0:00:04 > 0:00:07Britain's relationship with Russia
0:00:07 > 0:00:10has been marked by centuries of suspicion.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15The British have always been afraid of the Russians.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18In the last hundred years, they've been friend...
0:00:18 > 0:00:20To the men of the Red Army.
0:00:20 > 0:00:22..and foe.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25This is how a war between the Soviet Union and the West would begin.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27They've saved our skins
0:00:27 > 0:00:31and terrified us with the thought of total annihilation.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33'This will be the legacy of thermonuclear war.'
0:00:33 > 0:00:37Britain would be in the bull's-eye of any Soviet attack.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41At the outbreak of World War II, Winston Churchill famously
0:00:41 > 0:00:47described Russia as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49These words have almost come to define
0:00:49 > 0:00:51Britain's view of Russia ever since -
0:00:51 > 0:00:55an inscrutable power that always plays by its own rules.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59In this film I'm going to examine how television has reflected
0:00:59 > 0:01:01our ever-changing relationship,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05from the tensions of the Cold War to the excitement of glasnost.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09The West in general was a little bit naive.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13And the Russian people who've lived through it all.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18This is how arguably Britain's most complex international relationship
0:01:18 > 0:01:20has played out on television.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23This is the Timewatch Guide to Russia.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43October 1st, 1939, a month into World War II.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46Winston Churchill pondered on Russia's next move.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Would they keep to their non-aggression pact
0:01:49 > 0:01:52with Nazi Germany or join the Allies?
0:01:54 > 0:01:57The Soviet Union refused to fight against Hitler
0:01:57 > 0:02:01and instead attempted to annex parts of Europe for themselves.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06Churchill was quick to denounce them.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10'Everyone can see how communism
0:02:10 > 0:02:13'rots the soul of a nation,
0:02:13 > 0:02:17'how it makes it abject and hungry in peace
0:02:17 > 0:02:21'and proves it base and abominable in war.'
0:02:22 > 0:02:25When Hitler turned his attentions to attacking Russia,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29they joined the Allies in the fight against fascism.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31The Red oppressor now suddenly became
0:02:31 > 0:02:33our trusted partner in battle.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37Now, a very different Russia was presented to Britons.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42Newsreel praised the war effort of our Russian comrades.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46'It does us good to see our Russian comrades at work.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49'They and we are members of the free world, fighting and working
0:02:49 > 0:02:53'to make the better way of life in which no man shall be exploited
0:02:53 > 0:02:55'and every one of us shall carry his head high.'
0:02:57 > 0:03:02Britain publicly celebrated the Red Army's 25th anniversary.
0:03:02 > 0:03:07In Glasgow, Tory MPs, under Soviet iconography,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09praised the communist power.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11We shall have one debt after this war
0:03:11 > 0:03:15and that is our debt of gratitude to the men of the Red Army.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17To our comrades,
0:03:17 > 0:03:21our grand salute to the men of the Red Army.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25This is the story that doesn't get told.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28This footage, as far as I'm aware, hasn't really been used
0:03:28 > 0:03:31or analysed by historians.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33We often focus on Russia as the enemy.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37So you had a shift and a very profound change in the rhetoric,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40from...from the Red Menace
0:03:40 > 0:03:44and from a revolution that actually some feared could happen in the UK,
0:03:44 > 0:03:47to Uncle Joe, our friend,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50he's the man who's going to stop German troops,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53and an encouraging of a much softer view of the Soviet Union.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55MACHINE-GUN FIRE
0:03:56 > 0:04:01In May 1945, the Nazi war machine was finally destroyed.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06From the ashes of the most savage global conflict in human history,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10the USSR would now emerge as a superpower.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13As Germany was divided among the Allies,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17the old political and cultural confrontation between the forces
0:04:17 > 0:04:21of capitalism and communism were almost instantly resumed.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32Britain and Russia were firmly back on opposing sides
0:04:32 > 0:04:35of the political fence, and, by the 1960s
0:04:35 > 0:04:39one fear loomed largest in the Western public's imagination -
0:04:39 > 0:04:41nuclear war.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46With Soviet missiles discovered installed in Cuba
0:04:46 > 0:04:50and the Russians' test detonation of the largest-ever hydrogen bomb,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53television captured the national mood in Britain.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01With The War Game, the film-makers showed us in graphic detail
0:05:01 > 0:05:05where our escalating tensions with Russia could ultimately lead.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08We're shown an unprepared Britain
0:05:08 > 0:05:11facing a full-scale Russian nuclear attack.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16'Time, 9:13am.'
0:05:16 > 0:05:18SIREN
0:05:20 > 0:05:22Hurry, inside the house!
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Move! Come on, come on! Quick!
0:05:26 > 0:05:30'This family couldn't afford to build themselves a refuge.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34'This could be the way the last two minutes of peace in Britain
0:05:34 > 0:05:36'would look.'
0:05:36 > 0:05:38Get all the children!
0:05:40 > 0:05:42'9:16am,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46'a single-megaton nuclear missile overshoots Manston Airfield in Kent
0:05:46 > 0:05:50'and air-bursts six miles from this position.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52EXPLOSION
0:05:53 > 0:05:55SCREAMING
0:05:55 > 0:05:58'At this distance, the heatwave is sufficient
0:05:58 > 0:06:00'to cause melting of the upturned eyeball,
0:06:00 > 0:06:04'third-degree burning of the skin and ignition of furniture.'
0:06:04 > 0:06:06SCREAMING
0:06:09 > 0:06:13'12 seconds later, the shock front arrives.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15SCREAMING
0:06:16 > 0:06:18DEEP RUMBLING SOUND
0:06:23 > 0:06:27'These are the inhabitants of what was once a housing estate
0:06:27 > 0:06:29'near Rochester in Kent.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32'Following the explosion of three single-megaton missiles
0:06:32 > 0:06:36'within this one county boundary, it's been estimated
0:06:36 > 0:06:38'that each surviving doctor
0:06:38 > 0:06:42'would be faced by at least 350 casualties,
0:06:42 > 0:06:47'many suffering from severe second and third-degree burns.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52'These will be the other casualties of a nuclear war.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55'Physically unmarked,
0:06:55 > 0:06:59'there will almost inevitably be thousands of people suffering from
0:06:59 > 0:07:04'many complex states of fear and shock due to the things they've seen
0:07:04 > 0:07:07'and the things that have happened to them.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11'Many of these people will probably lapse
0:07:11 > 0:07:13'into a state of permanent neurosis.
