1 00:00:02,004 --> 00:00:05,548 Royal history is at the heart of the stories we tell 2 00:00:05,573 --> 00:00:07,468 about the past. 3 00:00:07,493 --> 00:00:10,418 We often think it's definitive. 4 00:00:10,443 --> 00:00:13,389 Kings and queens, dates and facts, 5 00:00:13,414 --> 00:00:16,468 all unchanging and fixed. 6 00:00:16,493 --> 00:00:18,629 But it's not like that at all. 7 00:00:18,654 --> 00:00:22,218 History is a cacophony of voices, all of them competing 8 00:00:22,243 --> 00:00:24,949 to tell their own version of the story. 9 00:00:24,974 --> 00:00:27,668 And when revolution is in the air... 10 00:00:28,974 --> 00:00:31,829 ...that competition gets really intense. 11 00:00:32,884 --> 00:00:35,468 In this series, I'm investigating the fibs 12 00:00:35,493 --> 00:00:38,909 about three royal houses fighting for survival. 13 00:00:40,214 --> 00:00:44,859 Did Marie Antoinette really cause the French Revolution? 14 00:00:44,884 --> 00:00:47,029 "Let them eat cake!" 15 00:00:47,054 --> 00:00:51,979 Was Georgian Britain as genteel and well-ordered as we think? 16 00:00:52,004 --> 00:00:53,668 GUNFIRE 17 00:00:54,724 --> 00:00:59,418 And this time, the tragic end of a powerful dynasty - the Romanovs, 18 00:00:59,443 --> 00:01:02,699 and the real Russian Revolution. 19 00:01:02,724 --> 00:01:04,629 "Down with hunger! 20 00:01:04,654 --> 00:01:06,619 "Down with the war! 21 00:01:06,644 --> 00:01:08,779 "Down with the Tsar!" 22 00:01:11,214 --> 00:01:14,699 It was one of the defining events of the 20th century 23 00:01:14,724 --> 00:01:18,949 but this story is rich with fabrications, 24 00:01:18,974 --> 00:01:20,949 with manipulations, 25 00:01:20,974 --> 00:01:23,418 and with some quite fantastic fibs. 26 00:01:25,363 --> 00:01:28,668 Was Lenin really the leader of the revolution? 27 00:01:36,604 --> 00:01:41,668 Did false rumours about the Tsarina and the mad monk Rasputin 28 00:01:41,693 --> 00:01:44,619 help bring down the Russian monarchy? 29 00:01:44,644 --> 00:01:48,209 And how did the Bolsheviks rewrite the story 30 00:01:48,234 --> 00:01:50,209 of the October Revolution? 31 00:01:50,234 --> 00:01:53,238 There have been more fibs told about the history of Russia 32 00:01:53,263 --> 00:01:56,049 than about the history of any country in the world. 33 00:01:57,274 --> 00:02:00,719 Russia's revolution of October 1917 34 00:02:00,744 --> 00:02:05,719 has gone down in history as an inspiring uprising, 35 00:02:05,744 --> 00:02:09,238 getting rid of the cruel royal family, 36 00:02:09,263 --> 00:02:12,969 giving power to the people, sweeping away inequality, 37 00:02:12,994 --> 00:02:15,969 transforming Russia forever. 38 00:02:15,994 --> 00:02:19,249 Or...so the story goes. 39 00:02:29,994 --> 00:02:32,438 October 1917. 40 00:02:33,434 --> 00:02:35,969 The First World War raged. 41 00:02:35,994 --> 00:02:39,719 The future of Europe's monarchies hung in the balance. 42 00:02:40,794 --> 00:02:44,639 And in St Petersburg, the historic capital of Russia, 43 00:02:44,664 --> 00:02:47,488 a revolution was shaking the world. 44 00:02:53,024 --> 00:02:55,438 We all think we know what happened. 45 00:02:55,463 --> 00:02:58,159 Hordes of revolutionary workers and soldiers 46 00:02:58,184 --> 00:03:00,159 stormed the Winter Palace. 47 00:03:01,794 --> 00:03:06,438 The Tsar was swept away and a new communist regime was born. 48 00:03:08,024 --> 00:03:11,438 The October Revolution promised a future of equality 49 00:03:11,463 --> 00:03:13,688 and prosperity for all. 50 00:03:14,994 --> 00:03:17,608 Russia would never be the same again 51 00:03:17,633 --> 00:03:20,409 and neither would the rest of the world. 52 00:03:20,434 --> 00:03:23,438 The first socialist revolution 53 00:03:23,463 --> 00:03:27,849 would transform politics and society. 54 00:03:27,874 --> 00:03:30,719 This day in October 1917 55 00:03:30,744 --> 00:03:33,438 would be remembered forever. 56 00:03:36,994 --> 00:03:41,688 Films and books present the event as truly epic 57 00:03:41,713 --> 00:03:45,409 but the story of the great October Revolution 58 00:03:45,434 --> 00:03:48,969 has been exaggerated, glamorised, 59 00:03:48,994 --> 00:03:50,969 and shrouded in fibs. 60 00:03:52,024 --> 00:03:55,929 It established Lenin as the heroic revolutionary leader. 61 00:03:57,794 --> 00:04:01,688 And this was the foundation stone of a powerful mythology 62 00:04:01,713 --> 00:04:06,969 that would sustain the Soviet leaders in power for 74 years. 63 00:04:06,994 --> 00:04:10,238 It's a mythology that still to this day 64 00:04:10,263 --> 00:04:15,209 masks just how and when the Russian Revolution got started. 65 00:04:19,104 --> 00:04:22,438 The revolution was fuelled by growing hatred 66 00:04:22,463 --> 00:04:26,919 of the Romanov dynasty, that had ruled for 300 years. 67 00:04:27,994 --> 00:04:31,639 As Tsar, Nicholas ll was head of the powerful 68 00:04:31,664 --> 00:04:33,639 Russian Orthodox Church. 69 00:04:35,513 --> 00:04:38,438 He was also notorious for the bloody suppression 70 00:04:38,463 --> 00:04:41,639 of protests that even hinted at democracy. 71 00:04:43,994 --> 00:04:46,608 Nicholas' wife was Alexandra, 72 00:04:46,633 --> 00:04:50,438 a German princess who converted to the Russian Orthodox Church 73 00:04:50,463 --> 00:04:52,049 when she married him. 74 00:04:52,074 --> 00:04:56,488 The new Tsarina never really fitted in to the Russian court. 75 00:04:56,513 --> 00:04:59,209 She was always distrusted as a foreigner. 76 00:04:59,234 --> 00:05:03,919 And this got worse when Russia went to war with Germany. 77 00:05:07,024 --> 00:05:12,438 In 1914, the royal families of Europe were all closely related. 78 00:05:12,463 --> 00:05:17,608 Britain's George V was first cousin to both the Tsar of Russia 79 00:05:17,633 --> 00:05:19,688 and the Kaiser of Germany. 80 00:05:20,744 --> 00:05:24,409 In photos, George and Nicholas look almost like twins. 81 00:05:26,024 --> 00:05:28,719 But all these close ties across Europe 82 00:05:28,744 --> 00:05:33,209 would count for...pfff...nothing when it came to the First World War. 83 00:05:38,513 --> 00:05:42,209 In the fight against the Kaiser, his German cousin, 84 00:05:42,234 --> 00:05:45,919 the Tsar, allied Russia with Britain and France. 85 00:05:45,944 --> 00:05:48,488 GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS 86 00:05:48,513 --> 00:05:52,129 But by the end of 1916, the Russian army was collapsing. 87 00:05:53,744 --> 00:05:56,799 Over a million soldiers had been killed. 88 00:05:56,824 --> 00:06:01,608 Many deserted from the front and were causing unrest in the cities. 89 00:06:01,633 --> 00:06:06,969 As commander in chief, the Tsar was blamed for the military disasters. 90 00:06:06,994 --> 00:06:09,079 REPORTER: At the front, defeat, 91 00:06:09,104 --> 00:06:12,129 disorganisation and lonely dead. 92 00:06:18,024 --> 00:06:20,969 Anti-tsarist feeling was driven further 93 00:06:20,994 --> 00:06:23,358 by an infamous character of the time. 94 00:06:24,434 --> 00:06:26,159 Grigori Rasputin. 95 00:06:28,463 --> 00:06:31,999 He was adviser to the Tsar and Tsarina, 96 00:06:32,024 --> 00:06:35,999 but gossip about the Tsarina and Rasputin 97 00:06:36,024 --> 00:06:39,999 set the royal family up for a monumental fall. 98 00:06:40,024 --> 00:06:44,409 He's gone down in history as the sex-crazed mad monk. 99 00:06:45,944 --> 00:06:49,438 For a start, Rasputin wasn't a proper monk. 100 00:06:49,463 --> 00:06:51,688 He portrayed himself as a mystic 101 00:06:51,713 --> 00:06:55,209 but he'd never officially been in holy orders. 102 00:06:55,234 --> 00:06:58,639 And then there were the rumours that the sex-mad monk 103 00:06:58,664 --> 00:07:01,769 was having an affair with Alexandra. 104 00:07:02,994 --> 00:07:06,488 The gossip that Rasputin was the queen's lover 105 00:07:06,513 --> 00:07:10,719 was spread by Russian radicals to undermine the monarchy. 106 00:07:10,744 --> 00:07:13,969 It's still doing the rounds in popular culture. 107 00:07:15,024 --> 00:07:16,849 # Ra- Ra- Rasputin 108 00:07:16,874 --> 00:07:18,999 # Lover of the Russian queen 109 00:07:19,024 --> 00:07:22,129 # There was a cat that really was gone 110 00:07:22,154 --> 00:07:23,969 # Ra- Ra- Rasputin 111 00:07:23,994 --> 00:07:26,358 # Russia's greatest love machine... # 112 00:07:26,383 --> 00:07:32,049 Historian Frances Welch is keen to separate fact from fiction. 