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For the past century,
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Russian history has also been the history
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of its security services.
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They were used by the Soviet state to crush dissent.
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Millions suffered at their hands.
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But while many things may have changed in today's Russia,
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its security network is arguably stronger than ever.
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And the reason behind that is the rise
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of a lowly Lieutenant Colonel
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to President of this vast country.
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I know the KGB better than anyone else
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because I was part of the inside circle.
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(soft music)
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This is the story of the KGB
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told by its veterans and its victims.
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(soft music)
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(audience laughs)
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(Evgenia speaks Russian)
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(audience laughs)
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In a Moscow comedy club,
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young people laugh at life as it was
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living in the shadow of the KGB.
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The jokes compiled from the archives,
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show how humor was often the last refuge
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under an authoritarian regime.
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A joke is one of the main ways
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of dealing with stress.
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It can help you live with the things you can't change.
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Misha Melnichenko has unearthed
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almost 6,000 Soviet political jokes.
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One day, Stalin lost his pipe
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and ordered his security chief, Beria, to investigate.
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A bit later, he calls Beria and says,
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"Don't worry, I found the pipe."
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Beria replies, "But we've arrested 100 people,
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and 99 of them have confessed."
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Stalin exclaims, "Only 99?
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Continue the investigation."
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(soft music)
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In reality, life for most Soviet citizens
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was no laughing matter.
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This recently opened KGB archive in Kiev
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contains millions of documents.
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It records the fate of hundreds of thousands
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sent to the Gulags,
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and tens of thousands more sentenced to death.
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Those who suffered at the hands of the KGB,
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and KGB officers themselves, are well-placed to tell us
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about the biggest state security network
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the world has ever known.
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(soft music)
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On the third day, they led you into a cell
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to take your fingerprints.
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This is me.
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Prisoners called this playing the piano.
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(man speaks Russian)
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(soft music)
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They came one December night and arrested me.
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(soft music)
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They pushed guns through our cell windows
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and opened fire.
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(soft music)
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They shot people without trial.
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God knows what else they did.
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(soft music)
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Also inside these boxes,
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there are untold stories of heroism
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where KGB agents put their lives on the line
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to protect their country and Soviet rule.
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We truly believed
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that we were protecting our country
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because the KGB was one of the most powerful
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secret services in the world.
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(soft music)
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Usually it is associated
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with some kind of enforcement or violence,
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but I'm very proud to be a member
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of the intelligence service.
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(Russian National Anthem)
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Russia, the largest country on earth.
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Misunderstood by many and feared by even more.
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(Russian National Anthem)
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Invaded repeatedly over the centuries,
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its leaders have adopted a siege mentality
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to counter real or perceived threats from abroad.
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Russia's people have been encouraged
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to view foreigners as the enemy.
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I want to be a citizen of the world
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and I want to be on good terms with the rest of the world.
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But they tell me that this is an enemy,
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and that is an enemy, and those over there are also enemies.
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But why is he an enemy?
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Maybe I just want to love him.
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Enemies have been a preoccupation
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throughout Russian history.
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In modern times, those enemies inside and out
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have been the target of surveillance,
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assassinations, honey traps, and hacking scandals.
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(soft music)
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The story of the KGB began over a century ago
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with a revolution.
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After the Bolsheviks took power in 1917,
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Lenin founded a secret police force
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as a temporary measure.
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It was called the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission
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for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage,
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or Cheka for short.
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The name changed several times in the last century,
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including OGPU, NKVD, MGB, KGB, and finally FSB.
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But even today, agents refer to themselves as Chekists.
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KGB Colonel Anatoliy Sakhno recalls the ethics
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that were drummed into him as a young recruit.
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A Chekist, we were told,
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had to have a cool head, warm heart, and clean hands.
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It was drilled into us from our very first day.
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It went into our heads, hearts, our souls.
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There is a myth of this high morality,
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of this moral purity of the Chekists
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and other Knights of the Revolution, as they were called.
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In January, 2018, only 12% of Russians
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said that they associates the Cheka
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as the Soviet Secret Police
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with terror and persecution of dissidents.
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Their Moscow headquarters,
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the Lubyanka, quickly became notorious.
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Chekists were expected to crack down hard
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on all who opposed the state.
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The first head of the secret police
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was the son of a Polish Catholic aristocrat,
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Felix Dzerzhinsky.
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He soon earned the name Iron Felix.
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Dzerzhinsky came from a strict Catholic background
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and he had ambitions to become a priest.
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His mother and an uncle had to talk him out of this
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because they recognized that he was too fond of women
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to take up a job as a Catholic priest.
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But Dzerzhinsky didn't entirely abandon
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his Catholic beliefs.
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He carried over the ideals of a kind of Jesuit priest
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into the idea of what the perfect secret policeman was.
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Somebody who was part of society,
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but withdrawn from society at the same time.
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Somebody with very strict moral values.
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(Alexander speaks Russian)
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Everyone knew he was a man of iron,
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a man of integrity.
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Of course, he created a monster.
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It was a dreadful organization.
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Even some of Lenin's closest associates
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were afraid of the Cheka.
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(soft music)
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Back then, all these people
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that were really committed communists,
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they had a very clear vision of the future
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for their country and for the world.
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And they wanted to start a world revolution
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and it was a very big idea for many,
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and they were ready to sacrifice themselves,
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sacrifice the population of Russia.
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From their imposing Lubyanka headquarters,
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the Cheka exercised seemingly limitless authority.
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Only the best, cleverest,
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most reliable people were selected.
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So it was considered a great honor
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to be awarded your certificate as an officer of the KGB.
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(soft music)
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State-sponsored movies and novels
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also glamorized the Security Services
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through the exploits of men like Nikolai Kuznetsov,
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a Russian equivalent of James Bond.
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(Kuznetsov speaks Russian)
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But while Bond was fictional, Kuznetsov was very real.
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Films depicted his daring behind German lines
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during the Second World War.
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Many aspiring agents fell under the Kuznetsov spell.
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(soft music)
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One lad who dreamt that he join
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this prestigious organization was young Vladimir Putin.
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When he was still at school,
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he went to the local KGB office and said, "How do I join?"
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And even the KGB there were fairly disconcerted
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and basically said, "Well, run along sonny,
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go to university and do a degree,
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and then maybe we'll talk."
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(gunshot)
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When I was a young lad,
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I wanted to work for the State Security Services
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because I was influenced
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by the books and films of that time.
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It was deliberately romanticized.
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I was very patriotic.
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I wanted to catch spies.
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I wanted to work in counterintelligence.
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All that romantic stuff that excites young people.
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We would be the patriots
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who would protect the country.
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We were ready to sacrifice our lives for the country.
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Once they had caught the bug,
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these idealistic and ambitious recruits
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underwent specialized training,
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including the dark arts of counterintelligence.
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A KGB officer doesn't usually wear a uniform.
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These are the only photos of me in uniform.
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They were taken at the KGB training academy in Tashkent.
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We learned languages and learned to shoot.
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We learned the art of photography.
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There were professors, specialized research,
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and experienced professionals were assigned to train us
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how to recruit, how to blackmail, to bribe, and to abuse.
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In their fortress-like training center
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on the outskirts of Moscow,
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today's recruits are constantly reminded of Lenin's words,
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ironically borrowed from the Bible,
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"Whoever is not with me is against me."
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Yet Lenin's secret police chief, Iron Felix Dzerzhinsky,
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constantly feared for his life, and he wasn't wrong.
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(Alexander speaks Russian)
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He was a very cautious man.
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For example, in his office in the Lubyanka,
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there was an anteroom where his secretary worked
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and a prisoner was in custody in the cells nearby.
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The man overpowered his guard, took his gun,
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and ran into the corridor.
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He was determined to shoot Dzerzhinsky.