0:07:14 > 0:07:20'This too will be the legacy of thermonuclear war.'
0:07:20 > 0:07:22WHIMPERING AND CRYING
0:07:24 > 0:07:27While the programme-makers in 1965 regarded this
0:07:27 > 0:07:31as a legitimate portrayal of what could happen in World War III,
0:07:31 > 0:07:35the BBC, after pressure from the Government, did not.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38The film was banned for 20 years.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45For people in Britain, the Cold War really moves,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48as one historian has said, from the head to the gut.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51It's when you feel it viscerally.
0:07:51 > 0:07:52And of course it's in the '60s
0:07:52 > 0:07:56that we have a big campaign for nuclear disarmament,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59a feeling that this is an issue now which is so important
0:07:59 > 0:08:03that people have to take to the streets in order to stop the growth
0:08:03 > 0:08:07of nuclear weapons and the possibility of nuclear annihilation.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11The superpower stand-off that was the Cold War
0:08:11 > 0:08:15would grind on for over four decades from 1947.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18The 1970s brought a welcome detente
0:08:18 > 0:08:22but, secretly, the arms race continued.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26The fear that the Cold War could spiral out of control
0:08:26 > 0:08:31and into a full-scale global conflict was played out on the BBC.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33SIREN
0:08:33 > 0:08:37'This is how a war between the Soviet Union and the West
0:08:37 > 0:08:38'would begin.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45'For over 30 years, there has been an uneasy peace in Europe,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47'preserved by a balance of military power.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51'Is that balance tilting dangerously in favour of the Soviet Union?'
0:08:51 > 0:08:55The trends have been adverse to the West over the past 15 years.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58There is no question but that there has been a massive shift
0:08:58 > 0:09:00in relative military power.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13In 1977's The Writing On The Wall, retired British Army officer
0:09:13 > 0:09:18and politician Lord Chalfont travels to Germany's East-West border,
0:09:18 > 0:09:22the symbol of a world now split into two hostile camps.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28'The land border between East and West runs for nearly 1,000 miles
0:09:28 > 0:09:32'through divided Germany - a network of electrified fences,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35'barbed wire, mines and machine-gun posts.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39'As soon as I appeared with the camera crew,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42'an East German patrol arrived on the other side,
0:09:42 > 0:09:45'intensely interested in what we were up to.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50'This elaborate system of fences, with its vicious little weapons,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52'it designed mainly, of course,
0:09:52 > 0:09:54'to keep East Germans in East Germany.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57'It has no military significance at all.'
0:09:57 > 0:10:00Nonetheless, the film is still keen to point out
0:10:00 > 0:10:03the possibility of Russian aggression.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07'If the Russian tanks came down to the wire and the gates were opened,
0:10:07 > 0:10:11'they'd sweep through into West Germany, and then the question is,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14'could we stop them getting to the Rhine?'
0:10:14 > 0:10:18We are deeply suspicious because we don't have a true insight
0:10:18 > 0:10:20into what the Soviets are thinking.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Historians were saying well into the 20th century
0:10:24 > 0:10:27that one of the best sources they could get out of the Soviet Union
0:10:27 > 0:10:30was rumour, because they had no access to documents,
0:10:30 > 0:10:34they had no access to the inner thoughts of the Soviet leadership.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41A year later, the Cold War took off into outer space.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45The British public had flocked to see the intergalactic battle
0:10:45 > 0:10:47between good and evil, Star Wars.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51Meanwhile, back on Earth, things also had a hint of sci-fi,
0:10:51 > 0:10:57as the USA and USSR planned a new generation of space laser weapons.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04Exploring public fears of what would soon be dubbed the Evil Empire
0:11:04 > 0:11:07made for some terrific viewing.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12'Nothing now remains ridiculous in contemplating the real war in space.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15'Weapons that would have earned the derision of Buck Rogers himself
0:11:15 > 0:11:18'are today being researched and tested in laboratories
0:11:18 > 0:11:20'in Russia and America.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23'If the high-energy laser can be compared to focusing the rays
0:11:23 > 0:11:26'of the sun through a giant magnifying glass,
0:11:26 > 0:11:28'the devastating new particle-beam weapon
0:11:28 > 0:11:32'can be compared to harnessing and controlling bolts of lightning.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44'These weapons are already in an advanced state of research.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47'They would work by converting colossal amounts of energy
0:11:47 > 0:11:49'into subatomic particles.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53'These are then shot through the atmosphere in space in the form
0:11:53 > 0:11:56'of a beam, and they're shot with such force and at such speed
0:11:56 > 0:12:00'that the beam effectively disembowels its target.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03'By destroying all known matter,
0:12:03 > 0:12:06'the particle beam is today's ultimate space weapon.'
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Throughout the Cold War years, a balanced view of Russia
0:12:12 > 0:12:14was generally absent from our screens.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17Part of the problem was lack of access,
0:12:17 > 0:12:22but material that supported our fear of Russia did make for gripping TV.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24EXPLOSION
0:12:28 > 0:12:32In 1985, everything changed.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34Russia's economy was in decline.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38A new reformist leader, Mikhail Gorbachev,
0:12:38 > 0:12:42headed the Communist Party and the USSR was beginning to crumble.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48Finally, the BBC felt it was safe to show The War Game,
0:12:48 > 0:12:52which now was beginning to look comfortingly like history.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58What's happened by 1985 is that we've lived through
0:12:58 > 0:13:01a period of peaceful coexistence.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05We're a little bit more certain of how the Soviets will respond
0:13:05 > 0:13:09to certain situations, how they will manage their nuclear arsenal,
0:13:09 > 0:13:13and we're presuming that they are capable
0:13:13 > 0:13:16and sensible enough not to use the bomb.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20Those were certainties that Britain simply didn't have in the '60s.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25The climate of opinion by the '80s is different.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28I think there is more of a sense of reality television.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31There are a number of films in the early '80s
0:13:31 > 0:13:35about the consequences of nuclear war.
