1 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:08,000 In October 1917, the world changed forever. 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,500 Three men led the takeover of the largest country on Earth. 3 00:00:12,500 --> 00:00:16,260 Russia became the world's first communist state. 4 00:00:16,260 --> 00:00:21,540 It took everyone by surprise, including its own leaders. 5 00:00:21,540 --> 00:00:24,660 Revolution might not happen in our lifetime. 6 00:00:24,660 --> 00:00:28,140 Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky 7 00:00:28,140 --> 00:00:33,620 and Joseph Stalin had to struggle, plot and force their way into power 8 00:00:33,620 --> 00:00:36,980 through the most unlikely series of events. 9 00:00:36,980 --> 00:00:41,380 'Lenin was moving around in secret, being hunted by the police.' 10 00:00:42,460 --> 00:00:47,740 'For me, this is the real turning point of 20th-century history.' 11 00:00:47,740 --> 00:00:51,500 This is the moment when one man makes all the difference. 12 00:00:51,500 --> 00:00:56,580 The insurrection Lenin led still inspires fierce debate. 13 00:00:56,580 --> 00:01:01,100 'Did they want a Bolshevik government led by Vladimir Lenin?' 14 00:01:01,100 --> 00:01:03,500 Miserable BLEEP traitors! 15 00:01:03,500 --> 00:01:05,500 I don't think so. 16 00:01:05,500 --> 00:01:09,020 The masses are tired of words and resolutions! 17 00:01:09,020 --> 00:01:11,700 How the hell is that a coup d'etat? 18 00:01:11,700 --> 00:01:16,380 'He is motivated by a vision of an alternative world.' 19 00:01:16,380 --> 00:01:19,420 These people should be shot for their incompetence! 20 00:01:19,420 --> 00:01:23,940 His object was not to convince or persuade anyone, 21 00:01:23,940 --> 00:01:26,540 it was to destroy them. 22 00:01:26,540 --> 00:01:30,980 The system Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin created a century ago 23 00:01:30,980 --> 00:01:34,060 shapes the world we live in today. 24 00:01:34,060 --> 00:01:37,220 Putin really understands the October Revolution. 25 00:01:37,220 --> 00:01:40,100 In many ways, he's one of the results of it. 26 00:01:41,180 --> 00:01:45,220 This is the countdown of the 245 days 27 00:01:45,220 --> 00:01:49,900 that brought three men from obscurity to supreme power, 28 00:01:49,900 --> 00:01:53,900 forging a brave and bloody new world. 29 00:02:00,580 --> 00:02:03,740 February 1917. 30 00:02:03,740 --> 00:02:06,260 Russia is ready to explode. 31 00:02:06,260 --> 00:02:09,220 Its royalty, the Tsars, have ruled with an iron fist 32 00:02:09,220 --> 00:02:11,380 for four centuries. 33 00:02:11,380 --> 00:02:13,020 EXPLOSION 34 00:02:13,020 --> 00:02:16,460 Its men are dying in the millions in World War I. 35 00:02:16,460 --> 00:02:19,540 Its women and children are starving. 36 00:02:19,540 --> 00:02:22,380 But the Tsar rejects any change. 37 00:02:25,020 --> 00:02:27,020 JEERING AND SHOUTING 38 00:02:31,180 --> 00:02:34,780 On February 23rd, Russia erupts. 39 00:02:34,780 --> 00:02:37,620 The masses of Petrograd take over the capital 40 00:02:37,620 --> 00:02:40,300 and force the Tsar to abdicate. 41 00:02:40,300 --> 00:02:42,700 Here, dramatized in October, 42 00:02:42,700 --> 00:02:47,580 Sergei Eisenstein's propaganda film made ten years after the revolution. 43 00:02:50,820 --> 00:02:53,660 Yet the men we most associate with the Russian Revolution 44 00:02:53,660 --> 00:02:55,700 aren't even in the country. 45 00:02:55,700 --> 00:02:59,620 Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin miss the February Revolution. 46 00:03:08,940 --> 00:03:13,180 Lenin is in Zurich, having been exiled for nearly 17 years 47 00:03:13,180 --> 00:03:14,940 as a dangerous revolutionary. 48 00:03:14,940 --> 00:03:16,620 KNOCKING 49 00:03:16,620 --> 00:03:19,780 Haven't you heard? There's been a revolution! 50 00:03:20,700 --> 00:03:22,660 I've heard this sort of rumour before. 51 00:03:22,660 --> 00:03:24,620 It's probably German propaganda. 52 00:03:29,420 --> 00:03:34,460 Just days before the February Revolution, Lenin had confessed... 53 00:03:37,260 --> 00:03:40,140 Revolution might not happen in our lifetime. 54 00:03:54,180 --> 00:03:55,820 We must go home. 55 00:03:56,820 --> 00:03:59,700 The one thing Lenin couldn't bear 56 00:03:59,700 --> 00:04:02,180 was that the revolution, now it's come, 57 00:04:02,180 --> 00:04:04,220 is going to happen without him. 58 00:04:04,220 --> 00:04:09,140 He was absolutely tormented about getting back 59 00:04:09,140 --> 00:04:11,660 and seizing control before someone else did. 60 00:04:15,500 --> 00:04:20,180 Lenin's drive for power may have its origins in a family trauma. 61 00:04:21,180 --> 00:04:24,380 Until 1889, 62 00:04:24,380 --> 00:04:27,940 Lenin is really a fairly average schoolboy 63 00:04:27,940 --> 00:04:30,660 from a provincial town, Simbirsk. 64 00:04:32,220 --> 00:04:34,220 But his brother, Aleksandr, 65 00:04:34,220 --> 00:04:39,700 has been a activist in the main terrorist revolutionary group, 66 00:04:39,700 --> 00:04:44,420 the People's Will, involved in an attempt to assassinate the Tsar, 67 00:04:44,420 --> 00:04:46,580 arrested and executed. 