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He burst into the anteroom,
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but he couldn't see a way into Dzerzhinsky's office
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because the door was hidden behind a wardrobe.
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To get in, you had to go through the wardrobe
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and strangers didn't know about it.
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(Alexander speaks Russian)
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But while Dzerzhinsky was always on his guard,
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his boss Lenin, believed the revolution could defend itself.
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Lenin had a rather naive attitude
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towards security, it seems.
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He said, "It'd be enough for the new Soviet state
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to arrest 50 to 100 leading bankers, expose their frauds,
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and the Russian people then
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realize the horrors of capitalism."
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Dzerzhinsky said, "No, you have to be more brutal than that.
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There are forces at large
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who wish to destroy the Soviet state.
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You need to not just arrest large numbers of people,
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but you need to terrify the opposition,
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so you need to kill large numbers of people."
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Dzerzhinsky himself said,
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"We stand for organized terror.
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This should be frankly admitted.
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Terror is an absolute necessity during times of revolution."
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The Soviet system, the Bolshevik regime seized power.
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They didn't have the support of the people.
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For them, the nation, peasants,
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the countryside, military units, were all suspect
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and they decided to run the country
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with the use of undercover informers
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who reported on all spheres of Soviet life.
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Everywhere from factories, small cooperatives, to the army,
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the Soviet regime trusted no one.
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Convinced by Dzerzhinsky
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that saboteurs were everywhere, Lenin ordered a purge.
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A civil war had broken out, and between 1918 and 1920,
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over 100,000 people were executed by the Cheka.
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It became known as the Red Terror.
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The Red Terror was indiscriminate violence.
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It could be shooting prisoners
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in the basements of the Lubyanka.
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It could be burning down villages.
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It could be putting prisoners on a boat
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0:14:46,343 --> 0:14:49,213
and just sinking the boat, watching them all drown.
269
0:14:49,213 --> 0:14:50,973
It could be putting them in prison camps
270
0:14:50,973 --> 0:14:52,623
and letting them starve to death.
271
0:14:53,793 --> 0:14:56,963
Dzerzhinsky, the man who might've become a priest,
272
0:14:56,963 --> 0:14:59,626
was now orchestrating mass murder.
273
0:15:2,963 --> 0:15:6,853
Religion was denounced as a competing ideology,
274
0:15:6,853 --> 0:15:10,263
but it had been ingrained in Russian culture for centuries
275
0:15:10,263 --> 0:15:13,527
and couldn't be replaced with atheism overnight.
276
0:15:13,527 --> 0:15:15,944
(soft music)
277
0:15:20,903 --> 0:15:22,483
So while hundreds of churches
278
0:15:22,483 --> 0:15:24,473
were destroyed across the country
279
0:15:24,473 --> 0:15:27,263
and bishops and priests executed,
280
0:15:27,263 --> 0:15:29,263
those few allowed to continue
281
0:15:29,263 --> 0:15:32,496
were forced to work with Dzerzhinsky's security services.
282
0:15:35,220 --> 0:15:37,553
(explosion)
283
0:15:40,133 --> 0:15:41,683
Only a fraction of the churches
284
0:15:41,683 --> 0:15:44,473
that existed in Moscow before the revolution
285
0:15:44,473 --> 0:15:47,183
remained in the 1950s,
286
0:15:47,183 --> 0:15:49,943
according to the research of a British exchange student
287
0:15:49,943 --> 0:15:52,946
in Moscow at the time, Michael Bourdeaux.
288
0:15:54,263 --> 0:15:58,313
In January, 1918, Lenin himself
289
0:15:58,313 --> 0:16:1,596
passed the first anti-religious laws.
290
0:16:3,853 --> 0:16:6,523
He also took away church property.
291
0:16:6,523 --> 0:16:8,413
So religion and the Tsarist regime
292
0:16:8,413 --> 0:16:10,676
were put together as being fair game.
293
0:16:13,73 --> 0:16:14,403
To neutralize what remained
294
0:16:14,403 --> 0:16:16,403
of the religious community,
295
0:16:16,403 --> 0:16:20,156
Dzerzhinsky's Cheka infiltrated it at every level.
296
0:16:21,483 --> 0:16:23,873
I would go as far as to say
297
0:16:23,873 --> 0:16:28,783
that the ruling group of bishops
298
0:16:28,783 --> 0:16:31,966
was more or less a KGB agency.
299
0:16:33,113 --> 0:16:35,373
The communist party found new uses
300
0:16:35,373 --> 0:16:37,246
for some church property.
301
0:16:38,193 --> 0:16:40,413
The dark elements of early Soviet history
302
0:16:40,413 --> 0:16:42,243
have become a special interest
303
0:16:42,243 --> 0:16:44,136
to historian Masha Shilova.
304
0:16:46,412 --> 0:16:49,323
This is the John the Baptist convent.
305
0:16:49,323 --> 0:16:52,73
In 1918, it was closed and the Bolsheviks
306
0:16:52,73 --> 0:16:54,743
turned it into one of the largest concentration camps
307
0:16:54,743 --> 0:16:56,506
of the early Soviet era.
308
0:16:57,433 --> 0:17:0,396
As many as 800 prisoners were held here.
309
0:17:1,633 --> 0:17:4,613
Interestingly, the concentration camp and the convent
310
0:17:4,613 --> 0:17:8,106
somehow shared the space until 1926.
311
0:17:9,3 --> 0:17:11,846
100 nuns continued to live here.
312
0:17:13,452 --> 0:17:15,952
(bell chimes)
313
0:17:17,383 --> 0:17:20,433
When Lenin died in 1924,
314
0:17:20,433 --> 0:17:23,676
Dzerzhinsky was instrumental in the ensuing power struggle.
315
0:17:24,653 --> 0:17:26,723
He helped sidetrack Trotsky,
316
0:17:26,723 --> 0:17:30,796
the heir apparent and actively supported Joseph Stalin.
317
0:17:32,653 --> 0:17:34,673
His reward came when Stalin chose
318
0:17:34,673 --> 0:17:36,676
to expand the Secret Service.
319
0:17:40,143 --> 0:17:43,163
The new leader was determined to drag the Soviet Union
320
0:17:43,163 --> 0:17:46,873
into the 20th century at any cost.
321
0:17:46,873 --> 0:17:50,733
But his modernization would need vast manpower.
322
0:17:50,733 --> 0:17:53,483
When Stalin began his forced modernization,
323
0:17:53,483 --> 0:17:55,693
the KGB became more important.
324
0:17:55,693 --> 0:17:57,13
Gulags were created.
325
0:17:57,13 --> 0:18:0,413
The role of the KGB in modernization is colossal.
326
0:18:0,413 --> 0:18:2,263
Hundreds of thousands of agitators,
327
0:18:2,263 --> 0:18:4,153
criminals, and innocent people
328
0:18:4,153 --> 0:18:7,363
were deported to a system of camps called the Gulag.
329
0:18:7,363 --> 0:18:10,573
The Gulag started out as a set of prison camps
330
0:18:10,573 --> 0:18:12,533
for the enemies of the party,
331
0:18:12,533 --> 0:18:14,883
the enemies of the revolution.
332
0:18:14,883 --> 0:18:18,553
Very quickly, though, it turned into something else.
333
0:18:18,553 --> 0:18:20,793
It had an economic function.
334
0:18:20,793 --> 0:18:23,303
The Bolsheviks saw that they had all these extra people,
335
0:18:23,303 --> 0:18:25,573
these useless people who really couldn't be used
336
0:18:25,573 --> 0:18:27,313
in any way by society.
337
0:18:27,313 --> 0:18:29,783
Why not put them to work for the state
338
0:18:29,783 --> 0:18:31,306
and help grow the state?
339
0:18:33,333 --> 0:18:35,873
The Gulag system Dzerzhinsky pioneered
340
0:18:35,873 --> 0:18:38,336
was run mainly by the Security Services.
