0:00:01 > 0:00:02Now on BBC News it's time for Witness.
0:00:30 > 0:00:36Hello and welcome to Witness with me, Tania Beckett. I'm here at the
0:00:36 > 0:00:40British Library to guide you through another five extraordinary moments
0:00:40 > 0:00:47from the recent past. We'll meet the government official tasked with
0:00:47 > 0:00:52solving one of Ethiopia's worst ever famines. The widow of a former
0:00:52 > 0:00:58Russian spy assassinated by the KGB. And one of the showgirls from
0:00:58 > 0:01:03London's Windmill Theatre. But first we go back to the Soviet Union in
0:01:03 > 0:01:101957 and a stray dog called Lyka who was the first animal ever to orbit
0:01:10 > 0:01:18the Earth. We speak to the medical officer's an who looked after Lyka.
0:01:18 > 0:01:25The Russians sent sputnik the second into orbit around the world with
0:01:25 > 0:01:31Lyka as passenger. Months of training, sometimes with a
0:01:31 > 0:01:33companion, prepared Lyka for her lonely journey.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42TRANSLATION:She was a very patient dog, very affectionate, she was very
0:01:42 > 0:01:47easy to train. She was considered very clever, she had very
0:01:47 > 0:01:53expressive, dark eyes. My father wanted to take her away from the
0:01:53 > 0:01:57official environment of the lab and brought her home to run around with
0:01:57 > 0:02:06us and play. In 1957, was nine and my father was in charge of the
0:02:06 > 0:02:13Soviet medical programme to send animals into space. I remember that
0:02:13 > 0:02:19very often a car would arrive from my father's lab, it would signal,
0:02:19 > 0:02:23beep, beep, a door would open and a crowd of dogs would tumble out of
0:02:23 > 0:02:30it. They were full of life. They would run to us, start licking us.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34And then a command was given. They were well trained. They went back to
0:02:34 > 0:02:39the car and were driven back to the labs.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44All dogs that were launched into space had to wait not more than six
0:02:44 > 0:02:49or seven kilograms -- had to wait. They were all stray dogs. They had
0:02:49 > 0:02:56stamina and were demanding. They were naturally selected by their
0:02:56 > 0:03:05life from the streets. In order to study Laika's blood pressure and
0:03:05 > 0:03:09monitor her pulse during the flight, my father pulled her main artery
0:03:09 > 0:03:15close to the surface of her skin. A transmitter was then attached to the
0:03:15 > 0:03:20artery. More transmitters were attached to her ribs and neck.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24Laika's elliptical orbit varies from 100 to 1000 miles above the earth's
0:03:24 > 0:03:29surface where they wait for coded radio signals which tell radio
0:03:29 > 0:03:34scientists how Laika is standing up to her lonely journey. Without
0:03:34 > 0:03:38knowing it, Laika is telling man weather in the years to come it will
0:03:38 > 0:03:44be safe for him to follow her. TRANSLATION:It was the 40th
0:03:44 > 0:03:48anniversary of the revolution in 1957 and they needed to make a push
0:03:48 > 0:03:51before the festive it is. That's why not everything could be thought
0:03:51 > 0:03:56through in this white preparation. Khrushchev was the Soviet Communist
0:03:56 > 0:04:03Party leader then and he needed to show Americans who was first.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08Everyone was very concerned for like Laika. They knew she would not
0:04:08 > 0:04:12return from her journey. Scientists then did not know how to return
0:04:12 > 0:04:21living creatures from all bit back to Earth. After ten hours, she died
0:04:21 > 0:04:26because of the very high temperature in her capsule. The system of Thermo
0:04:26 > 0:04:34insulation of her capsule had not been properly developed. In memory
0:04:34 > 0:04:39of this remarkable flight, special stamps and envelopes were produced
0:04:39 > 0:04:45with Laika's image. There were also special cigarettes and matches in
0:04:45 > 0:04:56the USSR called Laika. The monument was unveiled in Moscow in 2008.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00Laika's flight show that you could survive weightlessness and the door
0:05:00 > 0:05:08was opened for man's travel into space.