68 00:04:48,620 --> 00:04:53,460 And I think it's partly in revenge for that family tragedy 69 00:04:53,460 --> 00:04:57,140 that he is so bent on destruction. 70 00:04:58,140 --> 00:05:00,980 Lenin becomes an ardent Marxist. 71 00:05:00,980 --> 00:05:06,100 By 1903, he's head of his own radical party, the Bolsheviks. 72 00:05:10,700 --> 00:05:15,020 Soon after, Leon Trotsky hears about the February Revolution 73 00:05:15,020 --> 00:05:18,340 while avoiding the Russian authorities in New York. 74 00:05:19,420 --> 00:05:24,580 'Trotsky was very much the showman, the orator,' 75 00:05:24,580 --> 00:05:27,420 the real firebrand of the revolution. 76 00:05:28,980 --> 00:05:31,420 He was a very glamorous figure. 77 00:05:32,500 --> 00:05:36,700 He was a terrific speaker, real rabble-rouser, and he knew it. 78 00:05:36,700 --> 00:05:38,380 CHEERING 79 00:05:40,500 --> 00:05:45,380 Born Lev Bronstein, Trotsky has been a Marxist rebel from youth. 80 00:05:47,500 --> 00:05:49,540 He had an interesting background. 81 00:05:49,540 --> 00:05:51,220 He came from the Black Sea coast, 82 00:05:51,220 --> 00:05:54,020 he was the son of a very rich Jewish farmer. 83 00:05:54,020 --> 00:05:57,020 He'd had a wonderful education, he was highly cultured, 84 00:05:57,020 --> 00:05:59,980 he was an internationalist, he'd been all over the world, 85 00:05:59,980 --> 00:06:02,540 he's been in New York and round Europe and Vienna. 86 00:06:04,420 --> 00:06:09,020 He's known to be a difficult man, abrasive, extremely charismatic, 87 00:06:09,020 --> 00:06:13,380 sometimes hard to love but absolutely impossible not to admire. 88 00:06:14,580 --> 00:06:19,660 This independent revolutionary has rivalled Lenin for 20 years. 89 00:06:19,660 --> 00:06:22,340 Soon, they'll have to work together. 90 00:06:27,220 --> 00:06:31,460 Days later, Joseph Stalin learns of the February Revolution 91 00:06:31,460 --> 00:06:35,660 while exiled for robbery 3,500 kilometres away 92 00:06:35,660 --> 00:06:37,900 in Achinsky, Siberia. 93 00:06:41,700 --> 00:06:44,220 'Just look at how attractive Stalin was 94 00:06:44,220 --> 00:06:46,620 'in the time leading up to the revolution.' 95 00:06:46,620 --> 00:06:48,260 HE LAUGHS 96 00:06:48,260 --> 00:06:50,620 'Not only a published poet' 97 00:06:50,620 --> 00:06:53,940 but an anthologised poet, very handsome, 98 00:06:53,940 --> 00:06:56,060 with a marvellous head of hair. 99 00:06:57,380 --> 00:07:00,020 A great one for women. 100 00:07:01,300 --> 00:07:05,420 He's escaped six times from Siberian exile 101 00:07:05,420 --> 00:07:07,220 and wanted what? 102 00:07:08,340 --> 00:07:10,900 Universal equality and justice. 103 00:07:10,900 --> 00:07:12,820 A completely attractive figure. 104 00:07:14,940 --> 00:07:16,940 Until he was in power. 105 00:07:19,780 --> 00:07:22,020 Stalin was the ultimate man of action 106 00:07:22,020 --> 00:07:25,580 and he became Lenin's chosen favourite man of action. 107 00:07:27,940 --> 00:07:30,900 He was the master of assassinations, 108 00:07:30,900 --> 00:07:33,340 protection rackets, heists. 109 00:07:34,420 --> 00:07:37,100 Every revolutionary leader needs a Stalin. 110 00:07:38,180 --> 00:07:39,860 Stalin... 111 00:07:40,860 --> 00:07:42,580 ..Trotsky 112 00:07:42,580 --> 00:07:44,540 and Lenin. 113 00:07:44,540 --> 00:07:50,060 Three comrades in revolution who now have barely 230 days 114 00:07:50,060 --> 00:07:52,020 to change the world. 115 00:07:52,940 --> 00:07:55,460 CHEERING 116 00:07:55,460 --> 00:07:57,940 They return to a country in turmoil. 117 00:07:57,940 --> 00:08:01,180 The overthrow of the Tsar in the February Revolution 118 00:08:01,180 --> 00:08:03,420 has unleashed wild euphoria. 119 00:08:07,660 --> 00:08:09,940 People were partying in the streets, 120 00:08:09,940 --> 00:08:12,540 soldiers were, sort of, driving around in cars, 121 00:08:12,540 --> 00:08:15,620 tooting their horns with, sort of, half undressed girls. 122 00:08:15,620 --> 00:08:18,300 People were having sex in the street. 123 00:08:18,300 --> 00:08:21,340 There were a multitude of political factions and parties 124 00:08:21,340 --> 00:08:23,940 and everyone was having meetings about everything. 125 00:08:23,940 --> 00:08:25,620 So, it was total anarchy. 126 00:08:27,180 --> 00:08:29,020 It was an explosion, 127 00:08:29,020 --> 00:08:33,700 which meant all rules were destroyed and it was a chance to start again. 128 00:08:33,700 --> 00:08:36,740 We're talking about, in aspiration, you know, 129 00:08:36,740 --> 00:08:41,580 a fundamental reconfiguring of the way human beings live in the world. 130 00:08:43,260 --> 00:08:48,340 Lenin arrives at a time when there is an enormous amount of hope 131 00:08:48,340 --> 00:08:51,620 and a sense that this is still a new Russia. 132 00:08:54,340 --> 00:08:55,860 April 4th, 133 00:08:55,860 --> 00:08:59,500 the Bolsheviks' few thousand supporters await Lenin in Petrograd, 134 00:08:59,500 --> 00:09:01,340 now St Petersburg. 