1 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:07,640 Britain's relationship with Russia 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:10,520 has been marked by centuries of suspicion. 3 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:16,440 The British have always been afraid of the Russians. 4 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:19,040 In the last hundred years, they've been friend... 5 00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:21,000 To the men of the Red Army. 6 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:22,000 ..and foe. 7 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,500 This is how a war between the Soviet Union and the West would begin. 8 00:00:25,500 --> 00:00:27,840 They've saved our skins 9 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:31,000 and terrified us with the thought of total annihilation. 10 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:34,360 'This will be the legacy of thermonuclear war.' 11 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:38,360 Britain would be in the bull's-eye of any Soviet attack. 12 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:42,440 At the outbreak of World War II, Winston Churchill famously 13 00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:47,560 described Russia as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. 14 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:49,880 These words have almost come to define 15 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:52,160 Britain's view of Russia ever since - 16 00:00:52,160 --> 00:00:55,960 an inscrutable power that always plays by its own rules. 17 00:00:55,960 --> 00:00:59,960 In this film I'm going to examine how television has reflected 18 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:02,120 our ever-changing relationship, 19 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:06,320 from the tensions of the Cold War to the excitement of glasnost. 20 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:10,440 The West in general was a little bit naive. 21 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:13,680 And the Russian people who've lived through it all. 22 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:18,880 This is how arguably Britain's most complex international relationship 23 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:21,120 has played out on television. 24 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:24,000 This is the Timewatch Guide to Russia. 25 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:43,920 October 1st, 1939, a month into World War II. 26 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:47,400 Winston Churchill pondered on Russia's next move. 27 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:50,120 Would they keep to their non-aggression pact 28 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:52,560 with Nazi Germany or join the Allies? 29 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:58,160 The Soviet Union refused to fight against Hitler 30 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:01,960 and instead attempted to annex parts of Europe for themselves. 31 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:06,560 Churchill was quick to denounce them. 32 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:11,200 'Everyone can see how communism 33 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:14,120 'rots the soul of a nation, 34 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:18,160 'how it makes it abject and hungry in peace 35 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:21,960 'and proves it base and abominable in war.' 36 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,320 When Hitler turned his attentions to attacking Russia, 37 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:29,680 they joined the Allies in the fight against fascism. 38 00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:32,120 The Red oppressor now suddenly became 39 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:34,160 our trusted partner in battle. 40 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:38,480 Now, a very different Russia was presented to Britons. 41 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:43,480 Newsreel praised the war effort of our Russian comrades. 42 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:46,600 'It does us good to see our Russian comrades at work. 43 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:50,080 'They and we are members of the free world, fighting and working 44 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,640 'to make the better way of life in which no man shall be exploited 45 00:02:53,640 --> 00:02:56,480 'and every one of us shall carry his head high.' 46 00:02:58,640 --> 00:03:03,120 Britain publicly celebrated the Red Army's 25th anniversary. 47 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:07,880 In Glasgow, Tory MPs, under Soviet iconography, 48 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:10,200 praised the communist power. 49 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:12,400 We shall have one debt after this war 50 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:16,320 and that is our debt of gratitude to the men of the Red Army. 51 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:18,080 To our comrades, 52 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:22,360 our grand salute to the men of the Red Army. 53 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:25,960 This is the story that doesn't get told. 54 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:29,320 This footage, as far as I'm aware, hasn't really been used 55 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:31,640 or analysed by historians. 56 00:03:31,640 --> 00:03:34,480 We often focus on Russia as the enemy. 57 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:38,320 So you had a shift and a very profound change in the rhetoric, 58 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:40,960 from...from the Red Menace 59 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,880 and from a revolution that actually some feared could happen in the UK, 60 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:47,680 to Uncle Joe, our friend, 61 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,640 he's the man who's going to stop German troops, 62 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:54,160 and an encouraging of a much softer view of the Soviet Union. 63 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:56,120 MACHINE-GUN FIRE 64 00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:02,040 In May 1945, the Nazi war machine was finally destroyed. 65 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:07,200 From the ashes of the most savage global conflict in human history, 66 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:10,600 the USSR would now emerge as a superpower. 67 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:14,360 As Germany was divided among the Allies, 68 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:17,920 the old political and cultural confrontation between the forces 69 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:21,600 of capitalism and communism were almost instantly resumed. 70 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:32,880 Britain and Russia were firmly back on opposing sides 71 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:35,840 of the political fence, and, by the 1960s 72 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:39,880 one fear loomed largest in the Western public's imagination - 73 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:41,560 nuclear war. 74 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:47,560 With Soviet missiles discovered installed in Cuba 75 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:51,320 and the Russians' test detonation of the largest-ever hydrogen bomb, 76 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:54,280 television captured the national mood in Britain. 77 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:01,600 With The War Game, the film-makers showed us in graphic detail 78 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:05,520 where our escalating tensions with Russia could ultimately lead. 79 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:09,160 We're shown an unprepared Britain 80 00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:12,240 facing a full-scale Russian nuclear attack. 81 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:16,840 'Time, 9:13am.' 82 00:05:16,840 --> 00:05:18,800 SIREN 83 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:22,760 Hurry, inside the house! 84 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:26,280 Move! Come on, come on! Quick! 85 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:30,880 'This family couldn't afford to build themselves a refuge. 86 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:35,160 'This could be the way the last two minutes of peace in Britain 87 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:36,880 'would look.' 88 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:39,000 Get all the children! 89 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:42,680 '9:16am, 90 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:46,680 'a single-megaton nuclear missile overshoots Manston Airfield in Kent 91 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:50,520 'and air-bursts six miles from this position. 92 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:52,560 EXPLOSION 93 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:55,680 SCREAMING 94 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:58,640 'At this distance, the heatwave is sufficient 95 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:01,400 'to cause melting of the upturned eyeball, 96 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:04,600 'third-degree burning of the skin and ignition of furniture.' 97 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:06,640 SCREAMING 98 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:13,520 '12 seconds later, the shock front arrives. 99 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:15,520 SCREAMING 100 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:18,600 DEEP RUMBLING SOUND 101 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:27,560 'These are the inhabitants of what was once a housing estate 102 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:29,640 'near Rochester in Kent. 103 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:33,400 'Following the explosion of three single-megaton missiles 104 00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:36,600 'within this one county boundary, it's been estimated 105 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:38,640 'that each surviving doctor 106 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:42,880 'would be faced by at least 350 casualties, 107 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:47,800 'many suffering from severe second and third-degree burns. 