0:13:35 > 0:13:41I think the BBC and the media is also more open to discussing
0:13:41 > 0:13:44alternative views of what's going on.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50When Gorbachev rose to become leader of the USSR, his policy of glasnost,
0:13:50 > 0:13:54or openness, was meant to aid desperately needed economic reform.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58But it also meant that Soviet archives
0:13:58 > 0:14:00hiding years of the regime's abuses
0:14:00 > 0:14:04were finally opened for both Russians and the world to see.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08British documentary TV played a major role in revealing
0:14:08 > 0:14:11the true horror of the Soviet regime.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15In the summer of 1988, in an audacious step,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19history exams for Russian schoolchildren were cancelled.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23It was decreed that their textbooks were full of Stalinist cover-ups
0:14:23 > 0:14:24and lies.
0:14:24 > 0:14:29In the same year, back in Britain, Timewatch began to reveal
0:14:29 > 0:14:32some of these horrors in Bukharin And The Terror,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35showing the shocking disparity in the 1930s
0:14:35 > 0:14:39between Stalin's public persona, created through propaganda,
0:14:39 > 0:14:42and the reality of his barbarism.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47'One child whose life was profoundly affected by the terror
0:14:47 > 0:14:49'was Engelsina Markizova.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54'Aged seven, she attended one of Stalin's meetings in 1936
0:14:54 > 0:14:58'with her father, a minor party official from Serbia.'
0:15:00 > 0:15:02- TRANSLATION:- I felt awfully bored.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06I was sitting there with a huge bunch of flowers, two of them.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10Then I got fed up, and during one of the speeches I just got up
0:15:10 > 0:15:12and started off towards the platform.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Stalin turned round and picked me up.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18That's the moment they printed the photo of.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23I thought I was the happiest girl in the whole country.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30Because when I came downstairs to the hotel lobby the next day,
0:15:30 > 0:15:33I saw that all the papers had my photo in them -
0:15:33 > 0:15:35a little girl and Stalin.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38And I was very proud of that.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42I told everyone, you know, "That's my picture. It's me, it's me."
0:15:44 > 0:15:47And people started to invite me to visit them,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49people who lived in the hotel.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53And they gave me all sorts of presents,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56because I had become very, very famous.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59'A sculpture of Engelsina
0:15:59 > 0:16:02'entitled Thank You, Comrade Stalin, For My Happy Childhood
0:16:02 > 0:16:05'was erected in Moscow.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08'On December the 11th, 1937,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11'Engelsina's father disappeared.'
0:16:17 > 0:16:20- TRANSLATION:- That was shattering, of course,
0:16:20 > 0:16:22because after such a placid life
0:16:22 > 0:16:26I suddenly found myself the daughter of an enemy of the people.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31Naturally, we wrote Stalin a letter,
0:16:31 > 0:16:35because we certainly didn't link my father's arrest with Stalin.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38Well, the response to the letter we sent to Stalin...
0:16:38 > 0:16:42that's to say I wrote it and my mother dictated it...
0:16:44 > 0:16:46..was the arrest of my mother.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52'Stalin's reputation remained divorced from the terror
0:16:52 > 0:16:55'until after his death in 1953.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58'Such was his effect on ordinary people
0:16:58 > 0:17:01'that no-one realised what he had done.'
0:17:02 > 0:17:05What happened in the Soviet Union is when you allowed people
0:17:05 > 0:17:07to begin speaking openly
0:17:07 > 0:17:11you had almost an overwhelming outburst of new material -
0:17:11 > 0:17:13archives, film, photographs,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17that characterised all... all throughout the late 1980s.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19And then of course by 1990-91
0:17:19 > 0:17:21there was a kind of floodgate of discussion
0:17:21 > 0:17:24at the point where the regime is falling apart.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31As the communist regime entered its death throes,
0:17:31 > 0:17:34we were being presented with some of the most heinous acts
0:17:34 > 0:17:36it had committed on its own citizens.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44'During the 1930s and '40s, tens of millions of people
0:17:44 > 0:17:49'from all over the Soviet Union were arrested as enemies of the people.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55'They disappeared into the Gulag, a network of labour camps
0:17:55 > 0:17:59'that stretched to every corner of the Soviet Union.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07'They were accused of spying, sabotage and treachery.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11'The vast majority were innocent.'
0:18:54 > 0:18:57At these camps in Kolyma,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00in the remote corner of the Russian Far East,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03prisoners were forced to mine for gold.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42Even for those who managed to survive the Gulag system
0:20:42 > 0:20:45and return home, the nightmare didn't end.
0:21:29 > 0:21:34The testimonies of camp survivors were horrifying to us in the West
0:21:34 > 0:21:38but perhaps even more shocking to the Russians themselves.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42This was the thing that undermined the system I think more than anything else.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44It was this...the flood of history.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48Suddenly people said, well, if it was, you know, so many people died
0:21:48 > 0:21:50and so many people were killed by this system,
0:21:50 > 0:21:52you know, why is it legitimate?
0:21:54 > 0:21:59Television revealed the truth about Soviet history to a wide audience
0:21:59 > 0:22:02but it's notable that even post-glasnost
0:22:02 > 0:22:05TV didn't always provide a rounded picture of Russia.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12When we look at how we have presented Russia
0:22:12 > 0:22:14on British television,
0:22:14 > 0:22:18we can see that the things we choose to tell and show
0:22:18 > 0:22:22often reflect more on our own preconceptions of Russia.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26They often celebrate those most bloody and brutal aspects
0:22:26 > 0:22:27of Russian history.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32Digging deeper into history a decade later,
0:22:32 > 0:22:36details of perhaps the darkest chapter of Russia's past
0:22:36 > 0:22:38were revealed.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41In the West, World War II is often portrayed as being won
0:22:41 > 0:22:43on the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45while Russia's enormous sacrifice
0:22:45 > 0:22:48has almost been airbrushed from history.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51In 2002, Timewatch attempted to redress the balance.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57In the summer of 1941, the Nazi juggernaut surged across Russia
0:22:57 > 0:23:01and one of Hitler's top targets was the city of Leningrad -
0:23:01 > 0:23:07the former tsarist capital, renamed for the founder of the Soviet state.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09Aiming to capture the city
0:23:09 > 0:23:12before the onset of the unforgiving Russian winter,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16the first German artillery shell hit as September began.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19But Stalin was as determined to defend Leningrad
0:23:19 > 0:23:22as Hitler was to raze it to the ground.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26The ensuing stand-off between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army
0:23:26 > 0:23:29would last for nearly 900 days.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Caught in the middle, frozen and starved,
0:23:32 > 0:23:34three million civilians.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42- TRANSLATION:- It's impossible to communicate that feeling of hunger.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46It's the most terrible thing in the world.