341
0:18:39,673 --> 0:18:44,473
It lasted for 60 years, though he died in 1926.
342
0:18:47,523 --> 0:18:51,106
(Evgenia sings in Russian)
343
0:18:53,533 --> 0:18:56,803
Russian soap star, Evgenia Turkova's family
344
0:18:56,803 --> 0:18:59,753
was sent to Siberia in the 1940s,
345
0:18:59,753 --> 0:19:2,366
suspected of collaboration with the Nazis.
346
0:19:3,253 --> 0:19:5,593
The youngest were thrown into orphanages,
347
0:19:5,593 --> 0:19:7,506
the oldest to the Gulag.
348
0:19:9,513 --> 0:19:11,993
That really is how the Ministry of Security,
349
0:19:11,993 --> 0:19:15,173
the state, influenced the lives of my family.
350
0:19:15,173 --> 0:19:18,73
They lied, deceived, and murdered people.
351
0:19:18,73 --> 0:19:20,723
It's a miracle that my family survived.
352
0:19:20,723 --> 0:19:22,276
They were supposed to die.
353
0:19:26,527 --> 0:19:29,360
(audience laughs)
354
0:19:31,509 --> 0:19:34,926
(Evgenia speaks Russian)
355
0:19:39,351 --> 0:19:43,11
(audience laughs)
356
0:19:43,11 --> 0:19:43,844
In the old days,
357
0:19:43,844 --> 0:19:47,123
people could be arrested just for telling a joke.
358
0:19:47,123 --> 0:19:47,956
I told a joke.
359
0:19:50,173 --> 0:19:52,433
When school teacher, Vera Golubeva,
360
0:19:52,433 --> 0:19:55,966
told a joke, she paid a terrible price.
361
0:19:57,993 --> 0:20:0,163
In Moscow, in Tverskaya Street,
362
0:20:0,163 --> 0:20:2,466
they were planting trees along the boulevard.
363
0:20:4,83 --> 0:20:9,43
The joke was, "The whole world is arming itself
364
0:20:9,43 --> 0:20:10,980
while we're planting flowers."
365
0:20:13,723 --> 0:20:14,766
That's all I said.
366
0:20:16,437 --> 0:20:18,183
(knocking on door)
367
0:20:18,183 --> 0:20:20,786
But they came in the night and arrested me.
368
0:20:23,543 --> 0:20:25,383
I was eight months pregnant
369
0:20:25,383 --> 0:20:27,146
and looking forward to motherhood.
370
0:20:28,667 --> 0:20:31,917
(people speak Russian)
371
0:20:36,33 --> 0:20:38,33
Vera gave birth in custody.
372
0:20:38,983 --> 0:20:40,653
There were complications,
373
0:20:40,653 --> 0:20:42,606
and for a time, she was unconscious,
374
0:20:43,453 --> 0:20:45,206
but eventually she came round.
375
0:20:48,233 --> 0:20:50,436
When they brought me my dead baby,
376
0:20:53,193 --> 0:20:54,56
I passed out.
377
0:20:58,383 --> 0:20:59,483
They showed him to me.
378
0:21:2,223 --> 0:21:3,56
That's all.
379
0:21:4,943 --> 0:21:9,636
At 99 years old Vera still mourns.
380
0:21:13,633 --> 0:21:15,956
It's deeply painful, even now.
381
0:21:18,3 --> 0:21:19,386
I feel like an orphan.
382
0:21:21,183 --> 0:21:22,796
Alone in the world.
383
0:21:26,523 --> 0:21:28,243
She lost her only child
384
0:21:28,243 --> 0:21:30,400
and was sent to the Gulag for eight years.
385
0:21:30,400 --> 0:21:33,843
And it all started when she told a joke.
386
0:21:33,843 --> 0:21:35,299
I'm sorry.
387
0:21:35,299 --> 0:21:37,716
(soft music)
388
0:21:40,743 --> 0:21:42,243
The reality is
389
0:21:42,243 --> 0:21:44,463
that much of Soviet modernization
390
0:21:44,463 --> 0:21:47,968
was achieved on the back of Gulag slavery.
391
0:21:47,968 --> 0:21:50,851
(soft music)
392
0:21:50,851 --> 0:21:52,813
(Alexander speaks Russian)
393
0:21:52,813 --> 0:21:55,793
Why during the period of the Great Depression
394
0:21:55,793 --> 0:21:58,383
when world economics were collapsing,
395
0:21:58,383 --> 0:22:2,3
especially in the US, Britain, and France,
396
0:22:2,3 --> 0:22:4,876
why was Russia enjoying crazy growth?
397
0:22:5,853 --> 0:22:7,953
Because Stalin had complete control
398
0:22:7,953 --> 0:22:10,266
through the party and the security service.
399
0:22:15,313 --> 0:22:17,3
Some Gulag survivors
400
0:22:17,3 --> 0:22:18,543
take comfort from the notion
401
0:22:18,543 --> 0:22:21,176
that they helped build a modern nation.
402
0:22:22,377 --> 0:22:24,313
(Vera speaks Russian)
403
0:22:24,313 --> 0:22:25,923
I was building a railroad,
404
0:22:25,923 --> 0:22:29,133
chopping wood and draining swamps.
405
0:22:29,133 --> 0:22:30,726
It was hard work for a woman.
406
0:22:34,343 --> 0:22:37,393
People needed the railroad, we understood that,
407
0:22:37,393 --> 0:22:39,810
and we all worked hard.
408
0:22:39,810 --> 0:22:42,456
All this work was for the benefit of the people.
409
0:22:47,980 --> 0:22:49,143
The problem was
410
0:22:49,143 --> 0:22:51,973
that tens of hundreds of thousands of people
411
0:22:51,973 --> 0:22:53,966
were sent to these prisons.
412
0:22:55,713 --> 0:23:0,423
It was class warfare, very cruel.
413
0:23:0,423 --> 0:23:2,963
Today, the old and young generations
414
0:23:2,963 --> 0:23:5,143
condemn that whole system
415
0:23:5,143 --> 0:23:8,213
and consider it to be a grave mistake of Stalin
416
0:23:8,213 --> 0:23:10,316
and the policies of that time.
417
0:23:14,923 --> 0:23:16,993
Through more than six decades,
418
0:23:16,993 --> 0:23:19,916
the Gulag system extracted forced labor.
419
0:23:21,493 --> 0:23:26,243
At main feature of that work was that it was hard.
420
0:23:26,243 --> 0:23:31,36
If you refuse to work, you are immediately punished.
421
0:23:32,303 --> 0:23:36,823
Many people didn't receive medical treatment.
422
0:23:36,823 --> 0:23:41,673
There was a lovely joke of our doctors
423
0:23:41,673 --> 0:23:46,393
to bring some dentists to the camp,
424
0:23:46,393 --> 0:23:51,393
to make a hole, put arsenic in,
425
0:23:51,613 --> 0:23:54,633
and say, "It will take few days,
426
0:23:54,633 --> 0:23:58,53
then we will come back and finish."
427
0:23:58,53 --> 0:24:0,783
And they never came back (laughs).
428
0:24:0,783 --> 0:24:5,653
So you cannot repair by yourself.
429
0:24:5,653 --> 0:24:8,396
So it's permanent suffering.
430
0:24:10,375 --> 0:24:13,42
(ominous music)
431
0:24:18,814 --> 0:24:20,883
(Mustafa speaks Russian)
432
0:24:20,883 --> 0:24:22,453
There was a special chamber
433
0:24:22,453 --> 0:24:24,768
where they held the most violent folks.
434
0:24:24,768 --> 0:24:28,363
(Mustafa speaks Russian)
435
0:24:28,363 --> 0:24:30,816
I understood that it was a press house.