135 00:09:01,340 --> 00:09:04,980 It was Easter Monday and so the factories weren't working 136 00:09:04,980 --> 00:09:07,620 so they did manage to get a big crowd in, 137 00:09:07,620 --> 00:09:09,700 partly by the promise of free beer, 138 00:09:09,700 --> 00:09:13,140 which, actually, sadly didn't arrive for any of them. 139 00:09:14,140 --> 00:09:18,780 They've got fantastic arc lighting and it made it look terrific. 140 00:09:21,420 --> 00:09:24,700 The converted, the supporters, the acolytes, the underground, 141 00:09:24,700 --> 00:09:27,700 the revolutionaries were there to meet him. 142 00:09:27,700 --> 00:09:29,460 But the vast majority of people 143 00:09:29,460 --> 00:09:31,900 didn't even really know who Lenin was. 144 00:09:33,420 --> 00:09:37,180 After two decades of studying the theory of revolution, 145 00:09:37,180 --> 00:09:41,940 Lenin arrives with radical ideas on what Russia should do now. 146 00:09:43,500 --> 00:09:47,180 He had an idea of the revolution in his head 147 00:09:47,180 --> 00:09:49,260 before he'd even got back to Russia 148 00:09:49,260 --> 00:09:51,860 to see what the real possibilities were. 149 00:09:55,460 --> 00:09:59,420 Lenin is ready to test his theories on real people. 150 00:09:59,420 --> 00:10:02,140 He has no time for other politicians. 151 00:10:03,500 --> 00:10:07,180 'A delegation greet him rather nervously. 152 00:10:10,980 --> 00:10:13,020 'He doesn't even answer them.' 153 00:10:13,020 --> 00:10:15,860 Instead, he gives a speech to the crowds. 154 00:10:15,860 --> 00:10:17,660 Sailors... 155 00:10:17,660 --> 00:10:20,660 soldiers, comrades... 156 00:10:21,780 --> 00:10:25,180 ..this is no time for compromise or diplomatic phrases. 157 00:10:26,220 --> 00:10:30,460 This is the time to move towards building a socialist state. 158 00:10:30,460 --> 00:10:32,740 CHEERING 159 00:10:32,740 --> 00:10:34,980 As soon as he arrives back in Russia, 160 00:10:34,980 --> 00:10:40,420 he calls for his party to agitate for a new revolution. 161 00:10:40,420 --> 00:10:42,700 The piratical, imperialist war... 162 00:10:42,700 --> 00:10:45,980 Even Lenin's own party, the Bolsheviks, were shocked. 163 00:10:45,980 --> 00:10:50,380 ..and the hour is not far distant when the people will turn their arms 164 00:10:50,380 --> 00:10:53,020 against their capitalist exploiters. 165 00:10:53,020 --> 00:10:57,940 'The political conversation was all about a bourgeois democracy.' 166 00:10:57,940 --> 00:11:00,780 It was all about elections that were going to happen. 167 00:11:00,780 --> 00:11:03,980 'It was all about coalitions of groups.' 168 00:11:03,980 --> 00:11:06,060 Lenin didn't want any of that. 169 00:11:06,060 --> 00:11:09,900 Lenin wants a second revolution to overthrow the provisional government 170 00:11:09,900 --> 00:11:11,940 that has been set up. 171 00:11:11,940 --> 00:11:15,820 He calls instead for the country to be run by Soviets - 172 00:11:15,820 --> 00:11:19,020 committees of workers, soldiers and peasants. 173 00:11:20,060 --> 00:11:24,100 He was suggesting that they should seize power pretty much immediately. 174 00:11:24,100 --> 00:11:27,140 The worldwide revolution has already dawned. 175 00:11:27,140 --> 00:11:29,500 'The party was absolutely confused,' 176 00:11:29,500 --> 00:11:32,420 bewildered and amazed by what Lenin said. 177 00:11:32,420 --> 00:11:34,460 And a lot of them thought he'd gone mad. 178 00:11:34,460 --> 00:11:36,700 The people want peace. 179 00:11:36,700 --> 00:11:39,140 They want bread and land. 180 00:11:40,140 --> 00:11:43,220 They give you war and hunger. 181 00:11:43,220 --> 00:11:47,060 And the landowners still have all the land. 182 00:11:47,060 --> 00:11:49,940 He coins the first big slogan - 183 00:11:49,940 --> 00:11:52,700 land for the peasants, 184 00:11:52,700 --> 00:11:54,660 peace, an end to war 185 00:11:54,660 --> 00:11:56,380 and bread. 186 00:11:56,380 --> 00:11:58,260 Feed the poor. 187 00:11:58,260 --> 00:12:02,780 Simple words, but behind each lies a whole set of policies. 188 00:12:02,780 --> 00:12:04,740 The same way that the entire... 189 00:12:04,740 --> 00:12:06,420 The crowd love it. 190 00:12:06,420 --> 00:12:09,060 Those in power just laugh. 191 00:12:10,180 --> 00:12:13,300 A lot of liberal politicians were saying, "Forget it, don't worry, 192 00:12:13,300 --> 00:12:16,940 "Lenin is a busted flush, he's lost his mind, basically an anarchist, 193 00:12:16,940 --> 00:12:19,180 "we don't need to worry about him." 194 00:12:19,180 --> 00:12:23,740 Scant months later, this is the most powerful single person in Russia. 195 00:12:24,740 --> 00:12:27,700 Sailors, comrades... 196 00:12:27,700 --> 00:12:31,420 we have to fight for a socialist revolution. 197 00:12:31,420 --> 00:12:33,180 Fight to the end! 198 00:12:35,020 --> 00:12:38,460 Long live the worldwide socialist revolution! 199 00:12:38,460 --> 00:12:40,460 CHEERING 200 00:12:41,540 --> 00:12:46,820 'People would recognise Lenin as a very modern political phenomenon.' 