0:23:46 > 0:23:52You have the feeling that some sort of animal has climbed inside you.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54Some savage beast.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57And he's scratching you, gouging you with his claws,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01tearing your insides, ripping everything.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04He demands bread, bread.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Demands food. Demands to be fed.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14'The temperature dropped to -30 degrees Celsius.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17'The city had no more fuel, electricity
0:24:17 > 0:24:19'or running water.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27'With no strength to bury their dead in the frozen ground,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30'bodies were left to lie in the streets.'
0:24:34 > 0:24:38As the Red Army troops fought bravely to defend their city,
0:24:38 > 0:24:43the lives of her people were reduced to unimaginable brutality.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49What was also even more sinister taking place
0:24:49 > 0:24:51was that murder for human meat
0:24:51 > 0:24:54was...was occurring.
0:24:54 > 0:25:00That there were cases of people who were simply waylaying others,
0:25:00 > 0:25:05particularly children, because after all their meat would be tender,
0:25:05 > 0:25:10and they were killing people for... for meat.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14Stalin achieved his goal.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17Leningrad was saved, but only at the cost
0:25:17 > 0:25:21of what's estimated to be over one million lives.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25More Russians died in the siege than the combined number
0:25:25 > 0:25:29of Britons and Americans in the entire Second World War.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34The siege of Leningrad, which was a spectacular, appalling disaster,
0:25:34 > 0:25:39I mean, in which people resorted to cannibalism and eating rats
0:25:39 > 0:25:44and chewing on floorboards, is not very well known in this country
0:25:44 > 0:25:47and, of course, it wasn't the only such event
0:25:47 > 0:25:51in the eastern half of the continent but it does show you what...
0:25:51 > 0:25:56the level of suffering being something that actually in Britain was unknown.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59This is a city that's still... it's proud of what it had done,
0:25:59 > 0:26:03but still, in a sense, unable to speak about it.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Perhaps because the amount of suffering
0:26:06 > 0:26:09is just too impossible to talk about.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11It's on an astronomic scale.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14Certainly nothing that we can comprehend properly
0:26:14 > 0:26:17from our war experience.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24Stretching right back to Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28Russia has time and again found itself under the control
0:26:28 > 0:26:32of the autocratic strongman who dominates his era.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38In the 20th century, British documentary television
0:26:38 > 0:26:41has found its powerful figures endlessly intriguing.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46Russian leaders have built up powerful personality cults
0:26:46 > 0:26:49and we rely on historians and film-makers
0:26:49 > 0:26:51to strip away the artifice.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56In 1997, 80 years after he seized power in the October Revolution,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58Timewatch took on the myth
0:26:58 > 0:27:01surrounding the first communist leader - Lenin.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03BELL CHIMES
0:27:06 > 0:27:10Before glasnost, some on the British left had admired the ideology
0:27:10 > 0:27:15of Lenin, but with newly released documentation, Timewatch revealed
0:27:15 > 0:27:19the Bolshevik Party leader was not all that he seemed.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23'Once they held mass rallies in Red Square.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30'Today, Russia's Communist Party
0:27:30 > 0:27:33'can muster only a few hundred old diehards.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41'The polished-granite mausoleum behind them holds the mortal remains
0:27:41 > 0:27:43'of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54'In the Soviet era, his image was preserved and embalmed
0:27:54 > 0:27:57'with the same reverence as his body.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06'The man who founded the perfect socialist society
0:28:06 > 0:28:09'had to be depicted as perfect himself.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13'That man represented a whole epoch.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16'Everything that has been created and is being created
0:28:16 > 0:28:20'in our Soviet land is connected with his name, with his plans.'
0:28:24 > 0:28:28'In today's Russia, Lenin is becoming an unperson.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31'His statue, which once had pride of place in the Kremlin,
0:28:31 > 0:28:34'has been banished to a remote corner of the Gorki estate.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39'Communists no longer have the power to shape history
0:28:39 > 0:28:41'to suit the party line.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45'In recent years, facts about Lenin long forgotten, long suppressed,
0:28:45 > 0:28:47'have been coming to light.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51'Until the collapse of communism, they lay buried here
0:28:51 > 0:28:54'in the central party archives.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58'Only a handful of trusted party historians were allowed access
0:28:58 > 0:29:00'to Lenin's secret files.
0:29:08 > 0:29:13'The secret archives have revealed a crueller and more violent side
0:29:13 > 0:29:15'to Lenin's character.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24- TRANSLATION:- We know of several documented examples of this.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29Some of these show that in the summer of 1918 in Nizhny Novgorod,
0:29:29 > 0:29:32Lenin gave orders to hang a hundred kulaks in public
0:29:32 > 0:29:36in order to force others to hand over their grain to the state.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40"Hang no fewer than a hundred well-known rich peasants.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44"Make sure that the hangings take place in full view of the people."