108 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:53,320 'These will be the other casualties of a nuclear war. 109 00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:55,600 'Physically unmarked, 110 00:06:55,600 --> 00:06:59,640 'there will almost inevitably be thousands of people suffering from 111 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:04,920 'many complex states of fear and shock due to the things they've seen 112 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:07,560 'and the things that have happened to them. 113 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:11,760 'Many of these people will probably lapse 114 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:14,440 'into a state of permanent neurosis. 115 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:20,560 'This too will be the legacy of thermonuclear war.' 116 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:22,600 WHIMPERING AND CRYING 117 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:27,880 While the programme-makers in 1965 regarded this 118 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:31,640 as a legitimate portrayal of what could happen in World War III, 119 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:36,320 the BBC, after pressure from the Government, did not. 120 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:39,240 The film was banned for 20 years. 121 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:45,840 For people in Britain, the Cold War really moves, 122 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:48,800 as one historian has said, from the head to the gut. 123 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:51,640 It's when you feel it viscerally. 124 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:53,440 And of course it's in the '60s 125 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:56,640 that we have a big campaign for nuclear disarmament, 126 00:07:56,640 --> 00:08:00,360 a feeling that this is an issue now which is so important 127 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:04,120 that people have to take to the streets in order to stop the growth 128 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:07,720 of nuclear weapons and the possibility of nuclear annihilation. 129 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:11,880 The superpower stand-off that was the Cold War 130 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:15,520 would grind on for over four decades from 1947. 131 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:19,320 The 1970s brought a welcome detente 132 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:22,520 but, secretly, the arms race continued. 133 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:27,400 The fear that the Cold War could spiral out of control 134 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:32,320 and into a full-scale global conflict was played out on the BBC. 135 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:34,200 SIREN 136 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:37,560 'This is how a war between the Soviet Union and the West 137 00:08:37,560 --> 00:08:39,160 'would begin. 138 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:45,680 'For over 30 years, there has been an uneasy peace in Europe, 139 00:08:45,680 --> 00:08:48,360 'preserved by a balance of military power. 140 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:52,520 'Is that balance tilting dangerously in favour of the Soviet Union?' 141 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:56,120 The trends have been adverse to the West over the past 15 years. 142 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:59,320 There is no question but that there has been a massive shift 143 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:01,160 in relative military power. 144 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:13,920 In 1977's The Writing On The Wall, retired British Army officer 145 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:18,640 and politician Lord Chalfont travels to Germany's East-West border, 146 00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:22,560 the symbol of a world now split into two hostile camps. 147 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:29,360 'The land border between East and West runs for nearly 1,000 miles 148 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:32,880 'through divided Germany - a network of electrified fences, 149 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:36,320 'barbed wire, mines and machine-gun posts. 150 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:40,080 'As soon as I appeared with the camera crew, 151 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:43,160 'an East German patrol arrived on the other side, 152 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:45,720 'intensely interested in what we were up to. 153 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:51,320 'This elaborate system of fences, with its vicious little weapons, 154 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:52,920 'it designed mainly, of course, 155 00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:55,400 'to keep East Germans in East Germany. 156 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:58,160 'It has no military significance at all.' 157 00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:01,120 Nonetheless, the film is still keen to point out 158 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:03,520 the possibility of Russian aggression. 159 00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:08,400 'If the Russian tanks came down to the wire and the gates were opened, 160 00:10:08,400 --> 00:10:12,160 'they'd sweep through into West Germany, and then the question is, 161 00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:14,640 'could we stop them getting to the Rhine?' 162 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:18,840 We are deeply suspicious because we don't have a true insight 163 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:21,360 into what the Soviets are thinking. 164 00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:24,680 Historians were saying well into the 20th century 165 00:10:24,680 --> 00:10:28,440 that one of the best sources they could get out of the Soviet Union 166 00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:31,360 was rumour, because they had no access to documents, 167 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:35,160 they had no access to the inner thoughts of the Soviet leadership. 168 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:42,120 A year later, the Cold War took off into outer space. 169 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:46,080 The British public had flocked to see the intergalactic battle 170 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:48,280 between good and evil, Star Wars. 171 00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:52,120 Meanwhile, back on Earth, things also had a hint of sci-fi, 172 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:57,480 as the USA and USSR planned a new generation of space laser weapons. 173 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:05,400 Exploring public fears of what would soon be dubbed the Evil Empire 174 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:08,120 made for some terrific viewing. 175 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:12,640 'Nothing now remains ridiculous in contemplating the real war in space. 176 00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:16,120 'Weapons that would have earned the derision of Buck Rogers himself 177 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:19,040 'are today being researched and tested in laboratories 178 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:20,880 'in Russia and America. 179 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:24,120 'If the high-energy laser can be compared to focusing the rays 180 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:26,600 'of the sun through a giant magnifying glass, 181 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:29,200 'the devastating new particle-beam weapon 182 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:32,800 'can be compared to harnessing and controlling bolts of lightning. 183 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:44,840 'These weapons are already in an advanced state of research. 184 00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:48,080 'They would work by converting colossal amounts of energy 185 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:50,120 'into subatomic particles. 186 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:53,640 'These are then shot through the atmosphere in space in the form 187 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:57,360 'of a beam, and they're shot with such force and at such speed 188 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:00,480 'that the beam effectively disembowels its target. 189 00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:04,120 'By destroying all known matter, 190 00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:07,040 'the particle beam is today's ultimate space weapon.' 191 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:12,680 Throughout the Cold War years, a balanced view of Russia 192 00:12:12,680 --> 00:12:15,400 was generally absent from our screens. 193 00:12:15,400 --> 00:12:17,880 Part of the problem was lack of access, 194 00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:23,000 but material that supported our fear of Russia did make for gripping TV. 195 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:25,000 EXPLOSION 196 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:32,560 In 1985, everything changed. 197 00:12:32,560 --> 00:12:35,440 Russia's economy was in decline. 198 00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:38,680 A new reformist leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, 199 00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:42,920 headed the Communist Party and the USSR was beginning to crumble. 200 00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:48,600 Finally, the BBC felt it was safe to show The War Game, 201 00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:53,000 which now was beginning to look comfortingly like history. 202 00:12:55,080 --> 00:12:59,040 What's happened by 1985 is that we've lived through 203 00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:01,600 a period of peaceful coexistence. 204 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:05,640 We're a little bit more certain of how the Soviets will respond 205 00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:09,640 to certain situations, how they will manage their nuclear arsenal, 206 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:13,680 and we're presuming that they are capable 207 00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:16,640 and sensible enough not to use the bomb. 208 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:21,160 Those were certainties that Britain simply didn't have in the '60s. 209 00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:25,880 The climate of opinion by the '80s is different. 210 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:29,080 I think there is more of a sense of reality television. 