201 00:12:46,820 --> 00:12:50,020 He believed totally that the ends justify the means. 202 00:12:50,020 --> 00:12:53,100 That winning is all, that power is all that really matters. 203 00:12:53,100 --> 00:12:55,020 APPLAUSE 204 00:12:55,020 --> 00:12:58,780 There was still huge disagreement about Lenin's motives. 205 00:12:59,820 --> 00:13:02,420 Power on its own for him was nothing. 206 00:13:02,420 --> 00:13:04,980 He really wasn't interested in that. 207 00:13:04,980 --> 00:13:10,380 It was power to make big changes in society. 208 00:13:11,500 --> 00:13:17,260 'He is motivated by a vision of an alternative world.' 209 00:13:17,260 --> 00:13:20,500 The end of a society dominated by profit. 210 00:13:20,500 --> 00:13:23,260 What motivates Lenin is power. 211 00:13:23,260 --> 00:13:26,220 Power is all that matters in a revolution. 212 00:13:26,220 --> 00:13:29,020 That is how Lenin understands revolution. 213 00:13:29,020 --> 00:13:32,500 You have to have power before you can do anything. 214 00:13:32,500 --> 00:13:35,900 So principle goes out the window in the struggle for power, 215 00:13:35,900 --> 00:13:37,980 as far as Lenin is concerned. 216 00:13:44,500 --> 00:13:47,980 Spring turns to summer, but the provisional government 217 00:13:47,980 --> 00:13:50,980 is unable to solve the country's problems. 218 00:13:50,980 --> 00:13:54,660 Yet most Russians still have faith in this man - 219 00:13:54,660 --> 00:13:58,020 Minister of War Alexander Kerensky. 220 00:13:58,020 --> 00:14:02,180 'Alexander Kerensky was really the first love of the revolution.' 221 00:14:02,180 --> 00:14:04,380 The intelligentsia adored him. 222 00:14:05,540 --> 00:14:08,100 I don't care, General. The men will manage. 223 00:14:08,100 --> 00:14:10,460 'What became known as the Kerensky cult' 224 00:14:10,460 --> 00:14:12,740 becomes absolutely out of control. 225 00:14:12,740 --> 00:14:16,220 So you have pamphlet after pamphlet describing him literally 226 00:14:16,220 --> 00:14:17,980 as a divine figure. 227 00:14:17,980 --> 00:14:19,380 Immediately. 228 00:14:22,460 --> 00:14:25,500 'He is convinced of his own historical mission' 229 00:14:25,500 --> 00:14:29,020 and part of his historical mission is to turn the war around. 230 00:14:32,020 --> 00:14:34,900 Despite the popular opposition to the war, 231 00:14:34,900 --> 00:14:37,380 Kerensky orders a new offensive. 232 00:14:39,020 --> 00:14:41,580 So the offensive is launched on the 16th of June. 233 00:14:41,580 --> 00:14:45,020 It goes forward for a couple of days, the Germans counterattack, 234 00:14:45,020 --> 00:14:47,420 the Russians run back. There's chaos. 235 00:14:49,060 --> 00:14:52,020 They lost hundreds of thousands of men within a week 236 00:14:52,020 --> 00:14:54,620 and this played totally into the hands of Lenin. 237 00:14:57,020 --> 00:14:59,740 Lenin, who'd been saying that war is a bad thing, 238 00:14:59,740 --> 00:15:03,460 that he would provide instant peace, suddenly became incredibly popular. 239 00:15:03,460 --> 00:15:05,700 And so did the Bolshevik Party. 240 00:15:08,260 --> 00:15:12,700 When Kerensky orders more soldiers to leave Petrograd for the front, 241 00:15:12,700 --> 00:15:14,700 they refuse to obey. 242 00:15:15,700 --> 00:15:19,940 Their determined resistance spreads to front-line troops. 243 00:15:26,460 --> 00:15:28,420 By July the 4th, 244 00:15:28,420 --> 00:15:31,900 thousands of deserters join anti-government demonstrations 245 00:15:31,900 --> 00:15:33,620 in Petrograd. 246 00:15:34,980 --> 00:15:38,620 It looks like Lenin's second revolution has arrived. 247 00:15:39,980 --> 00:15:43,940 But are Lenin and the Bolsheviks ready to take power? 248 00:15:44,980 --> 00:15:48,780 The front-page editorial in the party paper, Pravda, 249 00:15:48,780 --> 00:15:52,100 had meant to tell the crowds to stay home. 250 00:15:52,100 --> 00:15:55,020 You should all be thrashed for this. 251 00:15:55,020 --> 00:15:58,340 'When it becomes clear that this will simply look ridiculous 252 00:15:58,340 --> 00:16:00,780 'with this enormous mass demonstration, 253 00:16:00,780 --> 00:16:04,900 'it is too late for the Bolsheviks to come up with another line.' 254 00:16:06,900 --> 00:16:10,020 They just pull it and they have no time to replace it, 255 00:16:10,020 --> 00:16:14,580 so it comes out with a rather pregnant blank right at its front. 256 00:16:16,740 --> 00:16:20,060 The Bolsheviks look utterly confused. 257 00:16:20,060 --> 00:16:23,020 Lenin had been calling for the provisional government 258 00:16:23,020 --> 00:16:26,620 to be thrown out and replaced by the more radical Soviets. 259 00:16:28,740 --> 00:16:31,980 Now, thousands are ready to do just that... 260 00:16:31,980 --> 00:16:33,740 is he? 261 00:16:36,260 --> 00:16:37,980 'They were screaming, 262 00:16:37,980 --> 00:16:40,980 '"Show us leadership. Seize power right now, Lenin." 263 00:16:40,980 --> 00:16:42,740 'And Lenin was hedging. 264 00:16:42,740 --> 00:16:45,820 'He was wondering what the hell to do, how to manage this.' 265 00:16:45,820 --> 00:16:49,700 Because he realised that if this went wrong he could be destroyed. 