0:05:08 > 0:05:14Professor Victor there talking to Witness in Moscow. Next, in the
0:05:14 > 0:05:18autumn of 1984, Ethiopia was hit by one of the worst famines in its
0:05:18 > 0:05:26history. This was the government officer in charge of the relief
0:05:26 > 0:05:29effort. Famine was not just in Ethiopia, for
0:05:29 > 0:05:33centuries people had been facing recurring problems of famine but the
0:05:33 > 0:05:401984 famine was different because of the magnitude of the problem. It
0:05:40 > 0:05:44covered almost one third of the population and it was complicated by
0:05:44 > 0:05:52the politics of the times. The world in the 1970s and the 1980s was a
0:05:52 > 0:05:56world divided into two ideologies, the capitalist world and the world
0:05:56 > 0:06:01of the communists, headed by the Soviet Union. What we now know of
0:06:01 > 0:06:05the Cold War, Ethiopia at that time was in the Communist camp. I was
0:06:05 > 0:06:11assigned to be the chief relief and rehabilitation commission. Everyday
0:06:11 > 0:06:16there was a funeral, everyday hundreds of people were dying. These
0:06:16 > 0:06:20were my own people, I could have been one of them. I felt the pain,
0:06:20 > 0:06:28their pain. The government was celebrating the 10th anniversary of
0:06:28 > 0:06:31the revolution and our own government wasn't even willing to
0:06:31 > 0:06:36acknowledge that there was famine in Ethiopia. They did not want to
0:06:36 > 0:06:40report anything negative, ten years of absolute success. The turning
0:06:40 > 0:06:47point with this kind of tragedy first was the footage by the BBC. My
0:06:47 > 0:06:52office invited them. They claim of course without the knowledge of the
0:06:52 > 0:06:55government. Dawn, and as the sun breaks through
0:06:55 > 0:07:01the piercing chill of night on the plane outside Korum, it lights up a
0:07:01 > 0:07:05biblical famine, now in the 20th century. This place, say workers
0:07:05 > 0:07:13here, is the closest thing to hell on Earth. 15,000 children here now
0:07:13 > 0:07:20suffering, confused, lost. They took this kind of footage to
0:07:20 > 0:07:29mobilise the conscience of the world. It did work miracles. In
0:07:29 > 0:07:32London, the Minister of overseas that the told the Prime Minister,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36Margaret Thatcher, and said the Royal air forces willing to send
0:07:36 > 0:07:39aircraft full of goods but that was a very difficult question for me
0:07:39 > 0:07:44because in a country ruled by a Marxist government, how can we allow
0:07:44 > 0:07:48the Royal Air Force to come to Ethiopia? I started talking to my
0:07:48 > 0:07:52government, the government said no, that pricked my conscience, I said
0:07:52 > 0:07:56how can we be seen to be refusing assistance when people are dying in
0:07:56 > 0:08:01Ethiopia? I said go ahead, you can take the royal air force. It was the
0:08:01 > 0:08:07first Western air force that arrived in Ethiopia. It was difficult, but
0:08:07 > 0:08:09the aid came.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18The Ethiopia totaliser is absolutely staggering.It really is marvellous
0:08:18 > 0:08:23news and we can't say a big enough thank you.
