had a
00:35:13
bolic to the end
00:35:31
Ban's fate was sealed at one of a series
00:35:33
of show trials specially designed as
00:35:37
propaganda events to create fear and
00:35:40
instill
00:35:42
obedience the trials were a concoction
00:35:45
of fake evidence and false
00:35:47
accusations so-called confessions were
00:35:50
forced Through Torture and threats to
00:35:52
the victim's families
00:35:58
officials and journalists in the
00:36:00
courtroom played their part in the
00:36:03
drama borisov who attended buaran trial
00:36:07
as a newspaper cartoonist says he
00:36:09
believed the confession he heard was
00:36:16
genuine how could I doubt it if with my
00:36:18
own ears I heard bukharin describe
00:36:20
himself as an
00:36:21
enemy how he had plan to overthrow
00:36:23
Soviet power to hand over the Ukraine to
00:36:26
the Germans how he told of his
00:36:35
betrayal what would you have said in my
00:36:37
place if you'd heard a man confess his
00:36:38
crimes with your own
00:36:43
ears it was a kind of hypnosis
00:36:51
[Music]
00:37:06
in his cartoons for Pravda yuima
00:37:08
obediently took up the prosecutor's
00:37:10
description of the accused as vile
00:37:20
dogs he used this phrase that trosy and
00:37:23
buaran were one creature a two-headed
00:37:26
creature the Mad Dog of
00:37:31
fascism it's an example of satire
00:37:33
serving
00:37:38
propaganda every simple I won't say fool
00:37:41
but every simple person could understand
00:37:49
it your have applauded when the death
00:37:52
penalty was pronounced
00:37:54
[Applause]
00:38:02
when they read out his death sentence
00:38:03
something snapped inside me I felt that
00:38:06
I'd changed that the lights over our
00:38:09
wonderful Soviet Union were extinguished
00:38:19
[Music]
00:38:31
Stalin's morbid paranoia grew no one at
00:38:35
any
00:38:36
level whether they were in the
00:38:40
part from his desk the great Terror was
00:38:43
controlled and
00:38:46
conducted secret police orders gave
00:38:48
every region an arbitrary quota for the
00:38:51
purges category 1 meant death Category 2
00:38:55
meant the prison camps
00:39:03
but at times Stalin grew impatient when
00:39:05
he scribbled give a supplementary quota
00:39:08
of 6,000 people in the first category to
00:39:11
kodar he was signing the death warrant
00:39:13
for an extra 6,000
00:39:16
[Music]
00:39:22
people the purges struck many of the
00:39:24
earliest enthusiasts for communism miky
00:39:28
mindin in Category 2 was arrested and
00:39:31
interrogated by the secret police in
00:39:37
Moscow when the interrogation began I
00:39:40
was asked to sign lies about myself and
00:39:43
good comrades from my region they had to
00:39:45
be a list of 47
00:39:54
people they wanted to get me to sign a
00:39:57
state
00:39:59
they kept me standing for 5 days day and
00:40:02
night my legs were so
00:40:07
[Music]
00:40:12
swollen at the height of the purges
00:40:15
Ordinary People had to take part in Mass
00:40:17
demonstrations against so-called enemies
00:40:20
of the
00:40:21
people yet some who had been most
00:40:23
devoted
00:40:24
to what was going on
00:40:29
the young electrical engineer couldn't
00:40:31
believe what her husband a party
00:40:33
official told her
00:40:38
one he understood he knew what I didn't
00:40:45
know when he said you can't imagine it
00:40:48
Stalin is shooting all the present
00:40:49
members of The poit Bureau and he
00:40:52
counted them off one by one
00:41:00
I couldn't bear it we were having lunch
00:41:03
I picked up a knife and threw it at
00:41:08
him thank goodness I missed him but that
00:41:10
was what was happening at the time
00:41:12
Stalin was shooting them
00:41:17
all she broke with her first husband
00:41:19
over this incident later he was purged
00:41:22
and
00:41:23
killed she soon married another man one
00:41:27
who shared her unquestioning adoration
00:41:29
for Stalin but he too was
00:41:33
purged then as the wife of an enemy of
00:41:36
the people Elisa was herself arrested
00:41:39
and sentenced to prison in
00:41:43
Siberia she was sent with a party of
00:41:45
other women crammed into box
00:41:49
cars with nothing but salted fish to eat
00:41:52
she developed a desperate thirst
00:42:03
I remember when there was a hard
00:42:08
Frost inside the wooden cattle truck I
00:42:11
used to lick the ice off the metal
00:42:12
screws and bolts fearing only that my
00:42:15
tongue would
00:42:16
stick that's how we traveled for about a
00:42:25
month their husbands have been killed
00:42:27
before they left Moscow but the women
00:42:29
were convinced they were in the Box Car
00:42:32
just behind them as the train went East
00:42:35
they sang a song hoping their men would
00:42:41
[Music]
00:42:56
hear fore