266 00:16:51,980 --> 00:16:54,780 'When Lenin steps out onto that balcony,' 267 00:16:54,780 --> 00:16:57,020 perhaps he loses his nerve. 268 00:16:57,020 --> 00:17:00,260 He doesn't really know what to say. 269 00:17:02,980 --> 00:17:05,340 We always wanted this to be peaceful. 270 00:17:06,380 --> 00:17:08,180 With no violence. 271 00:17:12,500 --> 00:17:17,340 The Bolshevik call to give power to the Soviets will win one day. 272 00:17:19,460 --> 00:17:22,700 Despite the zigzags of history. 273 00:17:25,060 --> 00:17:28,500 But maybe not today. 274 00:17:34,380 --> 00:17:36,620 Why did Lenin hesitate? 275 00:17:37,660 --> 00:17:40,220 'Perhaps he's slightly intimidated.' 276 00:17:41,140 --> 00:17:43,980 This is a man who lived in books and libraries, 277 00:17:43,980 --> 00:17:47,220 a man who'd been abroad for 15 years, 278 00:17:47,220 --> 00:17:49,500 who'd never really confronted 279 00:17:49,500 --> 00:17:52,020 angry workers like that before. 280 00:17:52,020 --> 00:17:56,980 And perhaps also an element of cowardice creeps in here. 281 00:17:56,980 --> 00:18:00,460 He was not one for mounting the barricades. 282 00:18:00,460 --> 00:18:03,420 He was, often it was remarked, the first to run 283 00:18:03,420 --> 00:18:06,060 when the going got dangerous. 284 00:18:08,420 --> 00:18:11,580 'He was not intimidated at all.' 285 00:18:11,580 --> 00:18:14,740 To be able to say to a whirling mass 286 00:18:14,740 --> 00:18:18,900 of 20,000, to 30,000, to 40,000 workers, no. 287 00:18:20,020 --> 00:18:25,380 There is a time to strike and there is a time to bite our lips. 288 00:18:27,740 --> 00:18:31,860 'That, to me, is a sign of greatness.' 289 00:18:39,220 --> 00:18:43,420 One wrong move on our part could wreck everything. 290 00:18:45,260 --> 00:18:48,540 'He just knew that...' 291 00:18:48,540 --> 00:18:52,380 this would be used as a provocation by the counterrevolution 292 00:18:52,380 --> 00:18:54,060 to crush them. 293 00:18:54,060 --> 00:18:58,060 That the movement wasn't strong enough to take power. 294 00:18:59,460 --> 00:19:03,620 We are still an insignificant minority. 295 00:19:07,020 --> 00:19:09,660 Time is on our side. 296 00:19:22,100 --> 00:19:25,620 It was a little more than a demonstration. 297 00:19:27,420 --> 00:19:29,940 A lot less than a revolution. 298 00:19:31,380 --> 00:19:36,580 Perhaps the fact that he bottles it, essentially, on the 4th of July, 299 00:19:36,580 --> 00:19:39,540 is because in the back of his head he's thinking, 300 00:19:39,540 --> 00:19:42,980 "Crikey, this could fail and then they'll come for me." 301 00:19:42,980 --> 00:19:44,980 GUNFIRE 302 00:19:47,660 --> 00:19:50,460 For Lenin, timing is everything, 303 00:19:50,460 --> 00:19:52,420 and he proves correct. 304 00:19:52,420 --> 00:19:54,780 The revolt collapses the next day 305 00:19:54,780 --> 00:19:57,900 amidst a hail of bullets from government snipers. 306 00:19:59,860 --> 00:20:03,020 Kerensky then goes after the Bolshevik Party. 307 00:20:03,020 --> 00:20:07,140 He ordered the arrest of 800 party members, including Lenin, 308 00:20:07,140 --> 00:20:08,780 for high treason. 309 00:20:10,220 --> 00:20:13,460 The July days left Lenin isolated. 310 00:20:13,460 --> 00:20:18,460 To stay in Petrograd, he'd face arrest and possibly being shot, 311 00:20:18,460 --> 00:20:21,620 and he knew he had to escape somewhere. 312 00:20:22,980 --> 00:20:26,060 He felt all chance had gone. 313 00:20:28,980 --> 00:20:33,220 With the Bolsheviks in ruins, Lenin goes into hiding. 314 00:20:33,220 --> 00:20:37,180 There is a 200,000 rouble bounty on his head. 315 00:20:38,260 --> 00:20:41,660 He must now rely on his Lieutenant, Joseph Stalin, 316 00:20:41,660 --> 00:20:43,980 to mastermind his escape. 317 00:20:43,980 --> 00:20:46,220 'Now they were going underground again. 318 00:20:46,220 --> 00:20:50,220 'Stalin, the master of the black arts, was essential to Lenin.' 319 00:20:52,260 --> 00:20:56,460 'Stalin was the boy in the back room who watched what was happening' 320 00:20:56,460 --> 00:21:01,060 and made himself useful as and when the moment came. 321 00:21:02,220 --> 00:21:06,900 'There he was, helps Lenin shave off his very distinctive little goatee. 322 00:21:08,100 --> 00:21:10,540 'They give him a dreadful wig and a worker's cap,' 323 00:21:10,540 --> 00:21:13,620 and smuggle him out across into Finland. 324 00:21:15,420 --> 00:21:18,500 With Lenin gone and Trotsky arrested, 325 00:21:18,500 --> 00:21:21,700 Stalin finds himself the unlikely leader 326 00:21:21,700 --> 00:21:23,940 of the shattered Bolshevik Party. 327 00:21:24,980 --> 00:21:27,180 'Lenin trusted Stalin.' 328 00:21:28,420 --> 00:21:31,460 He carried secret messages, he set up by the machinery 329 00:21:31,460 --> 00:21:35,460 whereby Lenin could communicate from a barn out in Finland 330 00:21:35,460 --> 00:21:39,180 with the Bolshevik machine inside Petrograd. 331 00:21:39,180 --> 00:21:41,740 All of these things, Stalin managed. 