211 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:32,400 There are a number of films in the early '80s 212 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:36,360 about the consequences of nuclear war. 213 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:41,640 I think the BBC and the media is also more open to discussing 214 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:44,520 alternative views of what's going on. 215 00:13:45,680 --> 00:13:50,760 When Gorbachev rose to become leader of the USSR, his policy of glasnost, 216 00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:55,040 or openness, was meant to aid desperately needed economic reform. 217 00:13:56,120 --> 00:13:58,600 But it also meant that Soviet archives 218 00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:01,120 hiding years of the regime's abuses 219 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:05,040 were finally opened for both Russians and the world to see. 220 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:09,360 British documentary TV played a major role in revealing 221 00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:12,040 the true horror of the Soviet regime. 222 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:16,360 In the summer of 1988, in an audacious step, 223 00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:20,160 history exams for Russian schoolchildren were cancelled. 224 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:23,880 It was decreed that their textbooks were full of Stalinist cover-ups 225 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:25,480 and lies. 226 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:29,600 In the same year, back in Britain, Timewatch began to reveal 227 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:33,080 some of these horrors in Bukharin And The Terror, 228 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:36,120 showing the shocking disparity in the 1930s 229 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:40,120 between Stalin's public persona, created through propaganda, 230 00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:42,560 and the reality of his barbarism. 231 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:47,560 'One child whose life was profoundly affected by the terror 232 00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:49,880 'was Engelsina Markizova. 233 00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:54,640 'Aged seven, she attended one of Stalin's meetings in 1936 234 00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:58,600 'with her father, a minor party official from Serbia.' 235 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,080 TRANSLATION: I felt awfully bored. 236 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:06,880 I was sitting there with a huge bunch of flowers, two of them. 237 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:10,880 Then I got fed up, and during one of the speeches I just got up 238 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:13,360 and started off towards the platform. 239 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:16,360 Stalin turned round and picked me up. 240 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:19,040 That's the moment they printed the photo of. 241 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:24,200 I thought I was the happiest girl in the whole country. 242 00:15:27,640 --> 00:15:30,840 Because when I came downstairs to the hotel lobby the next day, 243 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:33,560 I saw that all the papers had my photo in them - 244 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:35,720 a little girl and Stalin. 245 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:39,160 And I was very proud of that. 246 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:43,200 I told everyone, you know, "That's my picture. It's me, it's me." 247 00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:48,080 And people started to invite me to visit them, 248 00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:50,200 people who lived in the hotel. 249 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:53,880 And they gave me all sorts of presents, 250 00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:56,440 because I had become very, very famous. 251 00:15:57,560 --> 00:15:59,640 'A sculpture of Engelsina 252 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:03,320 'entitled Thank You, Comrade Stalin, For My Happy Childhood 253 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:05,800 'was erected in Moscow. 254 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:09,320 'On December the 11th, 1937, 255 00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:12,360 'Engelsina's father disappeared.' 256 00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:20,600 TRANSLATION: That was shattering, of course, 257 00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:23,360 because after such a placid life 258 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:27,280 I suddenly found myself the daughter of an enemy of the people. 259 00:16:29,600 --> 00:16:32,120 Naturally, we wrote Stalin a letter, 260 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:35,760 because we certainly didn't link my father's arrest with Stalin. 261 00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:39,360 Well, the response to the letter we sent to Stalin... 262 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:42,560 that's to say I wrote it and my mother dictated it... 263 00:16:44,640 --> 00:16:47,040 ..was the arrest of my mother. 264 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:52,880 'Stalin's reputation remained divorced from the terror 265 00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:56,440 'until after his death in 1953. 266 00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:59,120 'Such was his effect on ordinary people 267 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:02,000 'that no-one realised what he had done.' 268 00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:06,360 What happened in the Soviet Union is when you allowed people 269 00:17:06,360 --> 00:17:08,400 to begin speaking openly 270 00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:11,600 you had almost an overwhelming outburst of new material - 271 00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:13,680 archives, film, photographs, 272 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:17,520 that characterised all... all throughout the late 1980s. 273 00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:19,600 And then of course by 1990-91 274 00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,320 there was a kind of floodgate of discussion 275 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:25,040 at the point where the regime is falling apart. 276 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:31,640 As the communist regime entered its death throes, 277 00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,880 we were being presented with some of the most heinous acts 278 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:37,240 it had committed on its own citizens. 279 00:17:40,360 --> 00:17:45,080 'During the 1930s and '40s, tens of millions of people 280 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:49,480 'from all over the Soviet Union were arrested as enemies of the people. 281 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:56,160 'They disappeared into the Gulag, a network of labour camps 282 00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:59,480 'that stretched to every corner of the Soviet Union. 283 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:08,480 'They were accused of spying, sabotage and treachery. 284 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:11,480 'The vast majority were innocent.' 285 00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:57,680 At these camps in Kolyma, 286 00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:00,880 in the remote corner of the Russian Far East, 287 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:04,000 prisoners were forced to mine for gold. 288 00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:42,880 Even for those who managed to survive the Gulag system 289 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:46,240 and return home, the nightmare didn't end. 290 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:34,680 The testimonies of camp survivors were horrifying to us in the West 291 00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:38,680 but perhaps even more shocking to the Russians themselves. 292 00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:42,600 This was the thing that undermined the system I think more than anything else. 293 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:44,880 It was this...the flood of history. 294 00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:48,600 Suddenly people said, well, if it was, you know, so many people died 295 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:51,120 and so many people were killed by this system, 296 00:21:51,120 --> 00:21:52,880 you know, why is it legitimate? 297 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:59,640 Television revealed the truth about Soviet history to a wide audience 298 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,640 but it's notable that even post-glasnost 299 00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:06,000 TV didn't always provide a rounded picture of Russia. 300 00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:12,600 When we look at how we have presented Russia 301 00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:14,720 on British television, 302 00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:18,920 we can see that the things we choose to tell and show 303 00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:23,080 often reflect more on our own preconceptions of Russia. 304 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:26,840 They often celebrate those most bloody and brutal aspects 305 00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:28,320 of Russian history. 306 00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:33,360 Digging deeper into history a decade later, 307 00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:36,840 details of perhaps the darkest chapter of Russia's past 308 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:38,680 were revealed. 309 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:41,600 In the West, World War II is often portrayed as being won 310 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:44,160 on the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima, 311 00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:46,080 while Russia's enormous sacrifice 312 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:48,640 has almost been airbrushed from history. 313 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:52,120 In 2002, Timewatch attempted to redress the balance. 314 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:58,160 In the summer of 1941, the Nazi juggernaut surged across Russia 315 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:02,360 and one of Hitler's top targets was the city of Leningrad - 316 00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:07,800 the former tsarist capital, renamed for the founder of the Soviet state. 