0:08:23 > 0:08:30That experience has strengthened my faith in humanity. People who just
0:08:30 > 0:08:38were moved by what they saw on the screen could respond so generously.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41Band Aid became one of the most successful fundraising campaigns in
0:08:41 > 0:08:51history. He now lives in Namibia. Now, in November, 2006, in what
0:08:51 > 0:08:56seemed like a story straight from the pages of a Cold War thriller, a
0:08:56 > 0:09:01former colonel in the Russian secret Service was murdered in London.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05Alexander Litvinenko had been poisoned with the highly radioactive
0:09:05 > 0:09:12substance polonium 210. His wife, Marina, told Witness why she thinks
0:09:12 > 0:09:21her husband was targeted. Scotland Yard is investigating the
0:09:21 > 0:09:24suspected poisoning of a Russian dissident living in Britain.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28Alexander Litvinenko am once a colonel in the Russian security
0:09:28 > 0:09:37service, now he's fighting for his life.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42When I met him first time I didn't think it's my future husband. He was
0:09:42 > 0:09:47very shy, he was absolutely different to what you usually think
0:09:47 > 0:09:52about officer of security service. I feel very safe with him. I feel
0:09:52 > 0:10:03loved. Sasha's life belongs to serving for the country. He went to
0:10:03 > 0:10:08the Army when he was just 17 years old. He joined the headquarters
0:10:08 > 0:10:12exactly at the time when the Soviet Union collapsed and his job was more
0:10:12 > 0:10:17against organised crime. The growth in crime also affects
0:10:17 > 0:10:21those who have done well out of change. A bullet-proof car with a
0:10:21 > 0:10:24team of bodyguards take this top banker to work.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29It was a crazy time. People tried to earn money in any different way.
0:10:29 > 0:10:35When organised crime, people from security service, people from
0:10:35 > 0:10:39government started to co-operate together, and this is not for better
0:10:39 > 0:10:44future of this country, it's not better for the people, it's just for
0:10:44 > 0:10:47themselves. Mr Litvinenko spent the last decade
0:10:47 > 0:10:51taking on the Kremlin. He first broke ranks with his old bosses in
0:10:51 > 0:10:551998 when he claimed he'd been ordered to murder the Russian tycoon
0:10:55 > 0:10:59or as Perez of ski. When he told me they were going to
0:10:59 > 0:11:03this press conference I was already very very nervous and I said, are
0:11:03 > 0:11:08you sure you have to do this? Sasha said, I have no choice, we need to
0:11:08 > 0:11:12be very noisy to say what we know about this crime.
0:11:15 > 0:11:20He said, Marina, you need to travel abroad. I said why, why do I need to
0:11:20 > 0:11:26go? He said you have to. The doll might we decided to go to London.We
0:11:26 > 0:11:30asked for political asylum. On the first of Movember he had
0:11:30 > 0:11:33lunch with an Italian contact in a Japanese restaurant in central
0:11:33 > 0:11:37London. On the same day he met to Russian contacts in a London hotel.
0:11:37 > 0:11:46Hours later he began to feel ill.He could hardly walk. In hospital they
0:11:46 > 0:11:50said can you check me for poisoning. They looked at us like we are crazy
0:11:50 > 0:11:55people, why do we need to do this? Sasha explained, I'm a former
0:11:55 > 0:11:59officer from Russia and I have very powerful enemies.
0:12:02 > 0:12:14And then I saw all his hair on his shoulder, on his pillow, and then I
0:12:14 > 0:12:20just grabbed his head and I saw all hair in my gloves. I wash shocked.
0:12:20 > 0:12:27He looked like after chemotherapy. For somebody to have this level of
0:12:27 > 0:12:31radiation, they would have to have either eaten it, in hailed it or
0:12:31 > 0:12:38taken it in through a wound. Which of those it was we don't know.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43When Sasha opened his eyes he was looking very upset. I said don't
0:12:43 > 0:12:48worry, Sasha, I'll be back tomorrow. Suddenly he said, Marina, I love you
0:12:48 > 0:13:00so much. The system what was built in Russia
0:13:00 > 0:13:04killed not only my husband, so many people were killed, because
0:13:04 > 0:13:09everything what happened in Russia now, it's about money. He believed
0:13:09 > 0:13:17his job, it's for people. Probably why I liked this about Sasha, this
0:13:17 > 0:13:23feeling, it's not only his duty, it's his passion. Even Sasha's not
0:13:23 > 0:13:31here, he's still part of me. Marina Litvinenko and her son still
0:13:31 > 0:13:36live in London. Remember, you can watch Witness every month on the BBC
0:13:36 > 0:13:40News Channel, or you can catch up on all of our films, along with more
0:13:40 > 0:13:45than 1000 radio programmes in our online archive. Just go to:
0:13:51 > 0:13:57We turn to 1964 when Windmill theatre in London's Soho closed its
0:13:57 > 0:14:01doors. It had become a national institution because for a long time
0:14:01 > 0:14:06it was one of the few places in Britain it was possible to see naked
0:14:06 > 0:14:09women on stage.