332 00:21:41,740 --> 00:21:45,020 And it was now that Stalin became the key person 333 00:21:45,020 --> 00:21:47,900 behind Lenin in the revolution. 334 00:21:48,900 --> 00:21:50,980 The interesting thing about Stalin, 335 00:21:50,980 --> 00:21:54,220 he played this incredibly subtle waiting game. 336 00:21:54,220 --> 00:21:56,940 He was very much there in the shadows, 337 00:21:56,940 --> 00:22:00,100 watching, waiting, learning. 338 00:22:03,700 --> 00:22:08,420 While the Bolsheviks rot in jail, flee or go underground, 339 00:22:08,420 --> 00:22:11,660 things are looking up for Alexander Kerensky. 340 00:22:11,660 --> 00:22:14,140 He is now Prime Minister. 341 00:22:15,260 --> 00:22:17,980 After the aborted Bolshevik uprising, 342 00:22:17,980 --> 00:22:21,700 he appoints Siberian General Lavr Kornilov 343 00:22:21,700 --> 00:22:24,140 to restore order in Petrograd. 344 00:22:26,020 --> 00:22:29,180 'Kornilov could see that the Bolsheviks were gearing up 345 00:22:29,180 --> 00:22:31,220 'to try and take over. 346 00:22:31,220 --> 00:22:34,700 'He desperately wanted to round up the belligerent revolutionaries, 347 00:22:34,700 --> 00:22:37,060 'the Bolsheviks, slam them in jail 348 00:22:37,060 --> 00:22:41,140 'and impose almost a military government on the city' 349 00:22:41,140 --> 00:22:45,380 because he saw that as the only way of saving the situation. 350 00:22:46,700 --> 00:22:49,060 'The right-wing, the conservatives, 351 00:22:49,060 --> 00:22:51,980 'are beginning to rally around Kornilov quite explicitly 352 00:22:51,980 --> 00:22:54,340 'as a figure who can bring order to Russia.' 353 00:22:55,460 --> 00:22:58,420 Kerensky worries the General wants to rule Russia 354 00:22:58,420 --> 00:23:00,420 as a military dictator. 355 00:23:01,460 --> 00:23:04,500 'There's no question that Kerensky was quite paranoid,' 356 00:23:04,500 --> 00:23:07,940 but there's also not much question that people were out to get him. 357 00:23:08,980 --> 00:23:11,740 Just days after appointing the General, 358 00:23:11,740 --> 00:23:14,860 Kerensky dismisses him in a telegram. 359 00:23:17,740 --> 00:23:21,260 But the General's troops advance on Petrograd. 360 00:23:21,260 --> 00:23:25,900 Ironically, it takes Bolshevik activists to save the city. 361 00:23:29,620 --> 00:23:33,580 Bolshevik agitators from within the army, soldiers, 362 00:23:33,580 --> 00:23:36,780 went and spoke to the Kornilov soldiers and said, 363 00:23:36,780 --> 00:23:39,460 "Do you know why you're being brought to Petrograd? 364 00:23:39,460 --> 00:23:42,660 "To attack us, to kill your brothers and sisters. 365 00:23:42,660 --> 00:23:44,900 "Is this what you're coming to do?" 366 00:23:47,780 --> 00:23:52,140 And the descriptions of this event are that Kornilov's army 367 00:23:52,140 --> 00:23:54,940 melted away in front of his very eyes. 368 00:24:00,020 --> 00:24:03,020 In an extraordinary reversal of fortune, 369 00:24:03,020 --> 00:24:07,060 the Bolsheviks are now seen as the saviours of Petrograd. 370 00:24:07,060 --> 00:24:08,940 MUSIC 371 00:24:17,140 --> 00:24:20,260 Kerensky's credibility lies in tatters. 372 00:24:20,260 --> 00:24:24,620 He's reduced to keeping himself going with cocaine and morphine. 373 00:24:29,220 --> 00:24:33,060 'So, rather than buttress his power base, in fact, 374 00:24:33,060 --> 00:24:37,900 'the defeat of Kornilov only played into the hands of the left.' 375 00:24:39,700 --> 00:24:41,380 It's hard for me. 376 00:24:42,460 --> 00:24:45,260 I struggle with the left and with the right. 377 00:24:45,260 --> 00:24:48,300 The people demand that I lean on one and then the other. 378 00:24:49,300 --> 00:24:52,620 I want to take a middle road but nobody will help me. 379 00:24:53,980 --> 00:24:59,060 'How could you roll out democracy in a country like that?' 380 00:24:59,060 --> 00:25:03,260 So I think it was always inevitable that this anarchic force 381 00:25:03,260 --> 00:25:05,780 which splintered the country into revolution 382 00:25:05,780 --> 00:25:09,420 was never going to quickly shuffle the pieces and put them back 383 00:25:09,420 --> 00:25:12,660 into a neat jigsaw puzzle which was a proper democracy. 384 00:25:12,660 --> 00:25:14,500 That wasn't going to happen. 385 00:25:14,500 --> 00:25:16,980 The Kornilov coup created the situation 386 00:25:16,980 --> 00:25:20,740 where you had a government with no real power. 387 00:25:20,740 --> 00:25:22,420 With power ebbing away. 388 00:25:22,420 --> 00:25:25,780 A leader with no real prestige. 389 00:25:25,780 --> 00:25:30,940 And the opportunity, the vacuum, into which someone, somewhere, 390 00:25:30,940 --> 00:25:33,020 could seize power. 391 00:25:33,020 --> 00:25:37,260 And that someone, Lenin was determined, would be the Bolsheviks. 392 00:25:47,740 --> 00:25:52,500 The Bolshevik resurgence begins when Kerensky releases them from jail. 393 00:25:52,500 --> 00:25:57,220 While locked up, Leon Trotsky has finally joined Lenin's party. 394 00:25:58,300 --> 00:26:00,580 Crowds flock to hear him speak. 