317 00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:09,880 Aiming to capture the city 318 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:13,040 before the onset of the unforgiving Russian winter, 319 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:17,200 the first German artillery shell hit as September began. 320 00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:20,120 But Stalin was as determined to defend Leningrad 321 00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:23,360 as Hitler was to raze it to the ground. 322 00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:26,640 The ensuing stand-off between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army 323 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:29,680 would last for nearly 900 days. 324 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:32,800 Caught in the middle, frozen and starved, 325 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:35,160 three million civilians. 326 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:43,280 TRANSLATION: It's impossible to communicate that feeling of hunger. 327 00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,360 It's the most terrible thing in the world. 328 00:23:47,360 --> 00:23:52,640 You have the feeling that some sort of animal has climbed inside you. 329 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:54,680 Some savage beast. 330 00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:58,400 And he's scratching you, gouging you with his claws, 331 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:01,560 tearing your insides, ripping everything. 332 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:05,360 He demands bread, bread. 333 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:08,520 Demands food. Demands to be fed. 334 00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:14,680 'The temperature dropped to -30 degrees Celsius. 335 00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,040 'The city had no more fuel, electricity 336 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:20,040 'or running water. 337 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:28,400 'With no strength to bury their dead in the frozen ground, 338 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:31,440 'bodies were left to lie in the streets.' 339 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:39,120 As the Red Army troops fought bravely to defend their city, 340 00:24:39,120 --> 00:24:43,760 the lives of her people were reduced to unimaginable brutality. 341 00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:49,600 What was also even more sinister taking place 342 00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:52,360 was that murder for human meat 343 00:24:52,360 --> 00:24:54,680 was...was occurring. 344 00:24:54,680 --> 00:25:00,760 That there were cases of people who were simply waylaying others, 345 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:06,160 particularly children, because after all their meat would be tender, 346 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:11,240 and they were killing people for... for meat. 347 00:25:12,360 --> 00:25:14,920 Stalin achieved his goal. 348 00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:18,160 Leningrad was saved, but only at the cost 349 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:22,400 of what's estimated to be over one million lives. 350 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:25,840 More Russians died in the siege than the combined number 351 00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,960 of Britons and Americans in the entire Second World War. 352 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:34,920 The siege of Leningrad, which was a spectacular, appalling disaster, 353 00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:39,680 I mean, in which people resorted to cannibalism and eating rats 354 00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:44,680 and chewing on floorboards, is not very well known in this country 355 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:47,680 and, of course, it wasn't the only such event 356 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:51,680 in the eastern half of the continent but it does show you what... 357 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:56,720 the level of suffering being something that actually in Britain was unknown. 358 00:25:56,720 --> 00:26:00,440 This is a city that's still... it's proud of what it had done, 359 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,640 but still, in a sense, unable to speak about it. 360 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,680 Perhaps because the amount of suffering 361 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,840 is just too impossible to talk about. 362 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,400 It's on an astronomic scale. 363 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:15,360 Certainly nothing that we can comprehend properly 364 00:26:15,360 --> 00:26:17,600 from our war experience. 365 00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:25,160 Stretching right back to Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, 366 00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:28,680 Russia has time and again found itself under the control 367 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:32,520 of the autocratic strongman who dominates his era. 368 00:26:35,120 --> 00:26:38,680 In the 20th century, British documentary television 369 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:42,040 has found its powerful figures endlessly intriguing. 370 00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:47,120 Russian leaders have built up powerful personality cults 371 00:26:47,120 --> 00:26:49,600 and we rely on historians and film-makers 372 00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:51,680 to strip away the artifice. 373 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:56,880 In 1997, 80 years after he seized power in the October Revolution, 374 00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:58,880 Timewatch took on the myth 375 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:02,040 surrounding the first communist leader - Lenin. 376 00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:03,960 BELL CHIMES 377 00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:11,360 Before glasnost, some on the British left had admired the ideology 378 00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:16,160 of Lenin, but with newly released documentation, Timewatch revealed 379 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,800 the Bolshevik Party leader was not all that he seemed. 380 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:24,040 'Once they held mass rallies in Red Square. 381 00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:30,600 'Today, Russia's Communist Party 382 00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:33,520 'can muster only a few hundred old diehards. 383 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:41,600 'The polished-granite mausoleum behind them holds the mortal remains 384 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:43,760 'of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. 385 00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,960 'In the Soviet era, his image was preserved and embalmed 386 00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:57,560 'with the same reverence as his body. 387 00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:06,640 'The man who founded the perfect socialist society 388 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,600 'had to be depicted as perfect himself. 389 00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:14,080 'That man represented a whole epoch. 390 00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:17,120 'Everything that has been created and is being created 391 00:28:17,120 --> 00:28:21,000 'in our Soviet land is connected with his name, with his plans.' 392 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:28,880 'In today's Russia, Lenin is becoming an unperson. 393 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:32,120 'His statue, which once had pride of place in the Kremlin, 394 00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:35,280 'has been banished to a remote corner of the Gorki estate. 395 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:40,040 'Communists no longer have the power to shape history 396 00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:41,960 'to suit the party line. 397 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:45,800 'In recent years, facts about Lenin long forgotten, long suppressed, 398 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:47,720 'have been coming to light. 399 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,320 'Until the collapse of communism, they lay buried here 400 00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:55,360 'in the central party archives. 401 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,880 'Only a handful of trusted party historians were allowed access 402 00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:00,760 'to Lenin's secret files. 403 00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:13,560 'The secret archives have revealed a crueller and more violent side 404 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,560 'to Lenin's character. 405 00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:25,360 TRANSLATION: We know of several documented examples of this. 406 00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:29,640 Some of these show that in the summer of 1918 in Nizhny Novgorod, 407 00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:33,360 Lenin gave orders to hang a hundred kulaks in public 408 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:37,080 in order to force others to hand over their grain to the state. 409 00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:41,360 "Hang no fewer than a hundred well-known rich peasants. 410 00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:45,400 "Make sure that the hangings take place in full view of the people." 411 00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:50,120 TRANSLATION: Some people in our country have revised their judgment 412 00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,840 of Lenin solely on the basis of new documents 413 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:55,280 which illustrate his brutality. 414 00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:59,080 For example, his orders to hang and shoot people 415 00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:03,120 and his statements that civilians should precede Red Army soldiers 416 00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:05,160 when they went on the attack. 417 00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:08,440 The respect that he'd been held in, at least on the left, 418 00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:11,600 certainly on the far left, in Britain, 419 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,640 erm, even there it began to dissolve. 