00:43:28
[Music]
00:43:48
prisoners became an essential part of
00:43:50
the work force slave labor for the new
00:43:53
mines and railways
00:44:01
first I worked on the BAM
00:44:03
Railway then in
00:44:07
K the important thing was not to die of
00:44:17
hunger they gave you b a soup with just
00:44:21
a few Fishbones and some Oaks floating
00:44:23
around
00:44:27
we drank from metal bows they gave us a
00:44:30
ladle of bander and a lump of
00:44:43
bread we could hardly work for the
00:44:46
cold if we didn't move or work we would
00:44:49
have
00:44:56
Frozen wanted to relieve themselves they
00:44:58
had to take their mittens off by the
00:45:01
time they undid their trousers their
00:45:03
hands were
00:45:04
frozen as soon as they pulled it out it
00:45:07
froze many people had their parts
00:45:21
amputated there were no injections or
00:45:23
anything to reduce
00:45:25
pain they didn't even proper
00:45:33
scal when I was in the camp they asked
00:45:35
me to hold out my frostbitten foot and
00:45:38
with pliers they just took chunks
00:45:41
out that was the treatment the
00:45:52
operation it was considered that if you
00:45:54
survived the first winter get through
00:45:57
your
00:45:58
sentence most people didn't
00:46:12
survive Stalin's henchman tried to
00:46:14
justify what was happening
00:46:35
[Applause]
00:46:42
applauding the message was the loyal
00:46:44
construction worker Tana fiodorov
00:46:57
the fact is that unfortunately you
00:46:59
always have political intrigues
00:47:01
machinations of this
00:47:05
kind it was a very hard time but it
00:47:09
didn't derail the movement forward in
00:47:11
any way because the country was growing
00:47:14
at great
00:47:15
speed we're talking about a country of
00:47:17
many millions the whole population
00:47:20
worked sang
00:47:22
songs it doesn't mean that everything
00:47:25
was extinguished
00:47:27
was
00:47:35
[Music]
00:47:54
lost the state film student Studios
00:47:57
tried to beguile Soviet audiences into
00:47:59
thinking these were normal times
00:48:02
producing Escapist musicals in the style
00:48:05
of
00:48:05
[Music]
00:48:07
[Applause]
00:48:08
[Music]
00:48:10
[Applause]
00:48:11
[Music]
00:48:21
[Applause]
00:48:22
Hollywood on the surface for those it
00:48:25
had not devoured the great communist
00:48:27
experiment could claim to have achieved
00:48:29
many of its goals by the end of the
00:48:32
1930s the vast majority were able to
00:48:37
read great construction projects like
00:48:40
the Moscow Subway had been
00:48:44
completed and many Soviet citizens had
00:48:47
opportunities for work they'd never had
00:48:52
before after working as a village
00:48:54
teacher in her youth Anastasia Dena had
00:48:57
moved to the
00:49:02
city the revolution opened my eyes to
00:49:05
the world it gave me
00:49:07
everything I was wearing birch bark
00:49:10
sandals when I came to Moscow to
00:49:12
study I didn't reach any Great Heights
00:49:14
after studying but my eyes were opened
00:49:21
[Music]
00:49:27
1917 the Communists had been a small
00:49:30
minority they' imposed their ideas on
00:49:32
their fellow countrymen hoping to
00:49:34
persuade them with the results but 20
00:49:37
years later even the early Believers
00:49:39
knew the promise that the oppressed
00:49:41
masses will themselves formed the
00:49:44
government had not been
00:49:46
[Music]
00:49:51
delivered he was the greatest enemy of
00:49:54
socialism
00:49:56
[Music]
00:49:59
he had damaged socialism by destroying
00:50:01
people in all parts of life in
00:50:03
agriculture the Arts the military and
00:50:06
the party he destroyed people
00:50:10
everywhere wasn't that evil against
00:50:13
those great goals we had in mind
00:50:24
[Music]
00:50:36
in the second half of the 1930s alone
00:50:39
over 7 million people were executed and
00:50:43
an estimated 7 million more sent to the
00:50:46
camps
00:50:52
[Music]
00:50:58
there was no socialism of any kind under
00:51:03
Stalin Stalin himself destroyed all
00:51:06
socialism if it hadn't been Stalin it
00:51:08
would have been someone else someone
00:51:10
would have destroyed this system because
00:51:12
probably the time had not yet come for
00:51:15
such a society
00:51:19
[Music]
00:51:31
in the camps ordinary men and women
00:51:34
toiled and died victims of a political
00:51:37
system whose lofty rhetoric and utopian
00:51:40
promises had become Twisted into one
00:51:44
[Music]
00:51:49
nightmare but far from dying communism
00:51:53
would continue to grow to become one of
00:51:55
the most powerful forces forces of the
00:51:57
20th century dominating the lives of
00:52:00
millions and bringing with it the same
00:52:03
popular hopes in the same vicious
00:52:07
realities