395 00:26:02,220 --> 00:26:05,100 Trotsky was the great celebrity of the revolution. 396 00:26:05,100 --> 00:26:07,900 He was much more famous than Lenin, not to speak of Stalin. 397 00:26:08,980 --> 00:26:14,420 'Trotsky was probably the most brilliant intellectual mind' 398 00:26:14,420 --> 00:26:18,220 produced in tsarist Russia, 399 00:26:18,220 --> 00:26:19,900 including Lenin. 400 00:26:21,260 --> 00:26:25,020 'Lenin knew that Stalin and Trotsky were his two chief supporters 401 00:26:25,020 --> 00:26:27,460 'in pushing for the October Revolution, 402 00:26:27,460 --> 00:26:31,300 'so Stalin and Trotsky had actually had a lot in common politically.' 403 00:26:31,300 --> 00:26:34,820 But it was personally that they absolutely loathed each other. 404 00:26:36,780 --> 00:26:41,020 Their animosity only grows when Trotsky replaces Stalin 405 00:26:41,020 --> 00:26:43,300 as interim leader. 406 00:26:43,300 --> 00:26:46,140 Stalin was very valuable behind the scenes. 407 00:26:47,260 --> 00:26:51,660 He did have a knack of convincing the average run of leaders, 408 00:26:51,660 --> 00:26:54,180 especially the provincials. 409 00:26:54,180 --> 00:26:56,140 APPLAUSE 410 00:26:58,260 --> 00:27:01,380 The time for words has passed. 411 00:27:02,980 --> 00:27:05,900 The country stands on the edge of ruin. 412 00:27:06,940 --> 00:27:09,540 The Army demand peace. 413 00:27:10,460 --> 00:27:12,900 The peasants demand land. 414 00:27:13,940 --> 00:27:16,540 The workers demand work and food. 415 00:27:17,620 --> 00:27:20,900 The coalition government is against the people. 416 00:27:22,700 --> 00:27:26,940 The government is a tool in the hands of the enemies of the people. 417 00:27:26,940 --> 00:27:29,140 CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 418 00:27:29,140 --> 00:27:32,500 The time for words has passed! 419 00:27:34,260 --> 00:27:39,660 Trotsky's individualism and panache is not always trusted by Lenin. 420 00:27:40,940 --> 00:27:43,300 'Trotsky writes, "Lenin was worried,' 421 00:27:43,300 --> 00:27:46,060 "suspicious of my non-Bolshevik past,' 422 00:27:46,060 --> 00:27:49,100 "wondering, have I got the capacity to do it, 423 00:27:49,100 --> 00:27:53,380 "and I had to constantly reassure him, do not worry, Comrade Lenin, 424 00:27:53,380 --> 00:27:56,260 "it's going to happen. We are doing it." 425 00:27:57,460 --> 00:28:00,220 All power to the Soviets! 426 00:28:00,220 --> 00:28:02,260 CHEERING 427 00:28:02,260 --> 00:28:05,340 Immediate Armistice on all fronts! 428 00:28:06,940 --> 00:28:09,780 Land to the peasants! 429 00:28:09,780 --> 00:28:11,660 CHEERING 430 00:28:15,340 --> 00:28:18,980 He's sort of arrogant and that's his Achilles heel 431 00:28:18,980 --> 00:28:22,220 because people don't like arrogance in the party. 432 00:28:22,220 --> 00:28:25,220 Trotsky felt it should all be delivered to him 433 00:28:25,220 --> 00:28:27,700 because of that brilliance. 434 00:28:27,700 --> 00:28:32,940 And he would read... ostentatiously read French novels 435 00:28:32,940 --> 00:28:36,860 during meetings of the politburo, 436 00:28:36,860 --> 00:28:41,140 to show how, erm, above all this he was. 437 00:28:43,140 --> 00:28:47,660 When Lenin was asked what had kept he and Trotsky apart for so long, 438 00:28:47,660 --> 00:28:49,380 he answered... 439 00:28:49,380 --> 00:28:50,980 Don't you know? 440 00:28:50,980 --> 00:28:52,420 Ambition. 441 00:28:53,540 --> 00:28:54,860 Ambition. 442 00:28:56,460 --> 00:28:58,100 Ambition. 443 00:29:01,020 --> 00:29:04,020 Now they share an ambition - real power. 444 00:29:05,140 --> 00:29:10,220 While hiding in Finland, Lenin makes the biggest decision of his life. 445 00:29:10,220 --> 00:29:13,340 The time is ripe for his revolution. 446 00:29:14,500 --> 00:29:17,260 'By then, everyone was sick of the war.' 447 00:29:17,260 --> 00:29:19,700 They were sick of the food shortages. 448 00:29:19,700 --> 00:29:22,020 People were openly saying on the streets, 449 00:29:22,020 --> 00:29:24,780 "Do you know what, we don't care who's in power. 450 00:29:24,780 --> 00:29:27,780 "If they like, the Germans can come and take Petrograd." 451 00:29:30,020 --> 00:29:31,700 From mid-September, 452 00:29:31,700 --> 00:29:36,740 Lenin bombards the Bolsheviks with letters insisting they seize power. 453 00:29:36,740 --> 00:29:42,460 "The present task must be an armed uprising in Petrograd and Moscow, 454 00:29:42,460 --> 00:29:46,980 "the seizing of power and the overthrow of the government." 455 00:29:49,940 --> 00:29:52,980 'Lenin was a complete monomaniac.' 456 00:29:52,980 --> 00:29:55,020 He's like a boiling pot. 457 00:29:55,020 --> 00:29:57,460 All the time, you can hear the lid rattling. 458 00:29:57,460 --> 00:30:01,020 He gets more and more furious and the bubbles are bubbling up. 459 00:30:01,020 --> 00:30:05,740 "It would be naive to wait for a formal majority for Bolsheviks. 460 00:30:05,740 --> 00:30:09,060 "No, revolution ever waits for that." 461 00:30:09,060 --> 00:30:11,660 He brewed himself up extraordinarily 462 00:30:11,660 --> 00:30:14,740 and twisted himself up into anger 463 00:30:14,740 --> 00:30:18,180 and his flashes of anger were terrifying. 