436
0:24:31,853 --> 0:24:34,453
Prisoners there break, cripple and kill people
437
0:24:34,453 --> 0:24:36,286
on the orders of the administration.
438
0:24:38,223 --> 0:24:40,253
When they put me into that chamber,
439
0:24:40,253 --> 0:24:41,503
I thought it was the end.
440
0:24:48,513 --> 0:24:51,216
In a camp, you just have to survive.
441
0:24:53,83 --> 0:24:56,106
Every moment as a challenge to your dignity.
442
0:24:58,843 --> 0:25:1,733
Human rights activists, Sergei Kovalev,
443
0:25:1,733 --> 0:25:4,356
was one of the most prominent Soviet dissidents.
444
0:25:5,623 --> 0:25:7,973
He served seven years in prisons,
445
0:25:7,973 --> 0:25:11,123
including the infamous Perm-36 Gulag,
446
0:25:11,123 --> 0:25:13,826
over 1,000 kilometers east of his Moscow home.
447
0:25:16,773 --> 0:25:18,763
I've known some unfortunates
448
0:25:18,763 --> 0:25:21,133
who've been imprisoned every minute
449
0:25:21,133 --> 0:25:23,823
and every second of their lives.
450
0:25:23,823 --> 0:25:27,156
(Sergei speaks Russian)
451
0:25:29,523 --> 0:25:32,986
Every second, they suffered the burden of imprisonment.
452
0:25:36,273 --> 0:25:37,316
They have nothing.
453
0:25:39,163 --> 0:25:43,112
They have no family, their families were far away.
454
0:25:43,112 --> 0:25:46,445
(Sergei speaks Russian)
455
0:25:47,843 --> 0:25:50,126
They were miserable every second.
456
0:25:51,903 --> 0:25:53,236
It's horrible.
457
0:25:56,93 --> 0:25:59,453
Even with the slave labor of millions,
458
0:25:59,453 --> 0:26:4,46
Stalin felt that modernization was progressing too slowly.
459
0:26:5,383 --> 0:26:8,983
Stalin taking his usual summer holiday in the Caucasus,
460
0:26:8,983 --> 0:26:13,362
meets one of the local secret police chiefs, Yevdokimov.
461
0:26:13,362 --> 0:26:16,343
Yevdokimov persuades Stalin
462
0:26:16,343 --> 0:26:18,723
that some of the problems they're experiencing
463
0:26:18,723 --> 0:26:19,573
in the Soviet state,
464
0:26:19,573 --> 0:26:22,643
notably the failure to rapidly industrialize
465
0:26:22,643 --> 0:26:27,643
are the result of spies inside the mines and the factories.
466
0:26:29,593 --> 0:26:31,343
To disguise the shortcomings
467
0:26:31,343 --> 0:26:35,653
of industrialization, a search for scapegoats began.
468
0:26:35,653 --> 0:26:39,503
Fears were spread, fear of the state and of each other,
469
0:26:39,503 --> 0:26:41,513
as Stalin mounted a show trial
470
0:26:41,513 --> 0:26:43,746
in the industrial town of Shakhty.
471
0:26:44,753 --> 0:26:46,483
The Shakhty show trial was a way
472
0:26:46,483 --> 0:26:48,333
of mobilizing popular support
473
0:26:48,333 --> 0:26:52,873
in a pitchfork-style display of mob justice,
474
0:26:52,873 --> 0:26:54,843
even though when they carry in all the documents
475
0:26:54,843 --> 0:26:55,873
into the courthouse,
476
0:26:55,873 --> 0:26:57,623
the only real evidence they've got
477
0:26:57,623 --> 0:27:0,93
are the confessions of the accused.
478
0:27:0,93 --> 0:27:2,393
There's no other material evidence whatsoever.
479
0:27:4,273 --> 0:27:7,876
Stalin declared the accused class enemies.
480
0:27:8,823 --> 0:27:12,726
44 went to the Gulag, five were executed.
481
0:27:14,873 --> 0:27:19,703
Stalin loved the idea of blaming other people
482
0:27:19,703 --> 0:27:21,103
for his mistakes.
483
0:27:21,103 --> 0:27:24,513
It had an economy to it which amused and pleased him.
484
0:27:24,513 --> 0:27:27,553
He loved the idea of forcing other people to stand in court
485
0:27:27,553 --> 0:27:30,583
and confess to crimes which he himself had committed.
486
0:27:30,583 --> 0:27:32,743
Controlling a diverse population
487
0:27:32,743 --> 0:27:36,873
across vast territory was his constant concern.
488
0:27:36,873 --> 0:27:40,133
He seized on uprisings, real or imagined,
489
0:27:40,133 --> 0:27:42,616
to wield power against his enemies.
490
0:27:44,503 --> 0:27:47,853
An army officer leading a unit of 400 men
491
0:27:47,853 --> 0:27:50,313
says Stalin is a traitor.
492
0:27:50,313 --> 0:27:53,403
The Soviet rule is counter-revolutionary.
493
0:27:53,403 --> 0:27:57,253
Trotsky's a hero and the Kremlin should be seized.
494
0:27:57,253 --> 0:28:0,526
Stalin was determined that he alone must rule.
495
0:28:1,463 --> 0:28:5,323
In 1936, he ordered a murderous crackdown
496
0:28:5,323 --> 0:28:7,806
that became known as the Great Terror.
497
0:28:9,373 --> 0:28:11,73
The Security Services were ordered
498
0:28:11,73 --> 0:28:13,283
to destroy all opposition,
499
0:28:13,283 --> 0:28:16,356
no matter how many innocents were caught up in the process.
500
0:28:21,525 --> 0:28:24,942
(Evgenia speaks Russian)
501
0:28:34,887 --> 0:28:37,720
(audience laughs)
502
0:28:40,943 --> 0:28:43,493
Stalin was the source of the terror.
503
0:28:45,183 --> 0:28:47,343
He personally signed the arrest lists
504
0:28:47,343 --> 0:28:49,266
for senior party officials.
505
0:28:51,93 --> 0:28:53,816
He was the top man in the hierarchy of terror.
506
0:28:55,603 --> 0:28:58,593
His new henchman as chief of the secret police
507
0:28:58,593 --> 0:28:59,543
was Nikolay Yezhov.
508
0:29:0,714 --> 0:29:3,163
He was a ruthless and sadistic man,
509
0:29:3,163 --> 0:29:6,223
and Stalin kept him very busy.
510
0:29:6,223 --> 0:29:7,503
Very quickly, the Great Terror
511
0:29:7,503 --> 0:29:11,573
moved into an attack on people who had,
512
0:29:11,573 --> 0:29:13,173
people who were inside the party.
513
0:29:13,173 --> 0:29:16,333
In many cases, people who had been leaders of the party
514
0:29:16,333 --> 0:29:17,413
and who were now feared
515
0:29:17,413 --> 0:29:19,946
to be possible traitors to the party.
516
0:29:21,933 --> 0:29:24,203
In almost every party cell,
517
0:29:24,203 --> 0:29:28,183
there was a kind of systerical self-examination process
518
0:29:28,183 --> 0:29:31,506
as people began looking for enemies within the ranks.
519
0:29:33,663 --> 0:29:36,670
Orders were issued, different orders like,
520
0:29:36,670 --> 0:29:40,193
"In your region, 50,000 people must be arrested.
521
0:29:40,193 --> 0:29:42,390
They're all counter-revolutionaries.
522
0:29:42,390 --> 0:29:45,303
"In your region, let's say 30,000.
523
0:29:45,303 --> 0:29:48,133
In yours, 70,000 people."
524
0:29:48,133 --> 0:29:49,553
It doesn't mean that all the people
525
0:29:49,553 --> 0:29:52,403
who were killed in the Great Terror were conspirators.
526
0:29:52,403 --> 0:29:55,873
Of course, 99% were innocent.