0:14:12 > 0:14:19That particular blend of glamour, sweat and Cologne. Something seedy
0:14:19 > 0:14:25and yet touching and innocent...It was a national institution. There
0:14:25 > 0:14:31was nowhere else like it. There never can be.Whatever it was, it
0:14:31 > 0:14:42has a great story.It was by accident. I was walking along Archer
0:14:42 > 0:14:47Street and I saw the sign saying Windmill Theatre stage door. So I
0:14:47 > 0:14:52walked in, I don't know why, and I said to the man, can I have an
0:14:52 > 0:15:00audition please? So I was sent upstairs and I didn't get an
0:15:00 > 0:15:08audition, but I was told, I like you, I'm going to take a chance on
0:15:08 > 0:15:13you. But he didn't know I was 14 at half all. He signed the contracts
0:15:13 > 0:15:17and then realised my age and told me to go home and come back when I was
0:15:17 > 0:15:2315 one half, and so I did. -- and a half. I didn't realise it was
0:15:23 > 0:15:31naughty and looking back on it I realise it was! The Windmill was
0:15:31 > 0:15:38non-stop reviewed. It was a review theatre, with nudes. We did six
0:15:38 > 0:15:42shows a day. Once you bought your first ticket that was it, so the
0:15:42 > 0:15:51audience could sit there all day. The proudest years of the Windmill
0:15:51 > 0:15:55were doing the best -- Second World War. It allowed nothing to
0:15:55 > 0:16:02interfere.We were the only west and theatre opened throughout the London
0:16:02 > 0:16:05Blitz. Really brave girls who stood there while the bombs landed all
0:16:05 > 0:16:10around them.The house manager came onto the stage, stopped the show and
0:16:10 > 0:16:13asked the audience if they wanted the performance to continue. Almost
0:16:13 > 0:16:17every time the answer was "yes".
0:16:22 > 0:16:27One of the most important things and the thing the audience would come to
0:16:27 > 0:16:36see is the new posters at the back of the stage. It was the obscenity
0:16:36 > 0:16:40laws, you were not allowed to move in the nude on a London stage or any
0:16:40 > 0:16:46stage in the country. It was censorship.You can't be sexy if you
0:16:46 > 0:16:54stand still.So the Lord Chamberlain's office, they would
0:16:54 > 0:16:59come very happily. They were very pleased to come to their shows and
0:16:59 > 0:17:04say, mm, that's a bit too much. You can't say that. What they always
0:17:04 > 0:17:09tipped us off when they were on their way. 1964. By then Soho had
0:17:09 > 0:17:20changed a lot, with strip clubs. Alan Little friend three streets
0:17:20 > 0:17:25away, where we weren't allowed to move, she could shake it all about
0:17:25 > 0:17:29as much as she liked, so we lost a lot of the audience. People perhaps
0:17:29 > 0:17:33wanted to see more and they could go to the clubs, whereas we were still
0:17:33 > 0:17:41a theatre and we felt it was better to close. Why we were still -- while
0:17:41 > 0:17:45we were still respected, and not even attempt to change. The girls
0:17:45 > 0:17:51wouldn't have done it. So we closed with our heads held high.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55She later wrote a book about her experiences at the Windmill.