113 00:07:32,074 --> 00:07:35,249 Now, Frances, you strongly believe that Alexandra and Rasputin 114 00:07:35,274 --> 00:07:36,999 weren't having an affair. 115 00:07:37,024 --> 00:07:39,488 Where did these rumours come from, in that case? 116 00:07:39,513 --> 00:07:42,919 The central problem was that Rasputin was going to the palace, 117 00:07:42,944 --> 00:07:45,199 visiting the palace, quite a lot. 118 00:07:45,224 --> 00:07:50,079 Nobody knew why, and the reason was that the Tsarina's son, Alexei, 119 00:07:50,104 --> 00:07:52,849 had haemophilia, but somehow Rasputin was able 120 00:07:52,874 --> 00:07:56,438 to calm the boy down and bring about some cure. 121 00:07:56,463 --> 00:07:59,639 The Tsarina didn't want anyone to know 122 00:07:59,664 --> 00:08:02,719 that Alexei was ill. 123 00:08:02,744 --> 00:08:06,488 The public could not be told, and they couldn't explain 124 00:08:06,513 --> 00:08:09,608 why Rasputin would keep coming to the palace. 125 00:08:09,633 --> 00:08:11,849 There were cartoons everywhere, 126 00:08:11,874 --> 00:08:14,488 showing her misbehaving with Rasputin. 127 00:08:14,513 --> 00:08:16,999 Everyone seemed to think it was happening. 128 00:08:17,024 --> 00:08:19,769 Why do you believe that in fact they weren't? 129 00:08:19,794 --> 00:08:22,969 Well, I think she wasn't because she was so proper, 130 00:08:22,994 --> 00:08:24,969 really profoundly proper. 131 00:08:24,994 --> 00:08:26,969 Sort of haughty, stand-offish. 132 00:08:26,994 --> 00:08:29,719 And the idea of her, sort of, fraternising in that way 133 00:08:29,744 --> 00:08:31,719 with Rasputin, I can't imagine. 134 00:08:31,744 --> 00:08:34,488 She was also incredibly in love with her husband. 135 00:08:34,513 --> 00:08:37,199 She wrote, sort of, love letters to him the whole time. 136 00:08:37,224 --> 00:08:39,849 They had a wonderfully loving relationship 137 00:08:39,874 --> 00:08:44,688 and I don't believe that the Tsarina ever slept with Rasputin. 138 00:08:46,463 --> 00:08:50,449 By 1917, the royal family was seen as the root 139 00:08:50,474 --> 00:08:52,639 of all that was wrong with Russia. 140 00:08:52,664 --> 00:08:57,249 The hunger, the poverty, the casualties on the front, 141 00:08:57,274 --> 00:08:59,969 and their dependence on the sex-mad monk 142 00:08:59,994 --> 00:09:04,558 had been an easy target for those hoping to trigger a revolution. 143 00:09:04,583 --> 00:09:06,839 And in the end, you had these cartoons 144 00:09:06,864 --> 00:09:10,719 with a sort of grotesque picture, a giant Rasputin, 145 00:09:10,744 --> 00:09:13,969 with the Tsar on one knee and the Tsarina on the other knee. 146 00:09:13,994 --> 00:09:16,608 The caption was, "Russia's ruling house." 147 00:09:16,633 --> 00:09:18,999 # Oh, those Russians. # 148 00:09:24,744 --> 00:09:29,529 The Russian Revolution began in February 1917, 149 00:09:29,554 --> 00:09:32,969 when workers in St Petersburg started rioting 150 00:09:32,994 --> 00:09:35,079 about bread shortages. 151 00:09:35,104 --> 00:09:38,279 They also blamed the Tsar for the continuation 152 00:09:38,304 --> 00:09:40,049 of the disastrous war. 153 00:09:41,104 --> 00:09:44,688 We tend to think of the revolution as being masterminded 154 00:09:44,713 --> 00:09:49,199 by Vladimir Lenin, the radical leader of the Bolsheviks, 155 00:09:49,224 --> 00:09:51,688 but that's not what happened. 156 00:09:52,744 --> 00:09:56,688 It wasn't the Bolsheviks who started the February uprising. 157 00:09:56,713 --> 00:09:58,438 It wasn't even men. 158 00:09:58,463 --> 00:10:03,688 Key to the whole revolution was a group of female workers. 159 00:10:06,994 --> 00:10:10,639 Thursday the 23rd of February 1917 160 00:10:10,664 --> 00:10:13,279 was International Women's Day. 161 00:10:13,304 --> 00:10:17,438 At noon, crowds of textile workers began marching 162 00:10:17,463 --> 00:10:22,279 in to the centre of St Petersburg to make their voices heard. 163 00:10:22,304 --> 00:10:24,438 "Down with hunger! 164 00:10:24,463 --> 00:10:26,449 "Down with the war! 165 00:10:26,474 --> 00:10:28,639 "Down with the Tsar!" 166 00:10:31,853 --> 00:10:34,989 They went from factory to factory. 167 00:10:35,014 --> 00:10:38,989 They were banging on the gates and throwing snowballs at the windows, 168 00:10:39,014 --> 00:10:42,019 trying to get the men to come out to join them. 169 00:10:42,044 --> 00:10:46,708 They needed to persuade the men that this wasn't just another bread riot. 170 00:10:46,733 --> 00:10:48,708 This was different. 171 00:10:48,733 --> 00:10:51,739 And they were successful. By the end of the day, 172 00:10:51,764 --> 00:10:55,939 the protesters numbered 100,000 people. 173 00:10:59,764 --> 00:11:02,708 What started as a local women's strike 174 00:11:02,733 --> 00:11:05,349 was turning into a revolution. 175 00:11:05,374 --> 00:11:08,469 The next day, 200,000 workers joined in, 176 00:11:08,494 --> 00:11:12,789 armed with knives, with hammers, and iron bars. 177 00:11:13,844 --> 00:11:16,939 By the third day, red flags appeared. 178 00:11:16,964 --> 00:11:20,989 The Tsar ordered the army to suppress the rioters. 179 00:11:21,014 --> 00:11:23,628 But the women were a step ahead. 180 00:11:23,653 --> 00:11:28,069 A few clays earlier, the female tram workers had gone to the barracks 181 00:11:28,094 --> 00:11:30,989 to talk to the soldiers about the strike 182 00:11:31,014 --> 00:11:33,989 and they got them to agree that when the moment came, 183 00:11:34,014 --> 00:11:35,989 they'd hold their fire. 184 00:11:36,014 --> 00:11:37,989 This is exactly what happened. 185 00:11:38,014 --> 00:11:41,189 Even the mighty Cossack troops put down their arms. 186 00:11:41,214 --> 00:11:43,739 This was such an important moment. 187 00:11:43,764 --> 00:11:47,989 One of the women, Alexandra Rodionova, later said that, 188 00:11:48,014 --> 00:11:53,019 "All at once, the unknown future became real." 189 00:11:55,044 --> 00:11:57,659 Katy Turton has studied the role of women 190 00:11:57,684 --> 00:12:00,149 in starting the February Revolution. 191 00:12:01,174 --> 00:12:03,349 How was it reported in the newspapers? 192 00:12:03,374 --> 00:12:05,498 Well, they sing their praises, in fact. 193 00:12:05,523 --> 00:12:08,219 "Glory to Women" features several times as a slogan. 194 00:12:08,244 --> 00:12:11,498 And really interestingly, they talk about women in Moscow, 195 00:12:11,523 --> 00:12:14,628 in many cases deciding the fate of the battles on the street. 196 00:12:14,653 --> 00:12:17,349 They are the ones who go out to the soldiers and say, 197 00:12:17,374 --> 00:12:20,708 "Don't fire on our demonstrators. We're all on the same side." 198 00:12:20,733 --> 00:12:23,789 And, fundamentally, the women are central 199 00:12:23,814 --> 00:12:26,019 to the soldiers themselves mutinying 200 00:12:26,044 --> 00:12:29,069 and not shooting down and dispersing the demonstrators. 201 00:12:29,094 --> 00:12:32,909 What happened to accounts of February as time went by? 202 00:12:32,934 --> 00:12:35,909 Male participants in the revolution turn historian 203 00:12:35,934 --> 00:12:39,099 and begin to write their own memoirs about what had happened. 204 00:12:39,124 --> 00:12:42,069 We've got a really interesting memoir by Nikolai Sukhanov, 205 00:12:42,094 --> 00:12:45,429 who is very dismissive of women's involvement in the revolution. 206 00:12:45,454 --> 00:12:48,989 He's sitting in his office listening to women typists saying, 207 00:12:49,014 --> 00:12:52,659 "Do you know, if you ask me, it's the beginning of the revolution." 208 00:12:52,684 --> 00:12:55,628 And his response is that these girls didn't understand 209 00:12:55,653 --> 00:12:59,219 what a revolution was, and goes on to talk about them as philistines. 210 00:12:59,244 --> 00:13:02,299 The typists were actually completely right - they called it. 211 00:13:02,324 --> 00:13:04,219 Yeah, they were spot on. Absolutely. 212 00:13:04,244 --> 00:13:07,179 What were the official Bolshevik leaders doing then? 213 00:13:07,204 --> 00:13:09,269 They weren't anywhere to be found. 214 00:13:09,294 --> 00:13:12,628 Lenin was in Switzerland, Trotsky was in America, 215 00:13:12,653 --> 00:13:15,469 and Stalin was in exile in Siberia, 216 00:13:15,494 --> 00:13:19,469 so, in fact, the Bolshevik Party consisted of local activists 217 00:13:19,494 --> 00:13:23,708 who were on site and they, in fact, were highly disapproving 218 00:13:23,733 --> 00:13:27,739 of the women going out on International Women's Day 219 00:13:27,764 --> 00:13:31,219 and actually told the women not to demonstrate. Amazing. 