527
0:29:55,873 --> 0:29:58,906
It was execution on an industrial scale.
528
0:29:59,853 --> 0:30:2,933
Suspects were rounded up and delivered by the truckload
529
0:30:2,933 --> 0:30:7,646
to killing fields, including this one, just south of Moscow.
530
0:30:9,23 --> 0:30:11,413
Security Services usually received
531
0:30:11,413 --> 0:30:14,206
execution orders at the end of the day.
532
0:30:15,423 --> 0:30:17,563
Prisoners selected for execution
533
0:30:17,563 --> 0:30:20,773
were collected from various prisons.
534
0:30:20,773 --> 0:30:23,756
Shooting would usually start at dawn.
535
0:30:27,653 --> 0:30:31,343
To avoid panic and subdue the prisoners in transit,
536
0:30:31,343 --> 0:30:34,629
they came up with an absolutely savage idea.
537
0:30:34,629 --> 0:30:37,46
(soft music)
538
0:30:44,463 --> 0:30:46,783
Exhaust fumes were piped into the trunk
539
0:30:46,783 --> 0:30:48,466
where the prisoners were carried.
540
0:30:50,433 --> 0:30:53,433
They were breathing the noxious fumes for the whole journey.
541
0:30:55,923 --> 0:30:59,429
By the time they arrived, they were helpless.
542
0:30:59,429 --> 0:31:1,846
(soft music)
543
0:31:14,754 --> 0:31:18,504
The remains of around 21,000 people lie here.
544
0:31:22,377 --> 0:31:24,623
(Matthias speaks foreign language)
545
0:31:24,623 --> 0:31:25,850
Yezhov was an important instrument
546
0:31:25,850 --> 0:31:27,806
for Stalin during the Great Terror.
547
0:31:30,213 --> 0:31:31,893
He was exactly the sort of person
548
0:31:31,893 --> 0:31:35,246
needed for this very dirty, very bloody task.
549
0:31:35,246 --> 0:31:37,543
(Matthias speaks foreign language)
550
0:31:37,543 --> 0:31:38,653
It was in his nature
551
0:31:38,653 --> 0:31:41,716
to carry out these atrocious orders without protest.
552
0:31:44,696 --> 0:31:46,713
(soft music)
553
0:31:46,713 --> 0:31:50,93
During 1937 and 1938,
554
0:31:50,93 --> 0:31:53,453
nearly 700,000 people were executed
555
0:31:53,453 --> 0:31:56,56
and over a million more sent to the Gulag.
556
0:31:59,213 --> 0:32:2,503
Their images were expunged from official photographs.
557
0:32:2,503 --> 0:32:4,920
(soft music)
558
0:32:7,203 --> 0:32:8,583
At first, everyone thinks
559
0:32:8,583 --> 0:32:9,863
that there's been a mistake
560
0:32:9,863 --> 0:32:12,953
because they see themselves as class warriors.
561
0:32:12,953 --> 0:32:14,203
Most of those arrested
562
0:32:14,203 --> 0:32:16,243
considered themselves good communists,
563
0:32:16,243 --> 0:32:18,623
so they couldn't understand what was going on.
564
0:32:18,623 --> 0:32:20,483
Then they fall into this machine
565
0:32:20,483 --> 0:32:23,558
which immediately dehumanizes them.
566
0:32:23,558 --> 0:32:25,863
You were stripped naked, locked in a cell,
567
0:32:25,863 --> 0:32:27,553
and prevented from sleeping.
568
0:32:27,553 --> 0:32:29,983
They bombard you with ludicrous charges
569
0:32:29,983 --> 0:32:33,303
then accused you of spying for the English, Americans,
570
0:32:33,303 --> 0:32:38,303
Germans, Polish, French, Japanese, Chinese, all at once.
571
0:32:38,963 --> 0:32:42,53
And maybe you were planning to assassinate Stalin.
572
0:32:42,53 --> 0:32:44,463
You just can't process all this stuff.
573
0:32:44,463 --> 0:32:48,83
People always believe that the must've been some mistake
574
0:32:48,83 --> 0:32:49,793
that this nightmare will end,
575
0:32:49,793 --> 0:32:51,533
but the only escape from this nightmare
576
0:32:51,533 --> 0:32:53,983
is the firing squad or Siberia.
577
0:32:53,983 --> 0:32:56,196
And once you're there, it is too late.
578
0:32:58,338 --> 0:33:0,755
(soft music)
579
0:33:6,173 --> 0:33:8,290
KGB Chief Yezhov said,
580
0:33:8,290 --> 0:33:10,236
"There will be some victims.
581
0:33:11,243 --> 0:33:15,530
Better that 10 innocent suffer than one spy gets away."
582
0:33:16,763 --> 0:33:19,153
After two years of relentless killing,
583
0:33:19,153 --> 0:33:22,743
Stalin wanted someone to blame for the excesses.
584
0:33:22,743 --> 0:33:26,73
The head at the Security Services, Nikolay Yezhov,
585
0:33:26,73 --> 0:33:28,276
was arrested and executed.
586
0:33:32,43 --> 0:33:34,343
This was Nikolay Yezhov's home.
587
0:33:35,383 --> 0:33:37,536
He had a modest apartment in this building.
588
0:33:38,375 --> 0:33:41,463
(Masha speaks Russian)
589
0:33:41,463 --> 0:33:43,206
He was the bloodiest of them all.
590
0:33:44,273 --> 0:33:49,273
He was arrested in 1939 and shot in 1940.
591
0:33:51,573 --> 0:33:55,223
His remains now lie in the same mass grave
592
0:33:55,223 --> 0:33:57,36
as many of his victims.
593
0:33:58,33 --> 0:34:1,283
(Masha speaks Russian)
594
0:34:4,403 --> 0:34:5,903
Relatives have laid plaques
595
0:34:5,903 --> 0:34:7,973
for some of the 8,000 victims
596
0:34:7,973 --> 0:34:11,593
whose ashes lie here in a Moscow cemetery.
597
0:34:11,593 --> 0:34:14,30
There is no plaque for Yezhov.
598
0:34:16,993 --> 0:34:20,553
Stalin replaced him with fellow central committee member,
599
0:34:20,553 --> 0:34:21,863
Lavrentiy Beria,
600
0:34:21,863 --> 0:34:25,303
a name that would become infamous in Soviet history.
601
0:34:25,303 --> 0:34:27,773
And yet his first act was the release
602
0:34:27,773 --> 0:34:30,246
of 100,000 political prisoners.
603
0:34:33,23 --> 0:34:35,273
He wasn't a mass murderer like Yezhov.
604
0:34:35,273 --> 0:34:36,856
He tried to reduce that.
605
0:34:38,941 --> 0:34:42,303
But he was quite prepared to kill or incarcerate anyone
606
0:34:42,303 --> 0:34:44,496
who resisted the Soviet system.
607
0:34:46,853 --> 0:34:49,603
Like Stalin, Beria was from Georgia,
608
0:34:49,603 --> 0:34:52,606
and he arrived with a cadre of trusted leftenants.
609
0:34:53,903 --> 0:34:56,393
They soon established a more comfortable environment
610
0:34:56,393 --> 0:35:0,3
for their intrigues, the Aragvi.
611
0:35:0,3 --> 0:35:1,833
It became one of the most celebrated
612
0:35:1,833 --> 0:35:4,20
and infamous restaurants in Russia.
613
0:35:7,23 --> 0:35:9,883
Everybody likes Georgian cuisine.
614
0:35:9,883 --> 0:35:12,83
Back then, it was the most exotic in Moscow.
615
0:35:13,93 --> 0:35:15,353
Soviet Chekists controlled the Aragvi
616
0:35:15,353 --> 0:35:17,283
from the very beginning.
617
0:35:17,283 --> 0:35:20,366
It was created under the patronage of the NKVD.