0:29:45 > 0:29:49- TRANSLATION:- Some people in our country have revised their judgment
0:29:49 > 0:29:52of Lenin solely on the basis of new documents
0:29:52 > 0:29:54which illustrate his brutality.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58For example, his orders to hang and shoot people
0:29:58 > 0:30:02and his statements that civilians should precede Red Army soldiers
0:30:02 > 0:30:04when they went on the attack.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07The respect that he'd been held in, at least on the left,
0:30:07 > 0:30:11certainly on the far left, in Britain,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14erm, even there it began to dissolve.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17What we see with Lenin's secret files
0:30:17 > 0:30:22are the fact that he was more than willing to order the execution
0:30:22 > 0:30:25of his enemies, of his opponents, of those that opposed
0:30:25 > 0:30:29the Russian revolution, or those that were simply holding it up.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33We often think of the most brutal elements of the Soviet Union
0:30:33 > 0:30:36as being the responsibility of Stalin.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40Well, in some ways, Stalin had a good teacher when it came to Lenin.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44In 1924, Lenin died.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48Both Russia and the West expected him to be succeeded
0:30:48 > 0:30:51by his right-hand man Leon Trotsky.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55But the ill-educated and boorish general secretary of the party,
0:30:55 > 0:30:59Joseph Stalin, schemed his way to the top.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04In power, Stalin became a god-like figure.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06A protector and a punisher.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09The all-seeing, omnipresent, supreme being.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12It seemed as though no thought or deed of a Russian
0:31:12 > 0:31:14was beyond his control.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18Although we needed him in World War II,
0:31:18 > 0:31:21Stalin was a hate figure for many in the West.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24But we were also fascinated by him.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28It was only after glasnost, when witnesses began to speak up,
0:31:28 > 0:31:31that Timewatch could reveal the hidden details
0:31:31 > 0:31:34of his true contempt for even his most loyal subjects.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38After the Red Army and ordinary citizens drove back the Nazis
0:31:38 > 0:31:40in the siege of Leningrad,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Stalin feared he was losing his grip on the city.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46As the loyal Leningraders prepared to take part
0:31:46 > 0:31:50in his 70th-birthday celebrations, Stalin struck.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55'On the basis of a series of bizarre allegations,
0:31:55 > 0:31:57'most of the Leningrad party organisation,
0:31:57 > 0:32:01'including their wives, parents and children, were arrested
0:32:01 > 0:32:05'in what became known as the Leningrad Affair.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10One by one, the heroes of the Leningrad siege,
0:32:10 > 0:32:12from military leaders to party members,
0:32:12 > 0:32:16were arrested, tortured, accused of treason
0:32:16 > 0:32:18and either exiled
0:32:18 > 0:32:20or executed.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26'Even today, some of the truth about what happened
0:32:26 > 0:32:28'is still hidden in the Russian archives.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33'A number of the documents relating to the Leningrad Affair
0:32:33 > 0:32:35'and Stalin's involvement in it
0:32:35 > 0:32:37'are still classified.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42'Lev Voznesensky is one of the few people who have been allowed
0:32:42 > 0:32:46'behind the locked doors of the archive to study these documents.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49'He was able to copy some of them by hand.'
0:32:53 > 0:32:56- TRANSLATION:- Comrade Stalin didn't always give orders
0:32:56 > 0:32:59in the form of clear directives.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01I don't think it was accidental.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04It's what a person does
0:33:04 > 0:33:07if he doesn't want to leave any clear tracks.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16Stalin directly managed the Leningrad Affair.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19When you become familiar with these documents,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22you'll recognise the symbols Stalin used.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25A little cross by a surname or an underlined phrase.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28They show the full agreement of comrade Stalin,
0:33:28 > 0:33:31whom he wants to be arrested, whom he wants to be tried.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37Until his death, Stalin's grip on the Russian people never faltered.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43In the 1940s, there was the so-called cult of personality
0:33:43 > 0:33:45everywhere in the Soviet Union.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49There were photographs of Stalin in every office building,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52Stalin's birthday was celebrated with great fanfare,
0:33:52 > 0:33:56there were clubs of children who were taught to sing songs
0:33:56 > 0:34:01in praises of Stalin, Stalin's name was in all the history books.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04You would have had trouble getting through the day, probably,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07without hearing his name or seeing his picture.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09So his presence was all-pervasive
0:34:09 > 0:34:11and this had a very deep effect on people.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15Some people did love him or feel that he somehow symbolised
0:34:15 > 0:34:18their nation and some people were simply very, very afraid of him.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23It wasn't just Stalin's persona that was so powerful
0:34:23 > 0:34:25and shrouded in mystery,
0:34:25 > 0:34:28but also his relationships with his inner circle.
0:34:28 > 0:34:34In 2005, Timewatch and the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore
0:34:34 > 0:34:38found new evidence that allowed them to make a rather unusual docudrama.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42This was an investigation of a conspiracy theory
0:34:42 > 0:34:45in which Stalin, for once, played the victim.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49'The dictator Joseph Stalin,
0:34:49 > 0:34:52'who's already killed 30 million Soviet citizens,
0:34:52 > 0:34:55'suddenly falls into a coma.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00'Those surrounding his bed each have a motive to want him dead.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04'Svetlana, his estranged daughter.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11'Vasily, his unbalanced, alcoholic son.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16'Vyacheslav Molotov,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19'Stalin's most trusted accomplice.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23'Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin's fool.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30'And Lavrentiy Beria,
0:35:30 > 0:35:32'the secret policeman.
0:35:34 > 0:35:39'New evidence suggests that someone in this room may have killed Stalin.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42'Tonight we set out to find out who.'
0:35:43 > 0:35:46In an Agatha Christie-style whodunnit,
0:35:46 > 0:35:50Sebag Montefiore pulls together evidence to paint a picture
0:35:50 > 0:35:53of exactly what happened at Stalin's deathbed
0:35:53 > 0:35:57and enjoys revealing possible evidence of foul play
0:35:57 > 0:35:59in hidden medical records.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05'The archive now further raises the prospect of murder,
0:36:05 > 0:36:09'undermining the idea that Stalin's illness was solely caused,
0:36:09 > 0:36:13'as officially related, by a haemorrhage in the brain.'
0:36:14 > 0:36:175th of March, it's now midday in the dacha.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20Around the bed, everyone's watching. There's quiet.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22HE COUGHS
0:36:22 > 0:36:25And suddenly, Stalin wretches
0:36:25 > 0:36:27and then vomits blood.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31And this is terribly significant. We knew nothing of this before.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34Why was his stomach suddenly bleeding so heavily?
0:36:34 > 0:36:39And the answer could well be that he had received some sort of poison
0:36:39 > 0:36:41which caused his stomach to bleed.
0:36:41 > 0:36:46'So could this be the result of poison administered earlier
0:36:46 > 0:36:49'by the bodyguard on Beria's orders?
0:36:52 > 0:36:55'The idea that the vomiting of blood was caused by poison
0:36:55 > 0:36:58'gains greater weight when Simon looks at the version
0:36:58 > 0:37:00'in the Soviet press.'
0:37:03 > 0:37:06We're looking here at Pravda on the 6th of March,
0:37:06 > 0:37:10the announcement of Stalin's death the next day, the next morning,
0:37:10 > 0:37:14and one finds no mention whatsoever of stomach haemorrhaging.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17No blood in the stomach, no vomiting of blood.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21So what has happened between the public announcement
0:37:21 > 0:37:25of Stalin's death and the conclusion of the doctors just hours earlier?
0:37:25 > 0:37:28Well, someone has decided, and clearly it's Beria,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31to drop this rather significant information
0:37:31 > 0:37:35about the haemorrhaging of blood into Stalin's stomach. Why?