220 00:13:31,244 --> 00:13:33,708 So these women went out onto the streets 221 00:13:33,733 --> 00:13:36,989 in the teeth of the instructions of the Bolsheviks? 222 00:13:37,014 --> 00:13:39,939 Yes, it was entirely their own decisions. 223 00:13:39,964 --> 00:13:41,628 GUNFIRE 224 00:13:41,653 --> 00:13:44,019 The women had ignited the revolution, 225 00:13:44,044 --> 00:13:47,628 but it wasn't long before men took charge. 226 00:13:47,653 --> 00:13:51,299 Alexander Kerensky, a lawyer, would soon be leading 227 00:13:51,324 --> 00:13:53,739 the revolutionary Provisional Government 228 00:13:53,764 --> 00:13:57,429 while waiting for Russia's first democratic elections. 229 00:13:58,733 --> 00:14:01,659 Kerensky was less radical than Lenin 230 00:14:01,684 --> 00:14:05,019 but he was committed to a more equal society. 231 00:14:05,044 --> 00:14:08,939 And in this new Russia, there was no room for the Tsar. 232 00:14:11,483 --> 00:14:14,498 In early March 1917, 233 00:14:14,523 --> 00:14:17,779 just a week after the women had first taken to the streets, 234 00:14:17,804 --> 00:14:23,189 the Tsar's own generals warned him that if he didn't abdicate, 235 00:14:23,214 --> 00:14:26,139 Russia would collapse into anarchy. 236 00:14:26,164 --> 00:14:28,628 The Tsar wrote in his diary - 237 00:14:28,653 --> 00:14:30,299 "l agreed. 238 00:14:30,324 --> 00:14:34,779 "All around is treason and cowardice and deceit." 239 00:14:34,804 --> 00:14:37,019 REPORTER: 240 00:14:41,044 --> 00:14:46,299 The monarchy had been swept away with no involvement from Lenin. 241 00:14:50,044 --> 00:14:52,989 Now, one of the most extraordinary episodes 242 00:14:53,014 --> 00:14:55,219 of the revolution would unfold, 243 00:14:55,244 --> 00:14:57,708 and a pivotal role was played in it by... 244 00:14:58,684 --> 00:15:00,578 ...the King of Great Britain. 245 00:15:00,603 --> 00:15:03,219 It's a story full of cover-ups 246 00:15:03,244 --> 00:15:05,299 and lies. 247 00:15:08,733 --> 00:15:12,209 The Russian Provisional Government wanted the Tsar and his family 248 00:15:12,234 --> 00:15:14,189 to leave the country. 249 00:15:14,214 --> 00:15:16,989 The British Ambassador, Sir George Buchanan, 250 00:15:17,014 --> 00:15:19,909 was asked if they could seek safety in Britain. 251 00:15:21,523 --> 00:15:24,939 The British government agreed, and on the 23rd of March, 252 00:15:24,964 --> 00:15:27,019 made an offer of asylum. 253 00:15:27,044 --> 00:15:31,659 What George V felt about his cousin coming to Britain 254 00:15:31,684 --> 00:15:36,378 was hushed up for over 60 years, to protect the King's reputation. 255 00:15:36,403 --> 00:15:39,019 Historian Helen Rappaport 256 00:15:39,044 --> 00:15:41,989 has investigated what really happened. 257 00:16:07,753 --> 00:16:13,019 Whoa. 258 00:16:23,374 --> 00:16:28,708 What's this letter, then, from Windsor Castle in 1917, 259 00:16:28,733 --> 00:16:31,269 what does this say about the offer? 260 00:17:00,764 --> 00:17:04,269 Britain's offer of asylum to the Romanovs was never 261 00:17:04,294 --> 00:17:08,708 formally withdrawn, but nor was a rescue plan put into action. 262 00:17:22,764 --> 00:17:27,269 Thanks in part to Britain's diplomatic betrayal, 263 00:17:27,294 --> 00:17:31,209 the Russian royal family remained trapped in Russia. 264 00:17:32,514 --> 00:17:35,189 And Lenin was still nowhere to be seen. 265 00:17:37,044 --> 00:17:39,708 Lenin had dedicated his life to Marxism 266 00:17:39,733 --> 00:17:42,989 and to making revolutionary plans for Russia. 267 00:17:44,124 --> 00:17:48,269 He was also on the run from the Tsar's secret police. 268 00:17:48,294 --> 00:17:52,989 In February 1917, he was living in exile in Zurich. 269 00:17:55,733 --> 00:17:59,489 Lenin covertly enlisted German help 270 00:17:59,514 --> 00:18:02,498 in a scramble to get back to Russia. 271 00:18:02,523 --> 00:18:05,708 The Germans had their own motives for getting involved. 272 00:18:05,733 --> 00:18:10,109 If Lenin returned, he might help pull Russia out of the war. 273 00:18:12,684 --> 00:18:16,989 A special train was arranged for Lenin, his wife 274 00:18:17,014 --> 00:18:19,659 and 30 fellow revolutionaries. 275 00:18:21,134 --> 00:18:24,219 The carriage would be defined as Russian territory 276 00:18:24,244 --> 00:18:26,828 and nobody allowed on or off. 277 00:18:29,014 --> 00:18:32,349 This was to ensure that Lenin avoided any contact 278 00:18:32,374 --> 00:18:35,939 with the Germans, otherwise he might be branded a traitor. 279 00:18:37,014 --> 00:18:42,139 It's gone down in history as Lenin's sealed train. 280 00:18:43,244 --> 00:18:46,189 Lenin said goodbye to a friend out the window. 281 00:18:46,214 --> 00:18:48,219 "In three months...", he said, 282 00:18:48,244 --> 00:18:53,469 "..either we'll be swinging from the gallows or we'll be in power." 283 00:18:57,014 --> 00:19:01,498 The train travelled from Zurich to the Swiss border with Germany. 284 00:19:01,523 --> 00:19:03,989 Here, they transferred to another train, 285 00:19:04,014 --> 00:19:06,299 for the controversial part of the journey - 286 00:19:06,324 --> 00:19:08,448 right through enemy territory. 287 00:19:09,764 --> 00:19:13,859 But did this sealed train live up to its name? 288 00:19:15,324 --> 00:19:18,989 Now, this sealed train wasn't all that well sealed. 289 00:19:19,014 --> 00:19:23,528 The Russian zone was only demarcated by a chalk line on the floor 290 00:19:23,553 --> 00:19:26,029 and they left one of the carriage doors unlocked, 291 00:19:26,054 --> 00:19:28,999 which meant that the revolutionaries could pop on and off. 292 00:19:29,024 --> 00:19:32,999 At Frankfurt, one of them went to get some newspapers and some beer. 293 00:19:33,024 --> 00:19:36,749 And in north Germany, Lenin himself got off 294 00:19:36,774 --> 00:19:40,069 to spend a more comfortable night at a hotel. 295 00:19:42,024 --> 00:19:46,279 Soviet historians would always exaggerate the level of security 296 00:19:46,304 --> 00:19:50,199 on Lenin's sealed train, to protect his reputation. 297 00:19:51,254 --> 00:19:55,479 From a port in northern Germany, they took the ferry to Sweden... 298 00:19:56,533 --> 00:20:00,279 ...and then another train across Sweden and Finland. 299 00:20:01,334 --> 00:20:03,708 Next stop, St Petersburg. 300 00:20:05,974 --> 00:20:09,638 During his journey, Lenin started to think about the importance 301 00:20:09,663 --> 00:20:12,479 of his own appearance as propaganda. 302 00:20:12,504 --> 00:20:16,708 He took off his rather bourgeois-looking homburg hat 303 00:20:16,733 --> 00:20:21,919 and he replaced it with the cap of a proletarian worker. 304 00:20:21,944 --> 00:20:24,869 Now he looks much more like a proper revolutionary. 305 00:20:25,944 --> 00:20:27,999 TRAIN WHISTLES 306 00:20:28,024 --> 00:20:31,404 The train reached the Finland Station in St Petersburg 307 00:20:31,429 --> 00:20:33,683 on the 3rd of April 1917. 308 00:20:35,229 --> 00:20:38,174 A month after the removal of the Tsar. 309 00:20:41,638 --> 00:20:44,974 According to later accounts and films by the Bolsheviks, 310 00:20:44,999 --> 00:20:47,703 Lenin arrived to a hero's welcome. 311 00:20:49,169 --> 00:20:51,974 But this didn't tell the full story. 312 00:20:51,999 --> 00:20:55,254 Lenin immediately launched into a scathing attack 313 00:20:55,279 --> 00:20:58,764 not on the Tsar, but on his fellow Bolsheviks. 314 00:20:58,789 --> 00:21:02,924 He was furious they'd collaborated with the Provisional Government. 315 00:21:03,999 --> 00:21:06,924 Some Bolsheviks thought Lenin too radical. 316 00:21:06,949 --> 00:21:09,563 A few even believed him deranged. 317 00:21:10,638 --> 00:21:13,404 Opinions that were all quietly glossed over 318 00:21:13,429 --> 00:21:16,204 once Lenin came to power in October. 319 00:21:17,508 --> 00:21:21,733 And there was another reason that Lenin's return was controversial. 320 00:21:21,758 --> 00:21:24,724 His enemies - Kerensky, the tsarists - 321 00:21:24,749 --> 00:21:28,254 put it about that because Lenin had had German help 322 00:21:28,279 --> 00:21:32,733 getting back to Russia, perhaps he was a German spy 323 00:21:32,758 --> 00:21:36,483 who'd taken German gold to bring Russia down. 324 00:21:36,508 --> 00:21:41,944 Some people even said that Lenin was a German army officer in disguise. 325 00:21:44,019 --> 00:21:47,454 All these fibs were used to discredit Lenin. 