618
0:35:25,343 --> 0:35:28,603
Beria himself helped set up the Aragvi.
619
0:35:28,603 --> 0:35:29,743
It would become a den
620
0:35:29,743 --> 0:35:32,406
for senior members of the Security Services.
621
0:35:35,523 --> 0:35:37,133
Chekists met with diplomats here
622
0:35:37,133 --> 0:35:38,936
and also with agents.
623
0:35:42,113 --> 0:35:44,953
Lavrentiy Beria met his own agents here.
624
0:35:44,953 --> 0:35:47,863
He had quite a few that he ran personally.
625
0:35:47,863 --> 0:35:49,3
A lot of foreigners,
626
0:35:49,3 --> 0:35:52,46
English speakers from various countries came here.
627
0:35:54,873 --> 0:35:56,966
It was a good place for a quiet chat.
628
0:35:57,916 --> 0:36:1,499
(Alexander speaks Russian)
629
0:36:3,34 --> 0:36:4,953
A quiet chat, perhaps,
630
0:36:4,953 --> 0:36:8,306
but it was said that every table had a hidden microphone.
631
0:36:10,685 --> 0:36:13,959
(audience laughs)
632
0:36:13,959 --> 0:36:17,376
(Evgenia speaks Russian)
633
0:36:22,860 --> 0:36:26,379
(audience laughs)
634
0:36:26,379 --> 0:36:28,962
(upbeat music)
635
0:36:30,791 --> 0:36:33,833
Beria's intelligence network was also raising the alarm
636
0:36:33,833 --> 0:36:36,860
about activities beyond the Soviet borders.
637
0:36:36,860 --> 0:36:40,93
(upbeat music)
638
0:36:40,93 --> 0:36:43,753
Hitler's German war machine had been growing since 1933.
639
0:36:47,203 --> 0:36:49,493
All the USSR's resources
640
0:36:49,493 --> 0:36:52,293
went into the preparation of the army.
641
0:36:52,293 --> 0:36:54,43
But when in 1936,
642
0:36:54,43 --> 0:36:56,863
they held maneuvers in Ukraine and Belarus,
643
0:36:56,863 --> 0:36:59,706
it became clear that the army was not ready for war.
644
0:37:0,903 --> 0:37:3,123
Countless officers of the Red Army
645
0:37:3,123 --> 0:37:5,416
had been executed in the Great Terror.
646
0:37:7,953 --> 0:37:10,636
Now Stalin needed time to rebuild it.
647
0:37:11,483 --> 0:37:15,773
In August, 1939, he signed a peace treaty with Germany,
648
0:37:15,773 --> 0:37:18,811
agreeing to carve up Poland between them.
649
0:37:18,811 --> 0:37:22,113
(dramatic music)
650
0:37:22,113 --> 0:37:26,693
Hitler, with his eastern flank secure, was ready for war.
651
0:37:26,693 --> 0:37:30,157
Just one week later, he invaded Western Poland.
652
0:37:30,157 --> 0:37:35,157
(explosions)
(dramatic music)
653
0:37:37,343 --> 0:37:39,393
As German forces advanced,
654
0:37:39,393 --> 0:37:42,306
the Red Army moved to annex Eastern Poland.
655
0:37:43,223 --> 0:37:45,443
Almost half a million Polish prisoners
656
0:37:45,443 --> 0:37:47,156
fell into Russian hands.
657
0:37:48,177 --> 0:37:50,383
Beria's security service took charge,
658
0:37:50,383 --> 0:37:53,13
sifting out military officers, priests,
659
0:37:53,13 --> 0:37:54,326
and the intelligentsia.
660
0:37:57,953 --> 0:38:0,253
Intelligence officers were sent there
661
0:38:0,253 --> 0:38:3,83
to gauge the attitude of the Poles.
662
0:38:3,83 --> 0:38:5,213
What do they think of Russia?
663
0:38:5,213 --> 0:38:6,533
If Hitler attacks,
664
0:38:6,533 --> 0:38:8,786
would they fight for Russia against Hitler?
665
0:38:11,853 --> 0:38:13,503
When they had established at the Poles
666
0:38:13,503 --> 0:38:16,503
had a negative attitude against Russia,
667
0:38:16,503 --> 0:38:18,798
I think that became a reason to shoot them.
668
0:38:18,798 --> 0:38:21,546
(Alexander speaks Russian)
669
0:38:21,546 --> 0:38:22,996
(soft music)
670
0:38:22,996 --> 0:38:23,829
"They woke us up
671
0:38:23,829 --> 0:38:25,593
a few minutes before 5:00 a.m.
672
0:38:25,593 --> 0:38:27,466
and divided us up into groups.
673
0:38:28,563 --> 0:38:30,186
The day hasn't started out well.
674
0:38:31,603 --> 0:38:34,603
We're piled into a prison truck with guards
675
0:38:34,603 --> 0:38:36,336
and driven some forest.
676
0:38:37,293 --> 0:38:39,393
We're undergoing a thorough cavity search.
677
0:38:40,353 --> 0:38:41,823
They took my watch.
678
0:38:41,823 --> 0:38:45,406
The time was either 6:30 or 8:30 in the morning.
679
0:38:46,293 --> 0:38:48,873
They're asking for our wedding rings.
680
0:38:48,873 --> 0:38:52,36
But they took from me rubles, belt, pocket knife.
681
0:38:53,423 --> 0:38:54,921
What happens next?"
682
0:38:54,921 --> 0:38:57,523
(soft music)
683
0:38:57,523 --> 0:39:0,53
On Beria's personal recommendation,
684
0:39:0,53 --> 0:39:3,946
over 20,000 Polish prisoners of war were executed.
685
0:39:5,13 --> 0:39:8,273
Thousands, right here in Katyn forest.
686
0:39:8,273 --> 0:39:11,343
(soft music)
687
0:39:11,343 --> 0:39:12,993
Nearly three years later,
688
0:39:12,993 --> 0:39:15,963
after German forces had captured the territory,
689
0:39:15,963 --> 0:39:17,673
they exposed the mass graves
690
0:39:17,673 --> 0:39:19,546
in their anti-Soviet propaganda.
691
0:39:20,953 --> 0:39:24,473
Stalin denied responsibility for years,
692
0:39:24,473 --> 0:39:28,568
but subsequent administrations have acknowledged his guilt.
693
0:39:28,568 --> 0:39:30,985
(soft music)
694
0:39:35,713 --> 0:39:37,613
Katyn is still a stumbling block
695
0:39:37,613 --> 0:39:38,773
and the focal point
696
0:39:38,773 --> 0:39:40,956
even for the present Russian government.
697
0:39:42,703 --> 0:39:44,323
It's still an issue
698
0:39:44,323 --> 0:39:47,723
and justifications are still put forward,
699
0:39:47,723 --> 0:39:51,16
even though the guilt has long been recognized.
700
0:39:52,493 --> 0:39:55,873
But it's a terrible crime against humanity.
701
0:39:55,873 --> 0:39:59,103
A mass killing of prisoners of war for no reason.
702
0:39:59,103 --> 0:40:1,253
It shows that the Soviet Union
703
0:40:1,253 --> 0:40:4,536
was no better than Hitler's regime, the Third Reich.
704
0:40:6,133 --> 0:40:7,893
It seems that the Soviet Union
705
0:40:7,893 --> 0:40:10,563
could also secretly send thousands of people
706
0:40:10,563 --> 0:40:12,573
to their death without reason,
707
0:40:12,573 --> 0:40:14,416
and then try to cover up the crime.
708
0:40:17,663 --> 0:40:20,903
Even as Hitler waged war across half of Europe,
709
0:40:20,903 --> 0:40:23,703
Stalin still refused to believe that the Germans
710
0:40:23,703 --> 0:40:25,636
would open another front to the east.
711
0:40:28,133 --> 0:40:32,573
But his security chief Lavrentiy Beria was better informed.