0:37:35 > 0:37:40'At 9:50pm, March the 5th, Stalin was finally dying.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44'Svetlana described his last act.'
0:37:46 > 0:37:51Suddenly he lifted his hand as though he were pointing up above
0:37:51 > 0:37:53and bringing down a curse on us all.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56The gesture was full of menace.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07'Vasily shouted...
0:38:08 > 0:38:11'.."The bastards have murdered Father." '
0:38:12 > 0:38:16Then came Beria's voice, the hint of triumph concealed.
0:38:19 > 0:38:20"My car!"
0:38:21 > 0:38:26And Svetlana's belief that Beria had secretly assassinated her father
0:38:26 > 0:38:30is supported by one more compelling piece of evidence.
0:38:31 > 0:38:37At Stalin's funeral, he whispered to Molotov and he said,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40"I did you all a favour. I did him in."
0:38:41 > 0:38:45But Sebag Montefiore remains unconvinced by the theory.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51The stomach haemorrhage and the vomiting of blood could just be
0:38:51 > 0:38:54the result of a sick old body packing up,
0:38:54 > 0:38:57partly because he mistrusted medical advice.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00And the leadership may have deleted these details
0:39:00 > 0:39:04from the public announcement because Stalin's system of government
0:39:04 > 0:39:07meant they were understandably frightened
0:39:07 > 0:39:09of arousing any suspicion.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13Every suspicious circumstance was the result of the terror
0:39:13 > 0:39:16that Stalin himself inspired.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20Alone and dying, it may be that people were simply too afraid
0:39:20 > 0:39:22to come to his aid.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25So if I had to point the finger at someone,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28then I think, ironically,
0:39:28 > 0:39:31I'd point the finger at Stalin himself.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34Even decades after his death,
0:39:34 > 0:39:38the horrific figure of Stalin still haunts our perception of Russia.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44With Lenin and Stalin the towering titans of the early 20th century,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47we could only investigate their political intrigues in retrospect.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51But at the end of the 20th century, a new leader emerged,
0:39:51 > 0:39:53and this time, through film-makers,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56we've been able to watch his rise to power.
0:39:57 > 0:40:03Back in 2001, BBC Correspondent was asking, who is Putin?
0:40:04 > 0:40:06'As the new millennium starts,
0:40:06 > 0:40:09'Russia, like the United States, has a new president.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17'Vladimir Putin has been in charge for a year but he's still an enigma.
0:40:20 > 0:40:22'A decade since the Cold War,
0:40:22 > 0:40:26'should we fear new superpower confrontations?
0:40:29 > 0:40:34'What has shaped this former spy and Kremlin bureaucrat?
0:40:37 > 0:40:40'Where is this man taking Russia?
0:40:41 > 0:40:45'Not long after his inauguration, he presided over a Red Square parade -
0:40:45 > 0:40:49'the 55th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57'The massive military display astonished Moscow.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00'It was like being back in the Soviet Union.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04'And Putin's speech was an unapologetic celebration
0:41:04 > 0:41:06'of Soviet victories.'
0:41:39 > 0:41:43- ALL:- Ura!
0:41:44 > 0:41:48'Words of enormous resonance for a nation whose international prestige
0:41:48 > 0:41:50'had plummeted.'
0:41:51 > 0:41:55Putin started as a...a reformer,
0:41:55 > 0:41:58a nationalist reformer.
0:41:58 > 0:42:03Erm, he's now often painted as a sort of second Hitler
0:42:03 > 0:42:07or something like that, or with those kind of pretensions.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10What we don't really understand, I think, and we've missed
0:42:10 > 0:42:13is the sense of deep grievance in Russia
0:42:13 > 0:42:18about the way that things have gone since the end of the Cold War.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21Seven years later,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24and after a series of high-profile assassinations of his critics...
0:42:24 > 0:42:27I looked into Mr Putin's eyes and I saw three letters -
0:42:27 > 0:42:29a K, a G and a B.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32..Britain knew all too well who Putin was
0:42:32 > 0:42:35and we were beginning to fear him like the Soviet leaders of old.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39Panorama tried to get a grip on why Russians
0:42:39 > 0:42:42would voluntarily support him.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52'Oscar-winning director Nikita Mikhalkov
0:42:52 > 0:42:55'is the most powerful man in Russia's film industry.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58'He's also close to Vladimir Putin.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01'He's in no doubt why his friend is so popular.'
0:43:03 > 0:43:06- TRANSLATION: - Because he answers questions.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08Because he does not drink.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10Because he looks good.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13Because it is clear what he stands for.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17Because he does not hide from problems.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20You ask why do people like Putin.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23Because he has given Russia her dignity back.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29'But it's not just Putin's friends in high places
0:43:29 > 0:43:31'who think a firm hand's needed.
0:43:31 > 0:43:35'The wealth is starting to trickle down to a new middle class
0:43:35 > 0:43:38'who shop at places like GUM, Moscow's answer to Harrods.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40'They too love Putin.'
0:43:41 > 0:43:45- TRANSLATION:- We are not as civilised as we would like to be,
0:43:45 > 0:43:47which is why we have pretty hard leaders.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50For now there's no other way to rule us.
0:43:50 > 0:43:52And maybe with us Russians you need to be tough.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55'And no wonder, after the 1990s,
0:43:55 > 0:43:59'Russia was reeling from financial and social chaos.
0:44:00 > 0:44:06'Meanwhile, President Boris Yeltsin often appeared less than in control.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11'The once-feared superpower was bankrupt and on its knees.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14'Crime was rampant and contract hits common.'
0:44:19 > 0:44:22- TRANSLATION:- Putin is not so much a cause of something
0:44:22 > 0:44:26but the product of a reaction to the national humiliation
0:44:26 > 0:44:31and collapse and degradation that we saw here in the 1990s.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38The country woke up again when Putin came.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41It stopped washing its dirty linen abroad, telling everyone
0:44:41 > 0:44:45how sick, drunk and incapable of a normal existence we are.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47Putin gave us our nation back.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52'So, that's the popular view in the capital.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00'But Moscow is not Russia, the locals like to say.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09'A hundred miles away, things look very different.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12'But even here, where life is a struggle,
0:45:12 > 0:45:15'it's not hard to find fans of Vladimir Putin.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19'Take Larissa and her parents.