0:17:55 > 0:18:00Finally, in 1967, construction began on a prestigious architectural
0:18:00 > 0:18:07project in Lebanon. But the international fare designed by a
0:18:07 > 0:18:10legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer was never finished due to
0:18:10 > 0:18:17the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war. Another architect spoke to
0:18:17 > 0:18:23Witness about the modernist masterpiece.Once finished I still
0:18:23 > 0:18:30remember the dome, the experimental theatre. We used to use the giant
0:18:30 > 0:18:35slide and climb it to the top. It's like an oasis, a concrete wasters.
0:18:35 > 0:18:46We could see the resembling a womb, with an unborn baby inside.Its role
0:18:46 > 0:18:51as a trading house in the Middle East is a fair one.In the middle of
0:18:51 > 0:18:54the 20th century all of the surrounding countries, like Syria
0:18:54 > 0:19:03and Turkey and Iraq, all of them had their equivalents. The Lebanese
0:19:03 > 0:19:09government, Lebanon was living its golden age, and they had the idea of
0:19:09 > 0:19:14establishing this as a facility, and Oscar Niemeyer was already famous
0:19:14 > 0:19:20and working with many other architects. He was participating in
0:19:20 > 0:19:25many international competitions. At that time he was a legend. The
0:19:25 > 0:19:29construction didn't start until 1967. The time estimated for the
0:19:29 > 0:19:34completion was almost like two to three years maximum, and yet it
0:19:34 > 0:19:46didn't complete until 1974. But yet it was completed like 95%. We have
0:19:46 > 0:19:51the -- the experimental theatre and another one which was the exhibition
0:19:51 > 0:19:56place, like a boomerang shape. One museum which could function as a
0:19:56 > 0:20:05helipad. All these buildings are joined together with a big plate of
0:20:05 > 0:20:07a reflective pool which should contain water off like 50
0:20:07 > 0:20:15centimetres depth. That requires the construction of the water tank.In
0:20:15 > 0:20:19Lebanon, fierce fighting has been going on in and around Beirut...
0:20:19 > 0:20:27Unfortunately during 1975, we had the start of the civil war in
0:20:27 > 0:20:33Lebanon and that was the sign of stopping everything and the fare was
0:20:33 > 0:20:37abandoned for some time. All these buildings, which were commissioned
0:20:37 > 0:20:42and ready to operate, never had the chance to operate for a single
0:20:42 > 0:20:47event. The fair was the target for all of the militias to be occupied
0:20:47 > 0:20:53by the army and all of these groups. Many stolen pieces were taken out,
0:20:53 > 0:21:00the power generators, the windows. A lot of stories about executing
0:21:00 > 0:21:04people on the wall of this building. The administration building. You can
0:21:04 > 0:21:11still see the traces of the bullets on the wall, but it wasn't confirmed
0:21:11 > 0:21:15because no one had the accessibility to check and see if it was a
0:21:15 > 0:21:20military area. It was far from the seaside, not more than 300 metres,
0:21:20 > 0:21:23which is a very aggressive climate conditions of a concrete. Despite
0:21:23 > 0:21:29being neglected the decades during the civil war and after the civil
0:21:29 > 0:21:33War, these concrete structures remained resilient for all of the
0:21:33 > 0:21:40factors that should be affecting. It was lucky to have this project in
0:21:40 > 0:21:44the heart of the city, but it was unlucky for being in Tripoli. What
0:21:44 > 0:21:53is the future of these monuments? What are the possibilities? If we
0:21:53 > 0:22:03are waiting to decide, the monuments won't make it.That was from the
0:22:03 > 0:22:09Oscar Niemeyer international fare site, in Tripoli. That's all for
0:22:09 > 0:22:13Witness this month, from the British library in London. Join me again
0:22:13 > 0:22:16next month when we bring you five more accounts of extraordinary
0:22:16 > 0:22:21moments in history. But, for now, from me and from the rest of the
0:22:21 > 0:22:24Witness team, bye-bye.