712
0:40:32,573 --> 0:40:35,246
He had a mole in Nazi high command.
713
0:40:36,293 --> 0:40:40,353
Willi Lehmann ran a division combating Soviet espionage,
714
0:40:40,353 --> 0:40:43,703
while himself spying for Moscow.
715
0:40:43,703 --> 0:40:46,573
On the 19th of June, 1941,
716
0:40:46,573 --> 0:40:49,843
Lehmann warned that Germany would invade the Soviet Union
717
0:40:49,843 --> 0:40:51,546
in just three days time.
718
0:40:52,713 --> 0:40:56,380
When Stalin read the report, he flew into a rage, saying,
719
0:40:56,380 --> 0:40:59,693
"You can send your source to his fucking mother.
720
0:40:59,693 --> 0:41:2,410
This is not a source, but disinformation."
721
0:41:5,613 --> 0:41:8,513
It was exactly what he didn't want to hear.
722
0:41:9,413 --> 0:41:12,23
Stalin had a preconceived view
723
0:41:12,23 --> 0:41:15,246
and he only wanted information that proved him right.
724
0:41:16,833 --> 0:41:19,473
In his eyes, any information that contradicts
725
0:41:19,473 --> 0:41:22,623
his view comes from incompetent sources.
726
0:41:22,623 --> 0:41:26,826
(Matthias speaks foreign language)
727
0:41:26,826 --> 0:41:28,603
Willi Lehmann was later shot
728
0:41:28,603 --> 0:41:30,436
by the Gestapo for spying.
729
0:41:31,643 --> 0:41:33,853
The information he passed to the Soviets
730
0:41:33,853 --> 0:41:36,323
had been accurate down to the exact date
731
0:41:36,323 --> 0:41:38,866
when the Germans would attack the Soviet Union.
732
0:41:40,662 --> 0:41:43,662
(suspenseful music)
733
0:41:46,973 --> 0:41:51,973
It was June 22nd, 1941 when Hitler turned east.
734
0:41:54,243 --> 0:41:57,203
The Soviets were totally unprepared.
735
0:41:57,203 --> 0:42:0,203
(suspenseful music)
736
0:42:4,403 --> 0:42:6,763
Soon after, the first strikes
737
0:42:6,763 --> 0:42:8,756
hit the cities of Western Ukraine.
738
0:42:12,223 --> 0:42:16,500
Lviv prison held over 1600 political prisoners.
739
0:42:16,500 --> 0:42:18,917
(soft music)
740
0:42:26,743 --> 0:42:29,813
The prison was run by Beria's secret police
741
0:42:29,813 --> 0:42:32,498
who had their regional headquarters here.
742
0:42:32,498 --> 0:42:34,915
(soft music)
743
0:42:37,943 --> 0:42:40,433
With the German army bearing down on them,
744
0:42:40,433 --> 0:42:41,436
they had a problem:
745
0:42:42,373 --> 0:42:44,911
what to do with the political prisoners.
746
0:42:44,911 --> 0:42:47,328
(soft music)
747
0:42:49,703 --> 0:42:52,863
Their solution was a war crime later exploited
748
0:42:52,863 --> 0:42:55,453
for propaganda purposes by the Germans
749
0:42:55,453 --> 0:42:58,16
and which still provokes outrage today.
750
0:43:0,163 --> 0:43:1,713
In 1941,
751
0:43:1,713 --> 0:43:5,13
when the war between the USSR and Germany started,
752
0:43:5,13 --> 0:43:7,586
an order came from Moscow to clear the prisons.
753
0:43:9,423 --> 0:43:11,223
As the prisoners waited,
754
0:43:11,223 --> 0:43:13,723
30 or more in each cell,
755
0:43:13,723 --> 0:43:15,533
they could hear rushing footsteps
756
0:43:15,533 --> 0:43:17,963
coming towards them in the basement.
757
0:43:17,963 --> 0:43:20,426
Then the first explosion.
758
0:43:22,583 --> 0:43:23,573
Grenades were thrown
759
0:43:23,573 --> 0:43:24,916
through the cell windows.
760
0:43:26,593 --> 0:43:30,112
Then another team came and shot anyone who was still alive.
761
0:43:30,112 --> 0:43:33,445
(Ruslan speaks Russian)
762
0:43:34,333 --> 0:43:36,750
(soft music)
763
0:43:41,345 --> 0:43:42,613
In the first week of the war,
764
0:43:42,613 --> 0:43:47,156
the NKVD killed 1,681 people in this prison.
765
0:43:56,500 --> 0:43:57,873
There were a whole lot of reports
766
0:43:57,873 --> 0:44:1,843
describing crimes during the retreat of the NKVD.
767
0:44:1,843 --> 0:44:5,366
They had orders not to leave any prisoners behind.
768
0:44:6,353 --> 0:44:8,770
The security service boss admitted,
769
0:44:8,770 --> 0:44:10,783
"I had no transport for them.
770
0:44:10,783 --> 0:44:14,70
If I didn't shoot them, I'd get shot myself."
771
0:44:16,483 --> 0:44:18,133
As the German army advanced
772
0:44:18,133 --> 0:44:20,573
deep into Soviet territory,
773
0:44:20,573 --> 0:44:23,323
the Soviet states demanded complete sacrifice
774
0:44:23,323 --> 0:44:24,776
from every quarter.
775
0:44:26,363 --> 0:44:28,943
Women worked in factories, on the land,
776
0:44:28,943 --> 0:44:30,266
and in civil defense.
777
0:44:31,973 --> 0:44:34,823
Some took on another dangerous role,
778
0:44:34,823 --> 0:44:37,876
consorting with the enemy to gather intelligence.
779
0:44:39,413 --> 0:44:42,336
KGB officers coordinated these efforts.
780
0:44:44,420 --> 0:44:45,823
Several groups of women,
781
0:44:45,823 --> 0:44:47,773
many of them married,
782
0:44:47,773 --> 0:44:49,493
but these were beautiful women
783
0:44:49,493 --> 0:44:53,333
who, under the eye of KGB agents, come into contact,
784
0:44:53,333 --> 0:44:57,616
often intimate contact, with foreigners and got information.
785
0:44:59,883 --> 0:45:3,133
Certainly, women can fish for information in bed
786
0:45:3,133 --> 0:45:6,836
more effectively than men approaching them in the daytime.
787
0:45:9,303 --> 0:45:11,333
The role of Beria's security service
788
0:45:11,333 --> 0:45:13,863
was greatly expanded during the war,
789
0:45:13,863 --> 0:45:17,623
with a formation of 53 NKVD divisions
790
0:45:17,623 --> 0:45:20,523
made up of over half a million men and women,
791
0:45:20,523 --> 0:45:22,473
both fighting on the front line
792
0:45:22,473 --> 0:45:24,696
and against suspected enemies at home.
793
0:45:26,123 --> 0:45:27,413
From the start of the war,
794
0:45:27,413 --> 0:45:29,333
the NKVD took control.
795
0:45:29,333 --> 0:45:31,233
It dealt with every issue,
796
0:45:31,233 --> 0:45:33,423
economics, transport,
797
0:45:33,423 --> 0:45:36,633
moving our manufacturing base east to the Ural Mountains
798
0:45:36,633 --> 0:45:38,343
away from the front line.
799
0:45:38,343 --> 0:45:40,713
They organized the partisan movement.
800
0:45:40,713 --> 0:45:42,913
They created their own brigades.
801
0:45:42,913 --> 0:45:44,413
They dealt with deserters.
802
0:45:44,413 --> 0:45:46,553
They broke through enemy lines.
803
0:45:46,553 --> 0:45:48,936
All this was handled by the NKVD.