420 00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,600 What we see with Lenin's secret files 421 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:22,640 are the fact that he was more than willing to order the execution 422 00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:26,360 of his enemies, of his opponents, of those that opposed 423 00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:29,880 the Russian revolution, or those that were simply holding it up. 424 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:33,920 We often think of the most brutal elements of the Soviet Union 425 00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,680 as being the responsibility of Stalin. 426 00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,960 Well, in some ways, Stalin had a good teacher when it came to Lenin. 427 00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:44,760 In 1924, Lenin died. 428 00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:49,040 Both Russia and the West expected him to be succeeded 429 00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,880 by his right-hand man Leon Trotsky. 430 00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:55,640 But the ill-educated and boorish general secretary of the party, 431 00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:59,560 Joseph Stalin, schemed his way to the top. 432 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,600 In power, Stalin became a god-like figure. 433 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:06,640 A protector and a punisher. 434 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:09,640 The all-seeing, omnipresent, supreme being. 435 00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:12,840 It seemed as though no thought or deed of a Russian 436 00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:15,040 was beyond his control. 437 00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:18,880 Although we needed him in World War II, 438 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:22,240 Stalin was a hate figure for many in the West. 439 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:24,920 But we were also fascinated by him. 440 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:29,080 It was only after glasnost, when witnesses began to speak up, 441 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:31,920 that Timewatch could reveal the hidden details 442 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:35,560 of his true contempt for even his most loyal subjects. 443 00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:39,080 After the Red Army and ordinary citizens drove back the Nazis 444 00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:41,120 in the siege of Leningrad, 445 00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:44,320 Stalin feared he was losing his grip on the city. 446 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:47,120 As the loyal Leningraders prepared to take part 447 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:51,400 in his 70th-birthday celebrations, Stalin struck. 448 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,680 'On the basis of a series of bizarre allegations, 449 00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:58,360 'most of the Leningrad party organisation, 450 00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:02,400 'including their wives, parents and children, were arrested 451 00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:05,800 'in what became known as the Leningrad Affair. 452 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:10,640 One by one, the heroes of the Leningrad siege, 453 00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:13,360 from military leaders to party members, 454 00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:17,080 were arrested, tortured, accused of treason 455 00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:19,040 and either exiled 456 00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:20,800 or executed. 457 00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,640 'Even today, some of the truth about what happened 458 00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:29,040 'is still hidden in the Russian archives. 459 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:33,600 'A number of the documents relating to the Leningrad Affair 460 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,080 'and Stalin's involvement in it 461 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:37,920 'are still classified. 462 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,920 'Lev Voznesensky is one of the few people who have been allowed 463 00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:46,880 'behind the locked doors of the archive to study these documents. 464 00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:50,240 'He was able to copy some of them by hand.' 465 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,240 TRANSLATION: Comrade Stalin didn't always give orders 466 00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:59,560 in the form of clear directives. 467 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:02,280 I don't think it was accidental. 468 00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:04,600 It's what a person does 469 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:07,560 if he doesn't want to leave any clear tracks. 470 00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:17,160 Stalin directly managed the Leningrad Affair. 471 00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:20,160 When you become familiar with these documents, 472 00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:22,640 you'll recognise the symbols Stalin used. 473 00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:26,120 A little cross by a surname or an underlined phrase. 474 00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:28,920 They show the full agreement of comrade Stalin, 475 00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:32,240 whom he wants to be arrested, whom he wants to be tried. 476 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:38,240 Until his death, Stalin's grip on the Russian people never faltered. 477 00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:44,320 In the 1940s, there was the so-called cult of personality 478 00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:46,360 everywhere in the Soviet Union. 479 00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:49,640 There were photographs of Stalin in every office building, 480 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:52,880 Stalin's birthday was celebrated with great fanfare, 481 00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:57,360 there were clubs of children who were taught to sing songs 482 00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:01,680 in praises of Stalin, Stalin's name was in all the history books. 483 00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:04,880 You would have had trouble getting through the day, probably, 484 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,520 without hearing his name or seeing his picture. 485 00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:09,640 So his presence was all-pervasive 486 00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:12,320 and this had a very deep effect on people. 487 00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:15,640 Some people did love him or feel that he somehow symbolised 488 00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:19,240 their nation and some people were simply very, very afraid of him. 489 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:24,120 It wasn't just Stalin's persona that was so powerful 490 00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:25,880 and shrouded in mystery, 491 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:29,360 but also his relationships with his inner circle. 492 00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:34,640 In 2005, Timewatch and the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore 493 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:39,400 found new evidence that allowed them to make a rather unusual docudrama. 494 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:42,640 This was an investigation of a conspiracy theory 495 00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:46,400 in which Stalin, for once, played the victim. 496 00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:49,680 'The dictator Joseph Stalin, 497 00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:53,000 'who's already killed 30 million Soviet citizens, 498 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:55,480 'suddenly falls into a coma. 499 00:34:56,640 --> 00:35:00,600 'Those surrounding his bed each have a motive to want him dead. 500 00:35:01,720 --> 00:35:05,000 'Svetlana, his estranged daughter. 501 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:12,440 'Vasily, his unbalanced, alcoholic son. 502 00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:16,840 'Vyacheslav Molotov, 503 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,440 'Stalin's most trusted accomplice. 504 00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:24,240 'Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin's fool. 505 00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:30,720 'And Lavrentiy Beria, 506 00:35:30,720 --> 00:35:32,800 'the secret policeman. 507 00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:39,760 'New evidence suggests that someone in this room may have killed Stalin. 508 00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:42,560 'Tonight we set out to find out who.' 509 00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:47,120 In an Agatha Christie-style whodunnit, 510 00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:50,640 Sebag Montefiore pulls together evidence to paint a picture 511 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:54,120 of exactly what happened at Stalin's deathbed 512 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:57,600 and enjoys revealing possible evidence of foul play 513 00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:00,000 in hidden medical records. 514 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:06,320 'The archive now further raises the prospect of murder, 515 00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:10,160 'undermining the idea that Stalin's illness was solely caused, 516 00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:13,560 'as officially related, by a haemorrhage in the brain.' 517 00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:18,120 5th of March, it's now midday in the dacha. 518 00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:21,080 Around the bed, everyone's watching. There's quiet. 519 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:23,080 HE COUGHS 520 00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:26,080 And suddenly, Stalin wretches 521 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:28,160 and then vomits blood. 522 00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:32,080 And this is terribly significant. We knew nothing of this before. 523 00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:35,360 Why was his stomach suddenly bleeding so heavily? 524 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:39,840 And the answer could well be that he had received some sort of poison 525 00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:42,480 which caused his stomach to bleed. 