326 00:21:47,479 --> 00:21:52,924 He was soon on the run again, this time from Kerensky's secret police. 327 00:21:55,199 --> 00:21:57,094 He fled St Petersburg. 328 00:21:59,508 --> 00:22:03,324 In October, to launch his coup against Kerensky, 329 00:22:03,349 --> 00:22:06,563 Lenin would need yet more subterfuge. 330 00:22:10,508 --> 00:22:13,964 To get back to Bolshevik headquarters in St Petersburg, 331 00:22:13,989 --> 00:22:17,644 there was only one thing for it - a disguise. 332 00:22:17,669 --> 00:22:22,004 He put on a wig and scruffy clothes, he wrapped his head in bandages, 333 00:22:22,029 --> 00:22:26,174 he put his cap on top, and then he set off into the dark streets. 334 00:22:29,229 --> 00:22:32,644 But government troops spotted him. 335 00:22:32,669 --> 00:22:37,174 If Lenin were arrested now, his plans for a coup would be over. 336 00:22:39,349 --> 00:22:42,284 But Lenin's disguise worked really well. 337 00:22:42,309 --> 00:22:45,004 The two soldiers checked him out in his get-up 338 00:22:45,029 --> 00:22:47,924 and they thought, well, he's just a harmless drunk. 339 00:22:49,708 --> 00:22:51,683 And they sent him on his way. 340 00:22:52,989 --> 00:22:57,204 The Bolsheviks had taken over a former school for young ladies, 341 00:22:57,229 --> 00:22:59,644 called the Smolny Institute. 342 00:22:59,669 --> 00:23:02,683 Here, Lenin joined the other top Bolsheviks, 343 00:23:02,708 --> 00:23:04,924 Stalin and Trotsky. 344 00:23:06,538 --> 00:23:10,823 They all agreed with Lenin that they must replace Kerensky's government. 345 00:23:12,518 --> 00:23:15,464 While they were making their preparations for their coup 346 00:23:15,489 --> 00:23:18,464 against the Provisional Government, Lenin and his comrades 347 00:23:18,489 --> 00:23:21,573 had a meeting to discuss what they were going to call themselves 348 00:23:21,598 --> 00:23:23,294 when they were in power. 349 00:23:23,319 --> 00:23:26,974 Ministers, they thought, sounded a bit weak. 350 00:23:26,999 --> 00:23:29,934 But then Trotsky came up with a suggestion 351 00:23:29,959 --> 00:23:32,214 of the people's commissars. 352 00:23:32,239 --> 00:23:34,994 "Yes", said Lenin. "That's brilliant. 353 00:23:35,019 --> 00:23:37,843 "That smells of revolution." 354 00:23:37,868 --> 00:23:40,214 Because they'd missed the one in February, 355 00:23:40,239 --> 00:23:43,693 they were determined that their own revolution should be perfect. 356 00:23:43,718 --> 00:23:47,334 It had to look right, it had to sound right, 357 00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:49,974 it even had to smell right. 358 00:23:51,598 --> 00:23:53,334 Good work, comrades. 359 00:23:54,999 --> 00:23:57,974 On the 25th of October 1917, 360 00:23:57,999 --> 00:24:01,184 Lenin and the Bolsheviks mobilised 361 00:24:01,209 --> 00:24:04,294 to snatch power from Kerensky. 362 00:24:04,319 --> 00:24:07,934 This has become one of the most mythologised moments 363 00:24:07,959 --> 00:24:10,014 in 20th-century history. 364 00:24:12,518 --> 00:24:17,934 And the February triumph would be swept under the historical carpet. 365 00:24:18,959 --> 00:24:22,464 The Bolshevik version of events was preserved in a film 366 00:24:22,489 --> 00:24:26,693 made ten years later, by director Sergei Eisenstein. 367 00:24:29,439 --> 00:24:32,074 Called October 1917, 368 00:24:32,099 --> 00:24:35,363 it featured his characteristic super-quick cutting. 369 00:24:36,848 --> 00:24:40,184 Some shots lasting no longer than a single frame. 370 00:24:41,239 --> 00:24:44,414 In Eisenstein's hands, film had the power 371 00:24:44,439 --> 00:24:47,943 to make fibs seem like revolutionary truth. 372 00:24:50,289 --> 00:24:54,743 The film's got so much energy and drama to it 373 00:24:54,768 --> 00:24:57,934 that you think, yes, this must really capture the passion 374 00:24:57,959 --> 00:25:00,974 they must have felt in October 1917, 375 00:25:00,999 --> 00:25:04,904 and it's become, I think, the most powerful image of the revolution. 376 00:25:09,319 --> 00:25:13,974 The film demolishes the women's triumph of February 377 00:25:13,999 --> 00:25:18,214 by depicting it as the work of the corrupt middle classes, 378 00:25:18,239 --> 00:25:22,334 and pious bishops in league with the Tsar. 379 00:25:23,489 --> 00:25:25,414 The message was clear. 380 00:25:25,439 --> 00:25:27,974 The February Revolution was bogus. 381 00:25:27,999 --> 00:25:32,024 It had only resulted in the useless bourgeois Provisional Government, 382 00:25:32,049 --> 00:25:35,294 not a proper workers' revolution at all. 383 00:25:40,079 --> 00:25:43,573 The Provisional Government was based in the Winter Palace - 384 00:25:43,598 --> 00:25:45,904 a former royal residence. 385 00:25:45,929 --> 00:25:49,254 The film shows Kerensky strutting around 386 00:25:49,279 --> 00:25:52,934 in the Tsar's old apartments, attended by footmen. 387 00:25:57,489 --> 00:26:02,573 The climax of the film is the night of Lenin's Bolshevik coup. 388 00:26:04,999 --> 00:26:08,774 You get to see the storming of the Winter Palace, 389 00:26:08,799 --> 00:26:10,934 the toppling of the government... 390 00:26:12,029 --> 00:26:14,493 ...and the triumph of the people, here they come, 391 00:26:14,518 --> 00:26:17,464 led by the Bolsheviks. Whoa, in they go! 392 00:26:18,768 --> 00:26:21,693 Here are the opulent palace interiors. 393 00:26:21,718 --> 00:26:26,464 Then, outside, the hungry masses, and I mean masses. It's epic. 394 00:26:26,489 --> 00:26:31,693 Eisenstein placed an advert for 60,000 extras. 395 00:26:34,598 --> 00:26:36,613 There he goes, over the railings. 396 00:26:38,489 --> 00:26:41,544 "Forward!", he's shouting. "Forward! In we go!" 397 00:26:41,569 --> 00:26:43,974 Then rushing up the stairs. 398 00:26:44,959 --> 00:26:46,774 GUNFIRE 399 00:26:46,799 --> 00:26:48,854 Guns are going off. 400 00:26:48,879 --> 00:26:50,693 Bang. You're dead. 401 00:26:52,768 --> 00:26:56,743 Watching it unfold, St Petersburg appears to be a cauldron 402 00:26:56,768 --> 00:26:58,654 of violent insurrection. 403 00:26:59,718 --> 00:27:01,743 But this was propaganda. 404 00:27:04,239 --> 00:27:08,894 Christopher Read has studied the real story on the streets. 405 00:27:08,919 --> 00:27:12,004 Can you give me a quick rundown about what happened 406 00:27:12,029 --> 00:27:15,573 on the 24th and the 25th of October 1917? 407 00:27:15,598 --> 00:27:18,544 I suppose the simple answer is to say, nothing very much. 408 00:27:18,569 --> 00:27:23,214 The actual events were very confined to a very small part of Russia. 409 00:27:23,239 --> 00:27:25,774 Lenin appears in the middle of all this 410 00:27:25,799 --> 00:27:28,644 and they decided it's time to think about seizing power, 411 00:27:28,669 --> 00:27:30,823 and they proclaim the seizure of power. 412 00:27:30,848 --> 00:27:33,934 But, as eyewitnesses said, the trams never stopped running. 413 00:27:33,959 --> 00:27:37,743 Ha! One person at the time said, "Well, the Bolsheviks didn't seize power. 414 00:27:37,768 --> 00:27:40,334 "They found it lying in the street and picked it up." 415 00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:43,493 They sort of realised, well, we've proclaimed Soviet power, 416 00:27:43,518 --> 00:27:46,664 but we haven't actually arrested the government. 417 00:27:46,689 --> 00:27:48,493 They're still there. 418 00:27:48,518 --> 00:27:51,414 And Kerensky, the Prime Minister, had taken advantage of that 419 00:27:51,439 --> 00:27:53,573 to leave the city. 420 00:27:53,598 --> 00:27:56,104 But there was no real storming of the Winter Palace 421 00:27:56,129 --> 00:27:59,693 because they surrounded it and there was not really very much defence. 422 00:27:59,718 --> 00:28:02,334 There was a bit of argy-bargy between the defenders 423 00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:05,644 and the outside... Not armed. just an argument more than anything else. 424 00:28:05,669 --> 00:28:08,384 One of the doors was open, people were going in and out, 425 00:28:08,409 --> 00:28:10,774 a detachment went in, they found the government, 426 00:28:10,799 --> 00:28:13,254 they arrested them and took them off to the fortress. 427 00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:17,464 Lenin and the Bolsheviks were determined to turn 428 00:28:17,489 --> 00:28:22,974 this minor skirmish into the most dramatic moment of the revolution. 