0:45:19 > 0:45:24'She earns £250 a month and their pension is only £80 each.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27'Capitalism has not been good to them.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32'Mention Putin's name, however, and you will hear only praise.'
0:45:32 > 0:45:35- TRANSLATION:- Under Putin, of course things have become better.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40'Before Putin became Prime Minister,
0:45:40 > 0:45:43'most Russians wanted him to stay on as President.
0:45:43 > 0:45:45'What do you think?'
0:45:47 > 0:45:50- TRANSLATION:- Of course it would have been better for him to stay
0:45:50 > 0:45:54because during his time we saw no suffering.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58Now, they pay our pensions and even raise them.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02I think that we often look at Russians as somehow duped people,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06that they've just naively accepted Putin's control
0:46:06 > 0:46:09and that they don't know what's going on.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13I think that's a dangerous perception to cultivate in Britain.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17There's genuine opposition to Putin, there's genuine concern to Putin,
0:46:17 > 0:46:21there's genuine support for Putin and there's everything in between.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27It's also important not to forget that the democracy promised
0:46:27 > 0:46:31in the glasnost era never quite materialised.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36We often talk about Putin's poll numbers
0:46:36 > 0:46:39but we don't talk about how one gets poll numbers.
0:46:39 > 0:46:43Often these are phone calls and you will pick up the phone,
0:46:43 > 0:46:46you'll be asked, what do you think of President Putin?
0:46:46 > 0:46:48Well, if I were a Russian, I would think,
0:46:48 > 0:46:50who's on the end of the line?
0:46:50 > 0:46:53So I think sometimes the way that we present these things
0:46:53 > 0:46:56is a little bit, erm, skewed.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04Film-makers have captured the power games of the Cold War,
0:47:04 > 0:47:07revealed the hidden horrors of Soviet rule
0:47:07 > 0:47:10and explored the personas of Russia's leaders.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13But when it comes to the Russian people,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17their portrayal on TV has often been obscured by limited access
0:47:17 > 0:47:19and the shadow of big history.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23In 1975, programme-makers found it hard to separate Russians
0:47:23 > 0:47:26from the regime they lived under.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29In KGB - The Soviet Secret Police,
0:47:29 > 0:47:33we're presented with an Orwellian nightmare version of Russia.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36A society in which no-one can be trusted.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41'From their earliest schooldays, children are instilled with
0:47:41 > 0:47:44'the concept that loyalty to the state is the highest virtue
0:47:44 > 0:47:47'and talebearers, far from being discouraged,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50'are treated like little heroes.'
0:47:50 > 0:47:53I would say that we are expected
0:47:53 > 0:47:56to inform on our classmates.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01'As a little girl, Alla Rusinek had a conventional Soviet education.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03'She recently emigrated to Israel.'
0:48:03 > 0:48:07Probably this was the result of the education.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10And our heroes...
0:48:10 > 0:48:13were Young Pioneers...
0:48:14 > 0:48:17..who reported on their parents.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20The famous hero
0:48:20 > 0:48:23was Pavlik Morozov,
0:48:23 > 0:48:26who reported his father
0:48:26 > 0:48:29to the authorities
0:48:29 > 0:48:32and his father then killed him for this.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36So we were expected
0:48:36 > 0:48:38to behave the same way.
0:48:39 > 0:48:44This idea that they were willing to denounce their parents
0:48:44 > 0:48:46or that there was a culture or a society
0:48:46 > 0:48:49that was developing along those lines
0:48:49 > 0:48:54was another example of otherness, of alienness.
0:48:56 > 0:49:00'In recent years, there has been a calculated effort to improve
0:49:00 > 0:49:02'the image of the KGB with the man in the street.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05'To eradicate the nightmare memories
0:49:05 > 0:49:07'of the secret police of Stalin's time,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10'which subjected the entire country to 30 years
0:49:10 > 0:49:13'of unrestrained lawlessness and terror.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16'And for the ordinary Russian today,
0:49:16 > 0:49:19'the KGB is synonymous with authority.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21'This is what makes the KGB unique
0:49:21 > 0:49:24'among the intelligence services of the world
0:49:24 > 0:49:27'and makes it so powerful as a secret police organisation,
0:49:27 > 0:49:31'for the Soviet citizen has to rely upon authority
0:49:31 > 0:49:34'for almost everything in his life.
0:49:34 > 0:49:36'For a start, his freedom of movement
0:49:36 > 0:49:40'is controlled and kept in check through a complicated system
0:49:40 > 0:49:42'of documentation and registration.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46'The most important document is the internal passport.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49'Everyone over the age of 16 is issued with one of these.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52'He must produce it to the police on request
0:49:52 > 0:49:55'and is meant to register with the authorities
0:49:55 > 0:49:59'if he moves anywhere inside the Soviet Union or stays at a hotel.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01'It does not entitle him to travel abroad.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07'In addition, every citizen is registered in a house book,
0:50:07 > 0:50:10'kept by the caretaker of the block of flats where he lives.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14'If he is away for any length of time or has foreign visitors
0:50:14 > 0:50:16'or behaves suspiciously in any way,
0:50:16 > 0:50:19'this may be entered in the book or reported to the KGB.'
0:50:20 > 0:50:25But with glasnost, it seemed that we would finally be able to build
0:50:25 > 0:50:29a relationship and an understanding with Russia's people.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34As the 1990s dawned, for the first time we could hear a cacophony
0:50:34 > 0:50:37of Russian voices speaking out against the system.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40RUSSIAN CHORAL SINGING
0:50:49 > 0:50:53Welcome to this live programme from Moscow.
0:50:53 > 0:50:57It's the fifth anniversary of the week in which Mikhail Gorbachev
0:50:57 > 0:50:59became leader of the Soviet Union.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02Here in Russia, where more than half the Soviet people live,
0:51:02 > 0:51:04it's been election day today.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07The first chance that they've had to choose the individuals
0:51:07 > 0:51:11that they want to represent them in local and regional government
0:51:11 > 0:51:14and in the Russian parliament itself.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17There was a huge amount of hope in the West about Russia.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21There was a hope that the Soviet Union would evolve into something,
0:51:21 > 0:51:25erm, if not like us, then friendlier to us.
0:51:29 > 0:51:34This would have been inconceivable five, four, even three years ago.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37Individual Soviet citizens holding court in the street,
0:51:37 > 0:51:40crowding round you in animated argument
0:51:40 > 0:51:42about the state of the nation.