526 00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:46,760 'So could this be the result of poison administered earlier 527 00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:49,960 'by the bodyguard on Beria's orders? 528 00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:56,120 'The idea that the vomiting of blood was caused by poison 529 00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:59,080 'gains greater weight when Simon looks at the version 530 00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:00,840 'in the Soviet press.' 531 00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:07,320 We're looking here at Pravda on the 6th of March, 532 00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:10,880 the announcement of Stalin's death the next day, the next morning, 533 00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:15,160 and one finds no mention whatsoever of stomach haemorrhaging. 534 00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:18,400 No blood in the stomach, no vomiting of blood. 535 00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:21,920 So what has happened between the public announcement 536 00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:26,400 of Stalin's death and the conclusion of the doctors just hours earlier? 537 00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:29,400 Well, someone has decided, and clearly it's Beria, 538 00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:32,160 to drop this rather significant information 539 00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:36,200 about the haemorrhaging of blood into Stalin's stomach. Why? 540 00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:41,000 'At 9:50pm, March the 5th, Stalin was finally dying. 541 00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:44,560 'Svetlana described his last act.' 542 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:51,600 Suddenly he lifted his hand as though he were pointing up above 543 00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:54,320 and bringing down a curse on us all. 544 00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:57,240 The gesture was full of menace. 545 00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:07,520 'Vasily shouted... 546 00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:11,680 '.."The bastards have murdered Father." ' 547 00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:17,440 Then came Beria's voice, the hint of triumph concealed. 548 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:21,360 "My car!" 549 00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:27,160 And Svetlana's belief that Beria had secretly assassinated her father 550 00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:30,600 is supported by one more compelling piece of evidence. 551 00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:37,640 At Stalin's funeral, he whispered to Molotov and he said, 552 00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:40,760 "I did you all a favour. I did him in." 553 00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:45,760 But Sebag Montefiore remains unconvinced by the theory. 554 00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:51,880 The stomach haemorrhage and the vomiting of blood could just be 555 00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:54,640 the result of a sick old body packing up, 556 00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,800 partly because he mistrusted medical advice. 557 00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:00,600 And the leadership may have deleted these details 558 00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:04,880 from the public announcement because Stalin's system of government 559 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:07,600 meant they were understandably frightened 560 00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:09,560 of arousing any suspicion. 561 00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:14,080 Every suspicious circumstance was the result of the terror 562 00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:16,680 that Stalin himself inspired. 563 00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:20,560 Alone and dying, it may be that people were simply too afraid 564 00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:22,760 to come to his aid. 565 00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:26,320 So if I had to point the finger at someone, 566 00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:29,280 then I think, ironically, 567 00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:31,680 I'd point the finger at Stalin himself. 568 00:39:32,720 --> 00:39:34,880 Even decades after his death, 569 00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:39,200 the horrific figure of Stalin still haunts our perception of Russia. 570 00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:44,680 With Lenin and Stalin the towering titans of the early 20th century, 571 00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:48,440 we could only investigate their political intrigues in retrospect. 572 00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:51,600 But at the end of the 20th century, a new leader emerged, 573 00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:53,880 and this time, through film-makers, 574 00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:56,480 we've been able to watch his rise to power. 575 00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:03,640 Back in 2001, BBC Correspondent was asking, who is Putin? 576 00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:07,080 'As the new millennium starts, 577 00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:10,080 'Russia, like the United States, has a new president. 578 00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:18,000 'Vladimir Putin has been in charge for a year but he's still an enigma. 579 00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:23,120 'A decade since the Cold War, 580 00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:26,800 'should we fear new superpower confrontations? 581 00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:34,760 'What has shaped this former spy and Kremlin bureaucrat? 582 00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:40,560 'Where is this man taking Russia? 583 00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:46,400 'Not long after his inauguration, he presided over a Red Square parade - 584 00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:50,240 'the 55th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. 585 00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:57,600 'The massive military display astonished Moscow. 586 00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:00,520 'It was like being back in the Soviet Union. 587 00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:04,560 'And Putin's speech was an unapologetic celebration 588 00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:06,560 'of Soviet victories.' 589 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:43,520 ALL: Ura! 590 00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:48,800 'Words of enormous resonance for a nation whose international prestige 591 00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:50,520 'had plummeted.' 592 00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:56,320 Putin started as a...a reformer, 593 00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,360 a nationalist reformer. 594 00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:03,640 Erm, he's now often painted as a sort of second Hitler 595 00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:07,680 or something like that, or with those kind of pretensions. 596 00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:10,800 What we don't really understand, I think, and we've missed 597 00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:14,360 is the sense of deep grievance in Russia 598 00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:18,920 about the way that things have gone since the end of the Cold War. 599 00:42:20,040 --> 00:42:21,640 Seven years later, 600 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:25,280 and after a series of high-profile assassinations of his critics... 601 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,280 I looked into Mr Putin's eyes and I saw three letters - 602 00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:30,040 a K, a G and a B. 603 00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:32,680 ..Britain knew all too well who Putin was 604 00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:36,240 and we were beginning to fear him like the Soviet leaders of old. 605 00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:40,600 Panorama tried to get a grip on why Russians 606 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:42,480 would voluntarily support him. 607 00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:52,840 'Oscar-winning director Nikita Mikhalkov 608 00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:56,080 'is the most powerful man in Russia's film industry. 609 00:42:56,080 --> 00:42:58,640 'He's also close to Vladimir Putin. 610 00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:01,960 'He's in no doubt why his friend is so popular.' 611 00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:06,800 TRANSLATION: Because he answers questions. 612 00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:08,800 Because he does not drink. 613 00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:11,080 Because he looks good. 614 00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:14,240 Because it is clear what he stands for. 615 00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:18,160 Because he does not hide from problems. 616 00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:21,360 You ask why do people like Putin. 617 00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:24,160 Because he has given Russia her dignity back. 618 00:43:27,160 --> 00:43:29,760 'But it's not just Putin's friends in high places 619 00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:32,160 'who think a firm hand's needed. 620 00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:35,640 'The wealth is starting to trickle down to a new middle class 621 00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:39,320 'who shop at places like GUM, Moscow's answer to Harrods. 622 00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:41,400 'They too love Putin.' 623 00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:45,600 TRANSLATION: We are not as civilised as we would like to be, 624 00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:48,120 which is why we have pretty hard leaders. 625 00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:51,080 For now there's no other way to rule us. 626 00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:53,520 And maybe with us Russians you need to be tough. 627 00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:56,000 'And no wonder, after the 1990s, 628 00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:59,520 'Russia was reeling from financial and social chaos. 