429 00:28:24,029 --> 00:28:26,493 Chris, how did the Bolsheviks differentiate 430 00:28:26,518 --> 00:28:29,664 their October Revolution from the February one? 431 00:28:29,689 --> 00:28:32,134 The February Revolution was not their revolution. 432 00:28:32,159 --> 00:28:35,294 The February Revolution was the bourgeois revolution, so it wasn't their deal. 433 00:28:35,319 --> 00:28:37,134 Once they'd actually seized power in October, 434 00:28:37,159 --> 00:28:39,854 the February Revolution became completely irrelevant. 435 00:28:42,598 --> 00:28:45,934 October, that was the revolution that really mattered - 436 00:28:45,959 --> 00:28:48,214 the one that should be remembered. 437 00:28:48,239 --> 00:28:50,334 That little business in February, 438 00:28:50,359 --> 00:28:54,254 that wasn't a proper revolution, that was just, sort of, a taster. 439 00:28:55,999 --> 00:28:59,464 Lenin's Bolshevik coup was now established 440 00:28:59,489 --> 00:29:01,974 as the real revolution. 441 00:29:01,999 --> 00:29:05,823 It promised a future shaped by peace, by plenty, 442 00:29:05,848 --> 00:29:07,573 and Marxist ideals. 443 00:29:16,159 --> 00:29:19,974 Lenin's doctrines rejected both religion 444 00:29:19,999 --> 00:29:21,934 and the Romanovs. 445 00:29:21,959 --> 00:29:24,573 Churches were destroyed... 446 00:29:26,689 --> 00:29:30,664 ...and the Tsar and his family remained under house arrest. 447 00:29:33,239 --> 00:29:37,894 But the Tsar was a figurehead for die-hard royalists, 448 00:29:37,919 --> 00:29:42,024 and by 1918, a violent civil war had erupted 449 00:29:42,049 --> 00:29:44,743 between the Reds, that's the Bolsheviks, 450 00:29:44,768 --> 00:29:47,974 and the counter-revolutionaries, known as the Whites. 451 00:29:51,049 --> 00:29:54,693 This was the first civil war in which tanks were used. 452 00:29:54,718 --> 00:29:57,414 Trotsky led the Red Army really well. 453 00:29:57,439 --> 00:30:00,493 He modernised it, he motivated it. 454 00:30:00,518 --> 00:30:04,693 But the civil war was made more intense by foreign intervention. 455 00:30:04,718 --> 00:30:06,974 Japan, America, Britain - 456 00:30:06,999 --> 00:30:10,664 they all sent help to the White Russian Army. 457 00:30:12,959 --> 00:30:16,493 Trotsky's Red Army fought back. 458 00:30:16,518 --> 00:30:19,974 They controlled the heart of Russia and held the key cities 459 00:30:19,999 --> 00:30:22,174 of St Petersburg and Moscow. 460 00:30:23,239 --> 00:30:25,054 The various White armies were 461 00:30:25,079 --> 00:30:26,974 around the borders of Russia, 462 00:30:26,999 --> 00:30:28,334 coming in from the north, 463 00:30:28,359 --> 00:30:29,659 from Eastern Europe, 464 00:30:29,684 --> 00:30:31,763 the south, and even from Siberia. 465 00:30:32,837 --> 00:30:35,482 Winston Churchill, the British War Minister, 466 00:30:35,507 --> 00:30:38,453 sent support to the Whites to fight the Reds. 467 00:30:38,478 --> 00:30:42,963 He said he wanted to strangle Bolshevism in the cradle. 468 00:30:45,707 --> 00:30:49,653 The British ended up sending 6,000 troops 469 00:30:49,678 --> 00:30:52,453 and 8O tanks to Russia. 470 00:30:52,478 --> 00:30:56,453 To put that in perspective, Germany in World War I 471 00:30:56,478 --> 00:30:58,913 only had seven tanks altogether. 472 00:31:01,038 --> 00:31:04,403 The fighting in Russia wasn't confined to the battlefield. 473 00:31:04,428 --> 00:31:07,682 It was also a propaganda war 474 00:31:07,707 --> 00:31:11,203 full of exaggeration and downright lies. 475 00:31:14,507 --> 00:31:17,482 Bolshevik trains crisscrossed the country, 476 00:31:17,507 --> 00:31:20,163 spreading THEIR version of the revolution. 477 00:31:21,788 --> 00:31:24,482 Strong pictorial messages were essential 478 00:31:24,507 --> 00:31:26,963 because so many peasants were illiterate. 479 00:31:28,188 --> 00:31:30,883 Art historian Natalia Sidlina 480 00:31:30,908 --> 00:31:34,013 is an expert on Bolshevik propaganda. 481 00:31:34,038 --> 00:31:39,373 You take a train, you paint the carriages in the bright colours, 482 00:31:39,398 --> 00:31:42,732 you put the posters on them and propaganda messages, 483 00:31:42,757 --> 00:31:44,562 the slogans and banners, 484 00:31:44,587 --> 00:31:47,843 you put the little cinema in one of the carriages, 485 00:31:47,868 --> 00:31:50,523 maybe a doctor in another one, 486 00:31:50,548 --> 00:31:53,163 a specialist in agriculture in the third one, 487 00:31:53,188 --> 00:31:57,013 and you win people through this positive message, 488 00:31:57,038 --> 00:32:01,243 through drawing them in and showing them that the new power 489 00:32:01,268 --> 00:32:03,633 and the new government is all about them. 490 00:32:03,658 --> 00:32:07,043 It's brilliant. So, if this fancy train stops at your local station 491 00:32:07,068 --> 00:32:10,243 and you could get health care and you get agricultural advice, 492 00:32:10,268 --> 00:32:14,323 and a cinema show, you're actually being brainwashed. Absolutely. 493 00:32:14,348 --> 00:32:17,602 What's going on in this poster here? What's the big red triangle? 494 00:32:17,627 --> 00:32:21,963 It's a brilliant example of the usage of a modernist language 495 00:32:21,988 --> 00:32:23,732 for propaganda. 496 00:32:23,757 --> 00:32:26,883 So, we have the red wedge, which is the Red Army, 497 00:32:26,908 --> 00:32:32,013 which attacked floppy, soft, white, static force, 498 00:32:32,038 --> 00:32:35,932 represented by this circular form here. 499 00:32:35,957 --> 00:32:38,243 So this is the Red Army of the revolutionaries 500 00:32:38,268 --> 00:32:41,453 and this is the White Army of the old Russians, the tsarists, 501 00:32:41,478 --> 00:32:43,802 the opposition to the revolution? Absolutely. 502 00:32:43,827 --> 00:32:48,163 Red Army really consolidated one message, one government, 503 00:32:48,188 --> 00:32:52,523 and you can see, it's penetrating, it's dynamic, it's winning. 504 00:32:55,228 --> 00:33:01,482 But cool modernist posters concealed the chaotic brutality of this war. 505 00:33:01,507 --> 00:33:04,913 Prisoners on both sides were executed out of hand. 506 00:33:05,988 --> 00:33:09,323 Lenin came to power promising that the death penalty 507 00:33:09,348 --> 00:33:12,043 of the tsarist era would never return. 508 00:33:12,068 --> 00:33:14,913 But nothing could be further from the truth. 509 00:33:16,478 --> 00:33:20,963 Lenin's secret police, the Cheka, executed tens of thousands 510 00:33:20,988 --> 00:33:24,453 more Russians than the Tsar's secret police had ever done. 511 00:33:24,478 --> 00:33:29,883 They would denounce members of the opposition as enemies of the people. 512 00:33:31,988 --> 00:33:35,573 Enemy of the people number one was the Tsar. 513 00:33:36,678 --> 00:33:40,403 He'd now been moved to the city of Yekaterinburg with his family. 514 00:33:41,468 --> 00:33:46,323 Their prison was ominously called the House for Special Purposes. 515 00:33:48,757 --> 00:33:53,403 By July 1918, White forces were closing in on Yekaterinburg 516 00:33:53,428 --> 00:33:55,963 to rescue the Tsar and his family. 517 00:33:56,938 --> 00:33:59,163 The Bolsheviks decided to act. 518 00:34:03,038 --> 00:34:07,193 Nicholas had no idea that he and his family's lives were in danger. 519 00:34:07,218 --> 00:34:09,963 The last entry in his diary reads - 520 00:34:09,988 --> 00:34:13,013 "The weather is fine and warm. 521 00:34:13,038 --> 00:34:16,682 "We've had absolutely no news from outside." 522 00:34:19,507 --> 00:34:23,732 Three clays on, very late on the night of the 16th ofjuly, 523 00:34:23,757 --> 00:34:27,602 the Tsar and his family were taken down to the basement of the house. 524 00:34:30,218 --> 00:34:35,653 What took place next, would be shrouded in lies for over 70 years. 525 00:34:37,868 --> 00:34:42,482 The head guard, Yakov Yurovsky, left an account of what happened. 526 00:34:42,507 --> 00:34:45,243 The royal family were told that a truck had come 527 00:34:45,268 --> 00:34:47,963 to take them on the next leg of their journey. 528 00:34:47,988 --> 00:34:51,932 This was half true - a truck had come to take them away, 529 00:34:51,957 --> 00:34:54,572 but only after they'd been killed. 530 00:34:56,058 --> 00:35:00,033 First to be shot was Nicholas, at point-blank range. 531 00:35:00,058 --> 00:35:02,673 When the bullets reached his wife, Alexandra, 532 00:35:02,698 --> 00:35:06,033 she was in the process of making the sign of the cross. 533 00:35:06,058 --> 00:35:07,983 These two died instantly. 