0:51:43 > 0:51:46They debate glasnost and perestroika,
0:51:46 > 0:51:48communism and the free market.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51They argue about the demise of the party, ethnic conflict
0:51:51 > 0:51:54and even the collapse of the Soviet Union.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN
0:51:58 > 0:52:01After a long history in which silence has been imposed upon them,
0:52:01 > 0:52:05it is still remarkable for the outsider to witness at first hand
0:52:05 > 0:52:08the awakening of the Russian people.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11No fears, no inhibitions, just the outpouring
0:52:11 > 0:52:14of long-suppressed feelings and opinions.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25If promising to listen and learn is a new experience for him,
0:52:25 > 0:52:28it is no less remarkable for his audience.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53And this is a new experience for everyone?
0:52:53 > 0:52:56TRANSLATOR SPEAKS
0:53:07 > 0:53:12Can any of you imagine voting one day for another party?
0:53:20 > 0:53:24The kind of conversations that were seen on that film
0:53:24 > 0:53:27of people on the streets talking openly about society
0:53:27 > 0:53:30and change and so on, erm...
0:53:30 > 0:53:34I think in Britain and in the West generally
0:53:34 > 0:53:38there was a tendency to say, oh, great, finally they've seen sense,
0:53:38 > 0:53:42they're going our way, they're going to become like us.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45There's a sense that this could lead to genuine debate,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48to something more akin to democracy.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51Erm, I think also...Britain was also a little bit naive.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54The West in general was a little bit naive.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58This new age of optimism was not to last.
0:53:58 > 0:54:03In the 1990s, Russia plunged into economic meltdown.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07When she rose again a decade later, in the Putin era,
0:54:07 > 0:54:09many in the West felt disturbed.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13Russia now seemed alien and threatening yet again.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17In the 21st century, we're now being presented with
0:54:17 > 0:54:20a new type of Russian we haven't seen before.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22The super-rich.
0:54:23 > 0:54:28In 2008, Panorama squeezed into an exclusive Moscow party
0:54:28 > 0:54:31celebrating the launch of the first Russian edition
0:54:31 > 0:54:34of the society magazine Tatler.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38Now joining those Western standards Hello and Vogue
0:54:38 > 0:54:40on the Russian newsstands.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45I have a feeling that almost all the country changed.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48When I look at my first issues, I think, oh, my God,
0:54:48 > 0:54:52this was the magazine done and tailor-made for a different country.
0:54:52 > 0:54:57This was a Russia that had embraced capitalism with a vengeance.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03In Britain, we're looking at the excesses of Russian capitalism
0:55:03 > 0:55:05and almost turning our nose up,
0:55:05 > 0:55:09almost thinking, oh, they might have money but they don't have class.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11And there's a danger in that view.
0:55:11 > 0:55:17There's a danger that we are not presenting the Russians fairly
0:55:17 > 0:55:21and it's not to say that Russian capitalism is a pleasant thing,
0:55:21 > 0:55:25it's not to say that rich oligarchs are particular nice people,
0:55:25 > 0:55:28but there's also something unpleasant sometimes
0:55:28 > 0:55:31around the way that the British media presents that.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37And behind the glitz and glamour, another story was playing out.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40When this programme was made in 2008,
0:55:40 > 0:55:44Russian tanks had just rolled into neighbouring Georgia.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46While the Russians felt besieged,
0:55:46 > 0:55:50the West viewed them as provocatively aggressive.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52'At events like this,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55'the Russia of today looks more like the West than ever.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59'These people are educated, sophisticated and travel abroad,
0:55:59 > 0:56:01'but scratch the surface and, even here,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04'people say we don't understand them.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08'And nowhere more so than over the recent invasion of Georgia.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11'Billionaire Alexander Lebedev is unusual.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13'He's a vocal critic of the Kremlin
0:56:13 > 0:56:18'but he too says Russia was unfairly treated over the action it took.'
0:56:18 > 0:56:21I think there's too many wrong things said about Russia.
0:56:21 > 0:56:23Everybody in the world
0:56:23 > 0:56:26says this is the old, aggressive Soviet-style Russia
0:56:26 > 0:56:30now attacking a small, democratic and very peaceful state.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32So what do you think the war was actually about?
0:56:32 > 0:56:36I think Russia had no other way but behave this way.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39We mishandled it from the point of view of propaganda,
0:56:39 > 0:56:42of explaining our position, but the West should be a bit more objective.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45What is it that the West doesn't understand about Russia?
0:56:45 > 0:56:48If I could tell it and specify it,
0:56:48 > 0:56:50the issue would have been resolved in one minute,
0:56:50 > 0:56:53and it hasn't been resolved for hundreds of years.
0:56:53 > 0:56:58What happens is that sometimes people in the West think they know
0:56:58 > 0:57:01and understand Russia and Russians
0:57:01 > 0:57:03but they don't.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07We didn't understand what the Soviet Union was during the Cold War
0:57:07 > 0:57:10and arguably we still don't fully understand what Russia is today
0:57:10 > 0:57:14because we like to look at a caricatured vision of Russia.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16We will never penetrate Russia
0:57:16 > 0:57:20in the way we can penetrate the United States mentally
0:57:20 > 0:57:22because of the barrier of the language.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25I don't think the media have particularly helped us
0:57:25 > 0:57:29because they have tended to present the relationship with Russia
0:57:29 > 0:57:31in an either-or situation.
0:57:31 > 0:57:36Either a real threat and a problem,
0:57:36 > 0:57:40so in the Stalin period or even now in the Putin period,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43or else very cosy, very friendly,
0:57:43 > 0:57:46as in the middle of the Second World War or in the Gorbachev era.
0:57:46 > 0:57:51An attempt to really understand the complexities of Russia
0:57:51 > 0:57:55is much rarer on the British media.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07Now, nearly 80 years have passed since Winston Churchill
0:58:07 > 0:58:09uttered his famous summation of Russia
0:58:09 > 0:58:13as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17Strangely, these words seem as true now as they did then.
0:58:20 > 0:58:23British television may never be able to crack the mystery
0:58:23 > 0:58:26of the largest country on Earth.
0:58:28 > 0:58:32Despite the entangled history of our two nations,
0:58:32 > 0:58:36a true understanding of Russia may be more distant now
0:58:36 > 0:58:38than ever before.