629 00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:06,520 'Meanwhile, President Boris Yeltsin often appeared less than in control. 630 00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:12,320 'The once-feared superpower was bankrupt and on its knees. 631 00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:15,400 'Crime was rampant and contract hits common.' 632 00:44:19,600 --> 00:44:23,120 TRANSLATION: Putin is not so much a cause of something 633 00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:27,120 but the product of a reaction to the national humiliation 634 00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:31,480 and collapse and degradation that we saw here in the 1990s. 635 00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:39,160 The country woke up again when Putin came. 636 00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:42,360 It stopped washing its dirty linen abroad, telling everyone 637 00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,840 how sick, drunk and incapable of a normal existence we are. 638 00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:48,240 Putin gave us our nation back. 639 00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:53,200 'So, that's the popular view in the capital. 640 00:44:56,880 --> 00:45:00,640 'But Moscow is not Russia, the locals like to say. 641 00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:09,920 'A hundred miles away, things look very different. 642 00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:12,680 'But even here, where life is a struggle, 643 00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:15,600 'it's not hard to find fans of Vladimir Putin. 644 00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:20,000 'Take Larissa and her parents. 645 00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:25,200 'She earns £250 a month and their pension is only £80 each. 646 00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:28,240 'Capitalism has not been good to them. 647 00:45:28,240 --> 00:45:32,640 'Mention Putin's name, however, and you will hear only praise.' 648 00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:36,280 TRANSLATION: Under Putin, of course things have become better. 649 00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:40,880 'Before Putin became Prime Minister, 650 00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:44,080 'most Russians wanted him to stay on as President. 651 00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:45,720 'What do you think?' 652 00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:51,360 TRANSLATION: Of course it would have been better for him to stay 653 00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:54,920 because during his time we saw no suffering. 654 00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:58,800 Now, they pay our pensions and even raise them. 655 00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:03,120 I think that we often look at Russians as somehow duped people, 656 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:07,360 that they've just naively accepted Putin's control 657 00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:09,880 and that they don't know what's going on. 658 00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:13,640 I think that's a dangerous perception to cultivate in Britain. 659 00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:17,680 There's genuine opposition to Putin, there's genuine concern to Putin, 660 00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:22,000 there's genuine support for Putin and there's everything in between. 661 00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:28,280 It's also important not to forget that the democracy promised 662 00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:32,040 in the glasnost era never quite materialised. 663 00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:37,080 We often talk about Putin's poll numbers 664 00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:40,120 but we don't talk about how one gets poll numbers. 665 00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:43,680 Often these are phone calls and you will pick up the phone, 666 00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:46,640 you'll be asked, what do you think of President Putin? 667 00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:49,040 Well, if I were a Russian, I would think, 668 00:46:49,040 --> 00:46:51,160 who's on the end of the line? 669 00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:54,320 So I think sometimes the way that we present these things 670 00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:56,840 is a little bit, erm, skewed. 671 00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:04,880 Film-makers have captured the power games of the Cold War, 672 00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:07,680 revealed the hidden horrors of Soviet rule 673 00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:10,880 and explored the personas of Russia's leaders. 674 00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:13,680 But when it comes to the Russian people, 675 00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:17,600 their portrayal on TV has often been obscured by limited access 676 00:47:17,600 --> 00:47:20,120 and the shadow of big history. 677 00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:24,040 In 1975, programme-makers found it hard to separate Russians 678 00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:26,600 from the regime they lived under. 679 00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:30,200 In KGB - The Soviet Secret Police, 680 00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:33,880 we're presented with an Orwellian nightmare version of Russia. 681 00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:36,760 A society in which no-one can be trusted. 682 00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:41,640 'From their earliest schooldays, children are instilled with 683 00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:45,520 'the concept that loyalty to the state is the highest virtue 684 00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:48,280 'and talebearers, far from being discouraged, 685 00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:50,600 'are treated like little heroes.' 686 00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:53,600 I would say that we are expected 687 00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:56,440 to inform on our classmates. 688 00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:01,880 'As a little girl, Alla Rusinek had a conventional Soviet education. 689 00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:04,240 'She recently emigrated to Israel.' 690 00:48:04,240 --> 00:48:07,560 Probably this was the result of the education. 691 00:48:08,560 --> 00:48:11,440 And our heroes... 692 00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:13,960 were Young Pioneers... 693 00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:18,360 ..who reported on their parents. 694 00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:20,600 The famous hero 695 00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:24,040 was Pavlik Morozov, 696 00:48:24,040 --> 00:48:27,320 who reported his father 697 00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:29,920 to the authorities 698 00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:32,840 and his father then killed him for this. 699 00:48:34,320 --> 00:48:37,040 So we were expected 700 00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:39,360 to behave the same way. 701 00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:44,920 This idea that they were willing to denounce their parents 702 00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:47,320 or that there was a culture or a society 703 00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:50,120 that was developing along those lines 704 00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:54,720 was another example of otherness, of alienness. 705 00:48:57,160 --> 00:49:00,680 'In recent years, there has been a calculated effort to improve 706 00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:03,320 'the image of the KGB with the man in the street. 707 00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:05,720 'To eradicate the nightmare memories 708 00:49:05,720 --> 00:49:08,120 'of the secret police of Stalin's time, 709 00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:11,120 'which subjected the entire country to 30 years 710 00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:14,000 'of unrestrained lawlessness and terror. 711 00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:17,400 'And for the ordinary Russian today, 712 00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:19,840 'the KGB is synonymous with authority. 713 00:49:19,840 --> 00:49:22,120 'This is what makes the KGB unique 714 00:49:22,120 --> 00:49:24,680 'among the intelligence services of the world 715 00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:28,360 'and makes it so powerful as a secret police organisation, 716 00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:31,800 'for the Soviet citizen has to rely upon authority 717 00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:34,800 'for almost everything in his life. 718 00:49:34,800 --> 00:49:37,120 'For a start, his freedom of movement 719 00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:40,600 'is controlled and kept in check through a complicated system 720 00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:43,000 'of documentation and registration. 721 00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:46,640 'The most important document is the internal passport. 722 00:49:46,640 --> 00:49:50,160 'Everyone over the age of 16 is issued with one of these. 723 00:49:50,160 --> 00:49:52,880 'He must produce it to the police on request 724 00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:55,680 'and is meant to register with the authorities 725 00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:59,600 'if he moves anywhere inside the Soviet Union or stays at a hotel. 726 00:49:59,600 --> 00:50:02,080 'It does not entitle him to travel abroad. 727 00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:07,920 'In addition, every citizen is registered in a house book, 728 00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:11,120 'kept by the caretaker of the block of flats where he lives. 729 00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:14,600 'If he is away for any length of time or has foreign visitors 730 00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:16,880 'or behaves suspiciously in any way, 731 00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:20,400 'this may be entered in the book or reported to the KGB.' 732 00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:25,880 But with glasnost, it seemed that we would finally be able to build 733 00:50:25,880 --> 00:50:29,800 a relationship and an understanding with Russia's people. 734 00:50:31,520 --> 00:50:34,920 As the 1990s dawned, for the first time we could hear a cacophony 735 00:50:34,920 --> 00:50:38,040 of Russian voices speaking out against the system. 