534 00:35:08,008 --> 00:35:09,983 Not so with the children. 535 00:35:11,008 --> 00:35:13,463 Here, the guns were somehow ineffective, 536 00:35:13,488 --> 00:35:17,063 and they had to turn to bayonets to finish the job. 537 00:35:17,088 --> 00:35:21,702 The gruesome work took 20 whole minutes. 538 00:35:29,527 --> 00:35:33,502 Officially, it was the local Soviets' decision 539 00:35:33,527 --> 00:35:36,423 to execute the royal family, not Lenin's. 540 00:35:40,208 --> 00:35:42,263 But Helen Rappaport is sceptical. 541 00:35:43,777 --> 00:35:46,502 Helen, what's the evidence that Lenin was involved 542 00:35:46,527 --> 00:35:49,213 in this decision to kill the Romanovs? 543 00:36:48,008 --> 00:36:50,463 It's quite clever. The telegram doesn't say, 544 00:36:50,488 --> 00:36:52,702 "We're going to kill them." 545 00:36:52,727 --> 00:36:56,822 It says, "We're going to do what we agreed earlier." 546 00:36:56,847 --> 00:37:00,702 The next day, the Soviet authorities released a statement to the press 547 00:37:00,727 --> 00:37:04,313 that Nicholas Romanov had been executed. 548 00:37:06,727 --> 00:37:09,423 But the telegram continued with a lie. 549 00:37:49,618 --> 00:37:54,263 Depending on your point of view, the execution of the Romanov family 550 00:37:54,288 --> 00:37:58,423 was either a spiteful act by a group of thugs, 551 00:37:58,448 --> 00:38:04,492 or it was a political necessity for the success of the revolution. 552 00:38:04,517 --> 00:38:08,492 But Lenin really needed to cover it up because if news got out 553 00:38:08,517 --> 00:38:11,783 about the slaughter of innocent children, it would instantly 554 00:38:11,808 --> 00:38:13,952 attract international condemnation. 555 00:38:17,168 --> 00:38:21,463 The bodies of the Romanovs were buried in a nearby forest. 556 00:38:23,338 --> 00:38:27,952 The lies told about the royal family led to a lingering belief 557 00:38:27,977 --> 00:38:31,903 that the youngest daughter, Anastasia, had somehow survived. 558 00:38:33,368 --> 00:38:37,423 If the princess were alive, then she'd become the last hope 559 00:38:37,448 --> 00:38:40,213 for a restoration of the Romanov of dynasty. 560 00:38:41,767 --> 00:38:46,183 The true fate of Anastasia would remain a mystery for decades. 561 00:38:51,158 --> 00:38:54,263 The Reds won the civil war in 1922. 562 00:38:56,488 --> 00:39:00,543 But Lenin didn't have long to enjoy the triumph. 563 00:39:00,568 --> 00:39:04,133 Within a few months, he'd suffered three strokes. 564 00:39:04,158 --> 00:39:08,463 And in January 1924, Lenin died. 565 00:39:10,408 --> 00:39:12,183 To maintain order, 566 00:39:12,208 --> 00:39:16,903 the Bolsheviks had to demonstrate a seamless transition of power. 567 00:39:16,928 --> 00:39:19,313 In fact, it was anything but. 568 00:39:21,088 --> 00:39:25,213 Now, the official line on Lenin's death is that Stalin 569 00:39:25,238 --> 00:39:27,952 was his anointed heir. 570 00:39:27,977 --> 00:39:29,822 This isn't true at all. 571 00:39:29,847 --> 00:39:31,983 In fact, it's a whopping fib! 572 00:39:32,008 --> 00:39:35,233 And we can prove this from an impeccable source. 573 00:39:35,258 --> 00:39:36,742 Lenin himself. 574 00:39:39,338 --> 00:39:43,492 Before he died, Lenin dictated his concerns about the future 575 00:39:43,517 --> 00:39:45,313 of Russia to his secretary. 576 00:39:47,158 --> 00:39:50,903 These documents are known as Lenin's Testament. 577 00:39:50,928 --> 00:39:53,383 When he knew that he was about to die, 578 00:39:53,408 --> 00:39:57,492 he decided to warn his comrades about Stalin. 579 00:39:57,517 --> 00:40:02,383 "Comrade Stalin," Lenin says, "having become Secretary General, 580 00:40:02,408 --> 00:40:06,343 "has unlimited authority concentrated in his hands. 581 00:40:06,368 --> 00:40:10,673 "And I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using 582 00:40:10,698 --> 00:40:14,343 "that authority with sufficient caution. 583 00:40:14,368 --> 00:40:17,622 "L suggest," Lenin says, "that the comrades think 584 00:40:17,647 --> 00:40:22,103 "about removing Stalin and appointing another man." 585 00:40:23,878 --> 00:40:26,593 That's not exactly a ringing endorsement, is it? 586 00:40:26,618 --> 00:40:28,343 I think we'd better bury these. 587 00:40:32,977 --> 00:40:37,343 Lenin's Testament was hidden away in a top-secret vault. 588 00:40:39,008 --> 00:40:43,543 To gain power, Stalin spread the word that he was Lenin's choice. 589 00:40:45,798 --> 00:40:49,313 And to secure it, he began turning Lenin 590 00:40:49,338 --> 00:40:52,103 into a Bolshevik secular saint. 591 00:40:53,647 --> 00:40:56,103 GUNS FIRE 592 00:40:57,568 --> 00:41:01,492 And what better way than by embalming Lenin's body 593 00:41:01,517 --> 00:41:05,822 and exhibiting it for posterity in a mausoleum in Red Square? 594 00:41:09,208 --> 00:41:14,622 This idea of putting her husband's dead body on display 595 00:41:14,647 --> 00:41:17,103 horrified Lenin's widow. 596 00:41:17,128 --> 00:41:19,903 She wrote that it filled her with terrible indignation. 597 00:41:19,928 --> 00:41:23,492 They should have buried him with his comrades. 598 00:41:23,517 --> 00:41:26,903 Now, this inconvenient letter had to be added to the government 599 00:41:26,928 --> 00:41:30,183 file marked "Completely Secret", and locked away. 600 00:41:30,208 --> 00:41:32,593 This file's getting quite fat now, isn't it? 601 00:41:37,878 --> 00:41:40,492 With Stalin as chief pallbearer, 602 00:41:40,517 --> 00:41:44,773 the carefully stage-managed funeral went like clockwork. 603 00:41:46,618 --> 00:41:49,872 After the funeral, one of the senior communists said, 604 00:41:49,897 --> 00:41:53,063 "Lenin is dead, Leninism lives." 605 00:41:54,538 --> 00:41:56,343 Lenin had achieved immortality. 606 00:41:56,368 --> 00:42:00,983 He'd become an idea, and Stalin's creation of this cult of Lenin 607 00:42:01,008 --> 00:42:03,063 worked really well for him. 608 00:42:03,088 --> 00:42:06,263 It helped him see off his rivals, like Trotsky, 609 00:42:06,288 --> 00:42:10,263 and it helped him gain total control of the Soviet Union. 610 00:42:10,288 --> 00:42:15,663 STATE ANTHEM OF THE SOVIET UNION IS SUNG 611 00:42:18,847 --> 00:42:22,742 Stalin built on the Bolshevik falsification of the history 612 00:42:22,767 --> 00:42:26,363 of the revolution to bolster his own grip on power. 613 00:42:29,818 --> 00:42:32,702 Natalia Sidlina has studied how he did this. 614 00:42:34,408 --> 00:42:37,343 What's going on in this picture of Lenin arriving 615 00:42:37,368 --> 00:42:41,492 at the Finland Station in order to kick off the triumph of Bolshevism? 616 00:42:41,517 --> 00:42:46,773 This particular painting was created 20 years after the event. 617 00:42:46,798 --> 00:42:50,742 He has his iconic cap in one hand. 618 00:42:50,767 --> 00:42:53,872 Yes. And behind him is Joseph Stalin. 619 00:42:53,897 --> 00:42:55,543 Now, that didn't happen. 620 00:42:55,568 --> 00:43:00,183 It's like Stalin has retrospectively photobombed Lenin's arrival 621 00:43:00,208 --> 00:43:01,903 at the Finland Station. 622 00:43:01,928 --> 00:43:04,313 Stalin is in every single 623 00:43:04,338 --> 00:43:08,133 historically significant moment. 624 00:43:08,158 --> 00:43:11,463 And if that moment didn't exist, there's always the painting. 625 00:43:11,488 --> 00:43:13,773 And whoever creates the picture 626 00:43:13,798 --> 00:43:16,023 is the person who makes history. 627 00:43:16,048 --> 00:43:17,903 No image, no history. 628 00:43:19,767 --> 00:43:23,852 Paintings are easy enough to fake, but surely photographs 629 00:43:23,877 --> 00:43:25,993 were more of a challenge back then? 630 00:43:27,378 --> 00:43:30,163 Here we have probably one of the most famous photographs 631 00:43:30,188 --> 00:43:32,712 of Lenin, he's addressing troops 632 00:43:32,737 --> 00:43:37,033 about to depart for the front during the civil war. 633 00:43:37,058 --> 00:43:39,143 You can see he's mid-flow, isn't he? 634 00:43:39,168 --> 00:43:40,832 Absolutely. He's making a speech. 635 00:43:40,857 --> 00:43:45,632 And waiting for their turn are two very important politicians 636 00:43:45,657 --> 00:43:48,243 of the post-Revolutionary Russia, 637 00:43:48,268 --> 00:43:51,803 Lenin's number two, Leon Trotsky, 638 00:43:51,828 --> 00:43:54,502 and then behind him is Kamenev. 639 00:43:54,527 --> 00:43:57,113 And then we look at the photograph which appeared 640 00:43:57,138 --> 00:44:00,273 in the press during the Stalin time. 641 00:44:00,298 --> 00:44:02,752 And can you spot the difference there? 