804
0:45:50,383 --> 0:45:52,633
Under Stalin's direct orders,
805
0:45:52,633 --> 0:45:56,593
the NKVD also deported entire ethnic groups
806
0:45:56,593 --> 0:45:59,253
suspected of collaboration with the Germans
807
0:45:59,253 --> 0:46:1,626
to Siberia and Central Asia.
808
0:46:4,323 --> 0:46:8,773
And NKVD troops were stationed behind the front lines
809
0:46:8,773 --> 0:46:13,206
to prevent regular army units from retreating or deserting.
810
0:46:14,383 --> 0:46:16,753
In the Battle of Stalingrad alone,
811
0:46:16,753 --> 0:46:20,93
they killed over 13,000 deserters
812
0:46:20,93 --> 0:46:23,6
to terrify any who might consider running.
813
0:46:24,543 --> 0:46:26,663
Security bodies were always acting
814
0:46:26,663 --> 0:46:27,973
on orders from the top.
815
0:46:27,973 --> 0:46:30,206
It was necessary to take extreme measures.
816
0:46:36,967 --> 0:46:39,243
The Soviet Union suffered an estimated
817
0:46:39,243 --> 0:46:43,83
27 million casualties in World War II,
818
0:46:43,83 --> 0:46:46,176
around 18 million of them were civilians.
819
0:46:53,933 --> 0:46:57,923
The Siege of Leningrad alone cost a million civilian lives
820
0:46:57,923 --> 0:47:0,603
and lasted well over two years.
821
0:47:0,603 --> 0:47:3,143
It had caused the greatest destruction
822
0:47:3,143 --> 0:47:7,573
and largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.
823
0:47:7,573 --> 0:47:9,953
Yet the suffering and heroism in the fight
824
0:47:9,953 --> 0:47:13,293
against the German invaders would become a unifying
825
0:47:13,293 --> 0:47:16,66
and defining experience for the Soviet Union.
826
0:47:17,483 --> 0:47:20,643
To protect the homeland at any cost
827
0:47:20,643 --> 0:47:23,226
would have the utmost priority from now on.
828
0:47:28,4 --> 0:47:30,421
(explosions)
829
0:47:31,673 --> 0:47:36,673
By April, 1945, Hitler's armies were almost defeated.
830
0:47:37,343 --> 0:47:39,523
The Soviet assault on Berlin
831
0:47:39,523 --> 0:47:41,966
marked the end of World War II in Europe.
832
0:47:43,210 --> 0:47:45,627
(soft music)
833
0:47:46,893 --> 0:47:49,976
(man speaks Russian)
834
0:47:56,993 --> 0:48:0,193
In the glow of victory, the Security Services
835
0:48:0,193 --> 0:48:2,863
were officially hailed as heroes
836
0:48:2,863 --> 0:48:6,645
and Stalin's ruthless leadership was applauded.
837
0:48:6,645 --> 0:48:9,62
(soft music)
838
0:48:10,623 --> 0:48:14,753
Stalin was the most brutal of all the Soviet leaders,
839
0:48:14,753 --> 0:48:15,613
but at the same time,
840
0:48:15,613 --> 0:48:17,583
he was the one who achieved the most, it seems.
841
0:48:17,583 --> 0:48:19,263
He industrialized Russia,
842
0:48:19,263 --> 0:48:20,96
and of course, he was the man
843
0:48:20,96 --> 0:48:22,396
who carried them through the Second World War.
844
0:48:23,983 --> 0:48:26,533
But the enforcers at the Security Services
845
0:48:26,533 --> 0:48:28,676
had also played a crucial role.
846
0:48:31,823 --> 0:48:34,63
Lavrentiy Beria was awarded the title
847
0:48:34,63 --> 0:48:38,623
Hero of the Soviet Union and promoted to Marshal.
848
0:48:38,623 --> 0:48:42,443
He was, at the same time, a highly intelligent leader
849
0:48:42,443 --> 0:48:45,53
and a brutal executioner,
850
0:48:45,53 --> 0:48:48,666
a paradoxical character, a complete enigma.
851
0:48:49,843 --> 0:48:51,463
Beria certainly had positive
852
0:48:51,463 --> 0:48:53,163
as well as negative qualities
853
0:48:53,163 --> 0:48:56,263
as a government leader and a great organizer.
854
0:48:56,263 --> 0:48:58,636
And we can't deny either of these.
855
0:49:2,233 --> 0:49:4,143
There are great piles of documents
856
0:49:4,143 --> 0:49:6,526
outlining Beria's many crimes.
857
0:49:8,153 --> 0:49:11,496
He was a man who had power and used it.
858
0:49:12,553 --> 0:49:15,463
He was also a cruel man with no moral scruples
859
0:49:15,463 --> 0:49:18,376
about the use of violence by the authorities.
860
0:49:22,654 --> 0:49:25,487
(audience laughs)
861
0:49:26,811 --> 0:49:30,228
(Evgenia speaks Russian)
862
0:49:45,415 --> 0:49:48,248
(audience laughs)
863
0:49:49,483 --> 0:49:51,493
It's hard to present Beria
864
0:49:51,493 --> 0:49:55,473
as anything other than an extraordinarily awful human being,
865
0:49:55,473 --> 0:49:58,13
but he was incredibly efficient.
866
0:49:58,13 --> 0:49:59,580
There are some people who try and say,
867
0:49:59,580 --> 0:50:2,613
"Beria and the people like him were not bastards after all,"
868
0:50:2,613 --> 0:50:4,243
when clearly they were.
869
0:50:4,243 --> 0:50:6,423
But then there are others who have a different
870
0:50:6,423 --> 0:50:8,330
or more nuanced approach, which is,
871
0:50:8,330 --> 0:50:11,803
"Unfortunately, this was a time when we needed bastards."
872
0:50:11,803 --> 0:50:14,133
And this is a different form of revisionism,
873
0:50:14,133 --> 0:50:16,383
which is, in some ways, even more pernicious.
874
0:50:17,815 --> 0:50:20,323
Lavrentiy Beria's crowning glory
875
0:50:20,323 --> 0:50:22,683
was a secret espionage operation
876
0:50:22,683 --> 0:50:24,973
which would change the world's power structure
877
0:50:24,973 --> 0:50:27,956
for the rest of the 20th century and beyond.
878
0:50:31,183 --> 0:50:34,963
When at the Potsdam Conference in July, 1945,
879
0:50:34,963 --> 0:50:38,603
American President Truman, proudly informed Stalin
880
0:50:38,603 --> 0:50:42,73
that the US had developed a new super weapon,
881
0:50:42,73 --> 0:50:44,416
Stalin seemed unimpressed.
882
0:50:47,673 --> 0:50:52,303
But what Truman, Churchill nor anyone else in the West knew
883
0:50:52,303 --> 0:50:55,683
was that Beria's spies were already amongst the scientists
884
0:50:55,683 --> 0:50:57,613
who would achieve this feat,
885
0:50:57,613 --> 0:50:59,963
and were supplying Moscow with the secret
886
0:50:59,963 --> 0:51:1,616
of how to build one of their own.
887
0:51:4,51 --> 0:51:7,51
Five, four, three, two, one.
888
0:51:8,921 --> 0:51:9,754
Now.
889
0:51:13,633 --> 0:51:16,123
The Americans had spent a vast fortune
890
0:51:16,123 --> 0:51:17,836
developing the atomic bomb.
891
0:51:18,863 --> 0:51:22,993
But Lavrentiy Beria and his network of agents and spies
892
0:51:22,993 --> 0:51:27,193
matched the threat for a fraction of the cost.
893
0:51:27,193 --> 0:51:30,43
And so they triggered an arms race
894
0:51:30,43 --> 0:51:32,536
which would risk the destruction of the planet.
895
0:51:33,653 --> 0:51:38,130
The spy game of the Cold War had just begun.
896
0:51:38,130 --> 0:51:41,213
(contemporary music)
61725
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