736 00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:41,040 RUSSIAN CHORAL SINGING 737 00:50:50,360 --> 00:50:53,640 Welcome to this live programme from Moscow. 738 00:50:53,640 --> 00:50:57,560 It's the fifth anniversary of the week in which Mikhail Gorbachev 739 00:50:57,560 --> 00:51:00,280 became leader of the Soviet Union. 740 00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:03,320 Here in Russia, where more than half the Soviet people live, 741 00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:05,400 it's been election day today. 742 00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:08,440 The first chance that they've had to choose the individuals 743 00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:11,920 that they want to represent them in local and regional government 744 00:51:11,920 --> 00:51:14,680 and in the Russian parliament itself. 745 00:51:14,680 --> 00:51:17,920 There was a huge amount of hope in the West about Russia. 746 00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:22,080 There was a hope that the Soviet Union would evolve into something, 747 00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:26,200 erm, if not like us, then friendlier to us. 748 00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:34,840 This would have been inconceivable five, four, even three years ago. 749 00:51:34,840 --> 00:51:38,120 Individual Soviet citizens holding court in the street, 750 00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:40,600 crowding round you in animated argument 751 00:51:40,600 --> 00:51:42,760 about the state of the nation. 752 00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:46,840 They debate glasnost and perestroika, 753 00:51:46,840 --> 00:51:48,920 communism and the free market. 754 00:51:48,920 --> 00:51:52,120 They argue about the demise of the party, ethnic conflict 755 00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:54,560 and even the collapse of the Soviet Union. 756 00:51:54,560 --> 00:51:56,560 THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN 757 00:51:58,640 --> 00:52:02,320 After a long history in which silence has been imposed upon them, 758 00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:06,080 it is still remarkable for the outsider to witness at first hand 759 00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:08,640 the awakening of the Russian people. 760 00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:12,000 No fears, no inhibitions, just the outpouring 761 00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:15,000 of long-suppressed feelings and opinions. 762 00:52:21,880 --> 00:52:25,640 If promising to listen and learn is a new experience for him, 763 00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:28,520 it is no less remarkable for his audience. 764 00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:54,280 And this is a new experience for everyone? 765 00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:56,520 TRANSLATOR SPEAKS 766 00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:12,800 Can any of you imagine voting one day for another party? 767 00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:24,640 The kind of conversations that were seen on that film 768 00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:27,600 of people on the streets talking openly about society 769 00:53:27,600 --> 00:53:30,640 and change and so on, erm... 770 00:53:30,640 --> 00:53:34,880 I think in Britain and in the West generally 771 00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:39,360 there was a tendency to say, oh, great, finally they've seen sense, 772 00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:42,920 they're going our way, they're going to become like us. 773 00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:46,040 There's a sense that this could lead to genuine debate, 774 00:53:46,040 --> 00:53:48,680 to something more akin to democracy. 775 00:53:48,680 --> 00:53:52,120 Erm, I think also...Britain was also a little bit naive. 776 00:53:52,120 --> 00:53:54,760 The West in general was a little bit naive. 777 00:53:55,920 --> 00:53:59,400 This new age of optimism was not to last. 778 00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:03,680 In the 1990s, Russia plunged into economic meltdown. 779 00:54:03,680 --> 00:54:07,840 When she rose again a decade later, in the Putin era, 780 00:54:07,840 --> 00:54:10,240 many in the West felt disturbed. 781 00:54:10,240 --> 00:54:14,040 Russia now seemed alien and threatening yet again. 782 00:54:15,080 --> 00:54:18,120 In the 21st century, we're now being presented with 783 00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:20,840 a new type of Russian we haven't seen before. 784 00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:22,880 The super-rich. 785 00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:28,640 In 2008, Panorama squeezed into an exclusive Moscow party 786 00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:31,520 celebrating the launch of the first Russian edition 787 00:54:31,520 --> 00:54:34,600 of the society magazine Tatler. 788 00:54:35,720 --> 00:54:38,880 Now joining those Western standards Hello and Vogue 789 00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:40,760 on the Russian newsstands. 790 00:54:43,280 --> 00:54:46,360 I have a feeling that almost all the country changed. 791 00:54:46,360 --> 00:54:49,120 When I look at my first issues, I think, oh, my God, 792 00:54:49,120 --> 00:54:53,480 this was the magazine done and tailor-made for a different country. 793 00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:57,960 This was a Russia that had embraced capitalism with a vengeance. 794 00:54:59,680 --> 00:55:03,840 In Britain, we're looking at the excesses of Russian capitalism 795 00:55:03,840 --> 00:55:05,880 and almost turning our nose up, 796 00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:09,560 almost thinking, oh, they might have money but they don't have class. 797 00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:12,120 And there's a danger in that view. 798 00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:18,400 There's a danger that we are not presenting the Russians fairly 799 00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:22,360 and it's not to say that Russian capitalism is a pleasant thing, 800 00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:26,360 it's not to say that rich oligarchs are particular nice people, 801 00:55:26,360 --> 00:55:29,440 but there's also something unpleasant sometimes 802 00:55:29,440 --> 00:55:32,480 around the way that the British media presents that. 803 00:55:34,240 --> 00:55:38,200 And behind the glitz and glamour, another story was playing out. 804 00:55:38,200 --> 00:55:41,040 When this programme was made in 2008, 805 00:55:41,040 --> 00:55:44,760 Russian tanks had just rolled into neighbouring Georgia. 806 00:55:44,760 --> 00:55:47,080 While the Russians felt besieged, 807 00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:50,560 the West viewed them as provocatively aggressive. 808 00:55:50,560 --> 00:55:52,600 'At events like this, 809 00:55:52,600 --> 00:55:55,880 'the Russia of today looks more like the West than ever. 810 00:55:55,880 --> 00:55:59,680 'These people are educated, sophisticated and travel abroad, 811 00:55:59,680 --> 00:56:02,400 'but scratch the surface and, even here, 812 00:56:02,400 --> 00:56:04,800 'people say we don't understand them. 813 00:56:04,800 --> 00:56:09,040 'And nowhere more so than over the recent invasion of Georgia. 814 00:56:09,040 --> 00:56:12,080 'Billionaire Alexander Lebedev is unusual. 815 00:56:12,080 --> 00:56:14,360 'He's a vocal critic of the Kremlin 816 00:56:14,360 --> 00:56:18,640 'but he too says Russia was unfairly treated over the action it took.' 817 00:56:18,640 --> 00:56:22,400 I think there's too many wrong things said about Russia. 818 00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:24,120 Everybody in the world 819 00:56:24,120 --> 00:56:27,320 says this is the old, aggressive Soviet-style Russia 820 00:56:27,320 --> 00:56:30,640 now attacking a small, democratic and very peaceful state. 821 00:56:30,640 --> 00:56:33,400 So what do you think the war was actually about? 822 00:56:33,400 --> 00:56:37,040 I think Russia had no other way but behave this way. 823 00:56:37,040 --> 00:56:39,920 We mishandled it from the point of view of propaganda, 824 00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:43,480 of explaining our position, but the West should be a bit more objective. 825 00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:46,400 What is it that the West doesn't understand about Russia? 826 00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:48,680 If I could tell it and specify it, 827 00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:51,360 the issue would have been resolved in one minute, 828 00:56:51,360 --> 00:56:54,400 and it hasn't been resolved for hundreds of years. 829 00:56:54,400 --> 00:56:58,600 What happens is that sometimes people in the West think they know 830 00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:02,040 and understand Russia and Russians 831 00:57:02,040 --> 00:57:04,120 but they don't. 832 00:57:04,120 --> 00:57:07,640 We didn't understand what the Soviet Union was during the Cold War 833 00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:11,400 and arguably we still don't fully understand what Russia is today 834 00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:15,080 because we like to look at a caricatured vision of Russia. 835 00:57:15,080 --> 00:57:17,360 We will never penetrate Russia 836 00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:20,640 in the way we can penetrate the United States mentally 837 00:57:20,640 --> 00:57:23,120 because of the barrier of the language. 838 00:57:23,120 --> 00:57:26,080 I don't think the media have particularly helped us 839 00:57:26,080 --> 00:57:29,640 because they have tended to present the relationship with Russia 840 00:57:29,640 --> 00:57:32,320 in an either-or situation. 841 00:57:32,320 --> 00:57:36,640 Either a real threat and a problem, 842 00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:40,560 so in the Stalin period or even now in the Putin period, 843 00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:43,680 or else very cosy, very friendly, 844 00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:47,360 as in the middle of the Second World War or in the Gorbachev era. 845 00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:51,600 An attempt to really understand the complexities of Russia 846 00:57:51,600 --> 00:57:55,600 is much rarer on the British media. 847 00:58:04,760 --> 00:58:07,880 Now, nearly 80 years have passed since Winston Churchill 848 00:58:07,880 --> 00:58:10,120 uttered his famous summation of Russia 849 00:58:10,120 --> 00:58:13,680 as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. 850 00:58:13,680 --> 00:58:17,560 Strangely, these words seem as true now as they did then. 851 00:58:20,760 --> 00:58:24,080 British television may never be able to crack the mystery 852 00:58:24,080 --> 00:58:26,520 of the largest country on Earth. 853 00:58:29,120 --> 00:58:32,640 Despite the entangled history of our two nations, 854 00:58:32,640 --> 00:58:36,600 a true understanding of Russia may be more distant now 855 00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:38,560 than ever before.