642 00:44:02,777 --> 00:44:05,553 It's pretty obvious Trotsky has disappeared! 643 00:44:05,578 --> 00:44:08,523 And Kamenev is not there either. As well! Yes. 644 00:44:08,548 --> 00:44:11,913 So, that's brilliant work of the photographers 645 00:44:11,938 --> 00:44:16,473 who did the airbrushing of the images on an industrial scale. 646 00:44:26,448 --> 00:44:29,863 Nowadays, we take image manipulation for granted, 647 00:44:29,888 --> 00:44:31,863 but we still often fall for it. 648 00:44:33,418 --> 00:44:38,752 Even in the 1920s, though, Stalin could make anyone disappear, 649 00:44:38,777 --> 00:44:44,712 or even pop up magically as a fellow comrade in Red Square. 650 00:44:44,737 --> 00:44:46,982 During Stalin time, 651 00:44:47,007 --> 00:44:51,353 the glorification of Lenin began in earnest. 652 00:44:51,378 --> 00:44:55,993 And some of the historical photographs of important speeches 653 00:44:56,018 --> 00:44:59,913 by Lenin, as far as Stalin was concerned, 654 00:44:59,938 --> 00:45:02,063 were not impressive enough. 655 00:45:02,088 --> 00:45:05,603 So, in some of them, larger crowds would be added. 656 00:45:12,987 --> 00:45:16,522 Stalin now wielded more power than even the tsars. 657 00:45:19,268 --> 00:45:23,473 In 1928, he announced the collectivisation of farms. 658 00:45:26,268 --> 00:45:30,632 No more landowners. Instead, farms and their produce 659 00:45:30,657 --> 00:45:31,993 would be shared by all. 660 00:45:33,138 --> 00:45:35,113 It would be a disaster... 661 00:45:35,138 --> 00:45:38,952 ...but many Western radicals believed Stalin's fibs 662 00:45:38,977 --> 00:45:42,473 about his latest triumph, and came to see it in action. 663 00:45:44,378 --> 00:45:46,113 They came from all over! 664 00:45:46,138 --> 00:45:48,243 There was HG Wells, the writer, 665 00:45:48,268 --> 00:45:50,473 Arthur Koestler, the philosopher, 666 00:45:50,498 --> 00:45:53,993 Beatrice and Sidney Webb, who set up the Fabian Society, 667 00:45:54,018 --> 00:45:56,913 and George Bernard Shaw. 668 00:45:56,938 --> 00:45:59,313 He was a big fan of the revolution in general, 669 00:45:59,338 --> 00:46:01,393 and of Stalin in particular. 670 00:46:03,338 --> 00:46:05,913 The Russian Revolution became a kind of touch point 671 00:46:05,938 --> 00:46:08,523 for all kinds of left-wing intellectuals. 672 00:46:08,548 --> 00:46:11,013 George Bernard Shaw and others in the 1930s, 673 00:46:11,038 --> 00:46:15,423 they wanted to believe that there's a new, rational kind of society 674 00:46:15,448 --> 00:46:19,353 being built in accordance with kind of Enlightenment principles 675 00:46:19,378 --> 00:46:23,553 of reason and organisation, rather than the madness of the market 676 00:46:23,578 --> 00:46:25,553 and capitalism, and so on. 677 00:46:25,578 --> 00:46:27,752 And did Stalin welcome these visitors? 678 00:46:27,777 --> 00:46:30,502 They were always very pleased to kind of show off 679 00:46:30,527 --> 00:46:35,273 their achievements and to show how successful they claimed to be. 680 00:46:36,378 --> 00:46:39,972 When George Bernard Shaw visited Russia, he was quick to accept 681 00:46:39,997 --> 00:46:43,143 Stalin's proud boasts about his new policies. 682 00:46:44,657 --> 00:46:47,752 "Hunger, in Russia?" asked Shaw, "Nonsense! 683 00:46:47,777 --> 00:46:51,163 "L've never been fed as well anywhere, as I was in Moscow." 684 00:46:51,188 --> 00:46:53,882 But Shaw had been taken in. 685 00:46:53,907 --> 00:46:59,143 He'd been sent on these excursions to see happy, well-fed farmers. 686 00:46:59,168 --> 00:47:03,063 But while he was being wined and dined in Moscow, in fact, 687 00:47:03,088 --> 00:47:06,913 a devastating famine was killing peasants in Ukraine 688 00:47:06,938 --> 00:47:09,113 and other parts of the Soviet Union. 689 00:47:15,058 --> 00:47:20,033 Stalin tried to cover up the famine caused by collectivisation, 690 00:47:20,058 --> 00:47:22,913 but some in the West saw through his lies. 691 00:47:25,018 --> 00:47:28,273 Journalist and author George Orwell was one of them. 692 00:47:29,977 --> 00:47:34,343 This is Manor Farm in Hertfordshire. It's the place that partly inspired 693 00:47:34,368 --> 00:47:37,303 George Orwell's story, Animal Farm. 694 00:47:37,328 --> 00:47:41,533 He lived just down the road, and he once spoke about an event 695 00:47:41,558 --> 00:47:45,533 that had triggered the idea. He'd seen a little boy 696 00:47:45,558 --> 00:47:50,253 driving a huge cart horse down a narrow path by whipping it. 697 00:47:50,278 --> 00:47:55,453 And Orwell said - if only such animals knew their strength, 698 00:47:55,478 --> 00:47:58,153 we would have no power over them. 699 00:47:58,178 --> 00:48:02,023 Men exploit animals much in the same way as the rich 700 00:48:02,048 --> 00:48:03,782 exploit the proletariat. 701 00:48:06,948 --> 00:48:10,603 Orwell described his story as a fairy story. 702 00:48:10,628 --> 00:48:13,483 It's a satire, and in it, the clever pigs 703 00:48:13,508 --> 00:48:16,563 incite all the other animals on the farm 704 00:48:16,588 --> 00:48:20,073 to rise up against the cruel, human farmer. 705 00:48:20,098 --> 00:48:22,403 But the pigs get drunk on power 706 00:48:22,428 --> 00:48:26,892 and they end up acting just as badly as the original farmer had done. 707 00:48:30,987 --> 00:48:34,683 Animal Farm came out in 1945. 708 00:48:34,708 --> 00:48:38,123 In his allegory, Orwell exposed Stalin 709 00:48:38,148 --> 00:48:40,842 as an enemy of the democratic left. 710 00:48:40,867 --> 00:48:44,123 Even worse than his tsarist predecessors. 711 00:48:44,148 --> 00:48:47,712 DRAMATIC SCORE 712 00:48:50,068 --> 00:48:54,353 But the United States government would soon see the story's potential 713 00:48:54,378 --> 00:48:57,073 as a political weapon in the Cold War. 714 00:49:03,068 --> 00:49:06,993 In the early '50s, the CIA secretly bought the rights to turn 715 00:49:07,018 --> 00:49:11,173 Animal Farm into an animated feature film. They were using it 716 00:49:11,198 --> 00:49:13,642 as anti-communist propaganda. 717 00:49:13,667 --> 00:49:18,243 Comrades, I have made a terrible discovery! 718 00:49:20,098 --> 00:49:23,043 There are traitors among us. 719 00:49:28,528 --> 00:49:32,353 Orwell's warning about Stalinism was now harnessed as an argument 720 00:49:32,378 --> 00:49:34,323 against the left in general. 721 00:49:36,348 --> 00:49:40,073 And the line, "Some animals are more equal than others," 722 00:49:40,098 --> 00:49:44,203 has been used to brand socialist leaders as hypocrites ever since. 723 00:49:47,818 --> 00:49:50,533 Many of Stalin's crimes would remain hidden 724 00:49:50,558 --> 00:49:52,283 from the world for decades. 725 00:49:53,508 --> 00:49:58,283 His terrible excesses glossed over after his victory against Hitler. 726 00:49:59,428 --> 00:50:01,483 In Russia, he was celebrated as a hero. 727 00:50:05,348 --> 00:50:07,153 Stalin's death in 1953 728 00:50:07,178 --> 00:50:11,203 marked the end of the first revolutionary generation. 729 00:50:16,428 --> 00:50:20,813 But in the years that followed, the memory of the Romanovs 730 00:50:20,838 --> 00:50:22,982 continued to haunt Russia. 731 00:50:24,448 --> 00:50:29,533 In 1979, two amateur detectives, Alexander Avdonin 732 00:50:29,558 --> 00:50:34,433 and Geli Ryabov came to a forest near Yekaterinburg. 733 00:50:35,588 --> 00:50:40,073 They had a tip-off about where the royal bodies might be buried. 734 00:50:44,508 --> 00:50:48,403 Avdonin said that his task was to restore "one of the pages 735 00:50:48,428 --> 00:50:53,833 "of our history," but he also knew that this was extremely dangerous. 736 00:50:53,858 --> 00:50:59,533 "If this gets to the KGB," he said, "it will end very badly for me." 737 00:50:59,558 --> 00:51:01,762 Even so, they started digging. 738 00:51:01,787 --> 00:51:06,712 They found bones and, pretty soon, three skulls. 739 00:51:11,867 --> 00:51:14,563 One skull had a bullet hole in it. 740 00:51:15,628 --> 00:51:19,923 Another had several gold teeth, just like the Tsar. 741 00:51:21,378 --> 00:51:25,243 The men contacted scientists in Moscow to confirm their find, 742 00:51:25,268 --> 00:51:27,403 but no-one would dare touch it. 743 00:51:28,787 --> 00:51:31,426 This was Soviet Russia in the 1970s. 744 00:51:31,451 --> 00:51:34,936 People were terrified of the authorities. Avdonin said, 745 00:51:34,961 --> 00:51:37,736 "We could have been sent to prison, 746 00:51:37,761 --> 00:51:40,655 "we could even have just been disappeared." 747 00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:43,986 The Soviet regime had been covering up this business 748 00:51:44,011 --> 00:51:47,186 since the very first year of the revolution. 749 00:51:47,211 --> 00:51:49,216 So, they lost their nerve. 750 00:51:49,241 --> 00:51:53,266 They went back to the forest and they reburied the skulls. 751 00:51:53,291 --> 00:51:56,506 History would have to wait a little bit longer 752 00:51:56,531 --> 00:51:58,736 for the truth to be revealed. 753 00:52:06,211 --> 00:52:08,866 But not as long as the two men feared. 754 00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:13,376 In the 1980s, 755 00:52:13,401 --> 00:52:17,376 Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to reform the Soviet Union 756 00:52:17,401 --> 00:52:20,226 with a new spirit of openness. 757 00:52:20,251 --> 00:52:24,915 But by challenging the fibs of the past, Gorbachev unleashed 758 00:52:24,940 --> 00:52:29,585 an unstoppable force that swept Soviet power away altogether. 759 00:52:31,301 --> 00:52:36,356 On Christmas Day 1991, the red flag above the Kremlin was lowered 760 00:52:36,381 --> 00:52:37,795 for the last time, 761 00:52:37,820 --> 00:52:42,406 to be replaced by the old Russian imperial colours. 762 00:52:43,940 --> 00:52:46,556 Russia was now a democratic republic. 763 00:52:48,021 --> 00:52:52,196 74 years of Bolshevik rule were over. 764 00:52:57,051 --> 00:53:00,996 The Russian Orthodox Church flourished once more. 765 00:53:01,021 --> 00:53:02,876 A cathedral was built 766 00:53:02,901 --> 00:53:06,306 on the site of the Romanov executions in Yekaterinburg. 767 00:53:07,610 --> 00:53:12,456 Over the years, Bolshevik lies about the fate of the Tsar's family 768 00:53:12,481 --> 00:53:16,276 had allowed the story of Anastasia's survival to flourish. 769 00:53:18,070 --> 00:53:21,226 Books and films were made about the heir to the Romanov throne, 770 00:53:21,251 --> 00:53:24,356 who'd supposedly made it to the West. 771 00:53:24,381 --> 00:53:28,026 Several women even claimed to be Anastasia. 772 00:53:29,740 --> 00:53:34,915 In 1991, the bones in the woods were dug up again and later 773 00:53:34,940 --> 00:53:37,076 analysed by scientists. 774 00:53:41,071 --> 00:53:45,196 The DNA tests confirmed that the bodies were the Russian 775 00:53:45,221 --> 00:53:47,436 royal family, and from their number, 776 00:53:47,461 --> 00:53:50,556 it was clear that Anastasia was among them. 777 00:53:50,581 --> 00:53:54,476 She hadn't escaped the murders, after all. 778 00:53:54,501 --> 00:54:00,636 The celebrated myth of Anastasia could finally be put to rest. 779 00:54:10,070 --> 00:54:12,196 In the year 2000, 780 00:54:12,221 --> 00:54:16,866 the Russian church declared the Russian royal family to be saints. 781 00:54:19,381 --> 00:54:24,306 In Vladimir Putin's new Russia, tens of thousands go on marches 782 00:54:24,331 --> 00:54:27,996 and pilgrimages commemorating the Romanovs, every year. 783 00:54:32,331 --> 00:54:35,866 Former BBC Moscow correspondent Martin Sixsmith 784 00:54:35,891 --> 00:54:40,196 has witnessed the extraordinary rewriting of the story 785 00:54:40,221 --> 00:54:42,156 of the revolution. 786 00:54:42,181 --> 00:54:46,585 The Tsar and the tsarist dynasties, the Romanovs 787 00:54:46,610 --> 00:54:49,766 and those who preceded them, have made a fantastic and quite 788 00:54:49,791 --> 00:54:53,766 remarkable comeback in the last 30 years, since 1991. 789 00:54:53,791 --> 00:54:57,386 Under communism, they were the tyrants who were overthrown 790 00:54:57,411 --> 00:54:59,076 by the force of the people, 791 00:54:59,101 --> 00:55:01,356 the socialist uprising of 1917. 792 00:55:01,381 --> 00:55:03,536 Suddenly, now, they're saints. 793 00:55:03,561 --> 00:55:05,216 They are literally sanctified. 794 00:55:05,241 --> 00:55:09,356 And that's all to do with Putin co-opting the legacy 795 00:55:09,381 --> 00:55:13,116 of the Romanovs, which was a strong, centralised Russia. 796 00:55:13,141 --> 00:55:15,585 But it's also to do with co-opting the power 797 00:55:15,610 --> 00:55:18,026 of the Russian Orthodox Church. 798 00:55:24,940 --> 00:55:29,556 Putin has embraced this new veneration of the Tsar 799 00:55:29,581 --> 00:55:33,356 and he rejects the legacy of the October Revolution. 800 00:55:36,820 --> 00:55:40,915 Political commentator Arkady Ostrovsky has studied 801 00:55:40,940 --> 00:55:43,715 Putin's approach to Soviet history. 802 00:55:43,740 --> 00:55:46,116 The Bolshevik revolution is, 803 00:55:46,141 --> 00:55:48,715 if anything, is a negative event for him. 804 00:55:48,740 --> 00:55:52,076 It's omitted from the official Russian calendar. 805 00:55:52,101 --> 00:55:55,196 It's no longer marked because it's a divisive event. 806 00:55:55,221 --> 00:56:00,075 The fact that the Lenin's mausoleum is draped off during the parades 807 00:56:00,100 --> 00:56:03,316 in the Red Square actually speaks volumes 808 00:56:03,341 --> 00:56:06,055 about his attitude to those events. 809 00:56:06,080 --> 00:56:10,446 As an autocrat who built his legitimacy around the idea 810 00:56:10,471 --> 00:56:14,206 of Russian imperial history, expansion of territories, 811 00:56:14,231 --> 00:56:16,725 revolutions are not comfortable events. 812 00:56:16,750 --> 00:56:19,766 And that's the big change from, of course, the Soviet period, 813 00:56:19,791 --> 00:56:22,805 which was all based on the idea of the Bolshevik revolution. 814 00:56:22,830 --> 00:56:25,845 And that was the source of legitimacy of the Soviet rulers 815 00:56:25,870 --> 00:56:28,306 up till and including Gorbachev. 816 00:56:28,331 --> 00:56:32,446 For Putin, it's the idea of the empire, which is much more important 817 00:56:32,471 --> 00:56:34,805 than the idea of the communist ideology. 818 00:56:34,830 --> 00:56:38,166 So, suddenly, a revolution is uncomfortable because it's... 819 00:56:38,191 --> 00:56:40,366 Part of the reason they're omitting it 820 00:56:40,391 --> 00:56:43,876 is that it raises some of the very, very similar questions 821 00:56:43,901 --> 00:56:46,925 about Russia's future... ls it time for another one? Yes. 822 00:56:46,950 --> 00:56:51,956 And, in a sense, that Russia is battling with the same dilemmas 823 00:56:51,981 --> 00:56:56,006 as it did in 1916, just before the revolution. 824 00:56:59,311 --> 00:57:04,156 Vladimir Putin is marginalising Lenin and the Russian Revolution. 825 00:57:06,391 --> 00:57:09,406 He's happy to create his own narrative 826 00:57:09,431 --> 00:57:12,286 and brush aside unwelcome facts. 827 00:57:12,311 --> 00:57:15,156 It's an art perfected by the Bolsheviks. 828 00:57:15,181 --> 00:57:17,925 There have been more fibs told about the history of Russia 829 00:57:17,950 --> 00:57:21,366 than about the history of any country in the world. 830 00:57:21,391 --> 00:57:23,386 We look at fake news today. 831 00:57:23,411 --> 00:57:25,536 We look at politicians who say one thing today, 832 00:57:25,561 --> 00:57:28,426 and then, the following day deny that they'd said it. 833 00:57:28,451 --> 00:57:31,536 But they look like amateurs compared to the Bolsheviks. 834 00:57:31,561 --> 00:57:34,466 The Bolsheviks rewrote whole swathes of history, 835 00:57:34,491 --> 00:57:39,396 decades of history, and they rewrote it in the way that suited them best. 836 00:57:39,421 --> 00:57:40,756 So, they became the heroes. 837 00:57:40,781 --> 00:57:43,356 Everybody else became the villains. 838 00:57:46,940 --> 00:57:50,636 Royal history is always being written and rewritten 839 00:57:50,661 --> 00:57:52,996 to suit those who are telling it. 840 00:57:53,021 --> 00:57:57,356 For many decades, Russians were told it was the October Revolution 841 00:57:57,381 --> 00:58:00,946 that saved the nation, that Lenin was a national hero. 842 00:58:02,661 --> 00:58:05,196 Now he's been sidelined. 843 00:58:07,610 --> 00:58:09,866 As for the Tsar and his family, 844 00:58:09,891 --> 00:58:15,585 well, today in the new Russia, they are royal martyrs. 845 00:58:15,610 --> 00:58:18,026 And tomorrow, who knows? 846 00:58:18,051 --> 00:58:20,045 Only one thing's for sure - 847 00:58:20,070 --> 00:58:23,226 the future is just as uncertain 848 00:58:23,251 --> 00:58:26,276 as the ever-changing story of the past.