464 00:30:18,180 --> 00:30:25,060 "History will not forgive us if we do not assume power now. 465 00:30:25,060 --> 00:30:28,740 'Lenin is raging that we are about to lose' 466 00:30:28,740 --> 00:30:33,300 the one-off opportunity to seize power, to seize Russia. 467 00:30:33,300 --> 00:30:35,900 "To wait would be utter idiocy." 468 00:30:37,580 --> 00:30:41,260 'The Bolshevik leadership doesn't know what to do with these. 469 00:30:41,260 --> 00:30:43,980 'It thinks that they might be inflammatory 470 00:30:43,980 --> 00:30:47,220 'and provoke an uprising prematurely,' 471 00:30:47,220 --> 00:30:50,300 so they go as far as to destroying these letters if they can. 472 00:30:58,700 --> 00:31:02,260 BLEEP traitors to the proletarian cause! 473 00:31:03,460 --> 00:31:05,540 'When you read the letters,' 474 00:31:05,540 --> 00:31:08,500 my God, he could swear like a trooper when he wanted to. 475 00:31:08,500 --> 00:31:10,100 He had a vicious tongue. 476 00:31:13,860 --> 00:31:17,700 Lenin realises that writing these letters from his hiding place 477 00:31:17,700 --> 00:31:21,180 'is not enough. He's going to have to face the central committee 478 00:31:21,180 --> 00:31:24,220 'to argue for this properly and to win the argument. 479 00:31:24,220 --> 00:31:27,020 'And then he's going to have to seize power immediately.' 480 00:31:28,100 --> 00:31:30,900 Suddenly we're in a state of high drama here. 481 00:31:30,900 --> 00:31:33,260 You know, something has got to give. 482 00:31:33,260 --> 00:31:37,180 If the Bolsheviks don't seize power now, somebody else might. 483 00:31:40,700 --> 00:31:45,300 By the beginning of October, Lenin is beside himself with impatience. 484 00:31:46,340 --> 00:31:49,060 INDISTINCT CHATTER 485 00:31:56,980 --> 00:31:58,900 Comrade Lenin? 486 00:32:01,500 --> 00:32:06,060 On the night of October the 10th, Lenin suddenly reappears, 487 00:32:06,060 --> 00:32:10,380 disguised as a Lutheran minister to avoid capture by the authorities. 488 00:32:15,580 --> 00:32:18,540 The significance of the meeting is world historical. 489 00:32:18,540 --> 00:32:21,020 History isn't always made on battlefields. 490 00:32:21,020 --> 00:32:23,820 They're made in small meeting rooms. 491 00:32:23,820 --> 00:32:26,940 Since the beginning of September, there has been a certain... 492 00:32:27,980 --> 00:32:31,900 ..indifference to the idea of seizing power. 493 00:32:33,460 --> 00:32:36,300 We must seize power now 494 00:32:36,300 --> 00:32:38,900 and not wait for the Soviets or any congresses. 495 00:32:38,900 --> 00:32:40,940 The time is right now. 496 00:32:40,940 --> 00:32:43,900 The moment of decision has arrived. 497 00:32:47,060 --> 00:32:50,500 The masses are tired of words and resolutions. 498 00:32:50,500 --> 00:32:52,980 The majority are behind us. 499 00:32:52,980 --> 00:32:55,740 The success of Russian and worldwide revolution 500 00:32:55,740 --> 00:32:58,220 depends on two or three days' struggle. 501 00:32:58,220 --> 00:33:00,500 If I may, Comrade Lenin. 502 00:33:00,500 --> 00:33:03,740 Trotsky wants to wait to launch the uprising 503 00:33:03,740 --> 00:33:07,540 until after the upcoming Congress of Soviets. 504 00:33:07,540 --> 00:33:11,260 This way, socialist delegates from all over the country 505 00:33:11,260 --> 00:33:13,060 can back the insurrection. 506 00:33:14,060 --> 00:33:15,900 But Lenin disagrees. 507 00:33:16,980 --> 00:33:19,980 It's difficult for a large, organised body of men 508 00:33:19,980 --> 00:33:22,420 to take swift, decisive action. 509 00:33:22,420 --> 00:33:26,500 We must act on the 25th, the day that Congress sits, 510 00:33:26,500 --> 00:33:29,900 so that we may say to it, "Here is our power. 511 00:33:31,180 --> 00:33:33,620 "What are you going to do with it?" 512 00:33:35,460 --> 00:33:38,700 'He hammers and hammers and hammers the point 513 00:33:38,700 --> 00:33:41,700 'that if we don't act now we'll lose our moment,' 514 00:33:41,700 --> 00:33:43,980 we'll never have a chance again. 515 00:33:43,980 --> 00:33:47,620 This is the only time we will succeed. 516 00:33:47,620 --> 00:33:50,260 I don't think Lenin was browbeating anyone. 517 00:33:50,260 --> 00:33:53,020 He was just arguing that this is the time. 518 00:33:53,020 --> 00:33:56,140 Of course, they were vigorous arguments. 519 00:33:57,340 --> 00:33:59,380 The argument is essential. 520 00:33:59,380 --> 00:34:04,980 Whether to seize power or to form democratic alliances. 521 00:34:04,980 --> 00:34:08,140 'At this very moment, the top Bolsheviks' 522 00:34:08,140 --> 00:34:11,380 start to say, we should negotiate a coalition 523 00:34:11,380 --> 00:34:15,900 with other parties like the Mensheviks, other rival factions. 524 00:34:15,900 --> 00:34:18,300 'This isn't the time to seize power, 525 00:34:18,300 --> 00:34:20,900 'we might lose everything we have already.' 526 00:34:24,420 --> 00:34:26,540 I say we put it to the vote. 527 00:34:31,060 --> 00:34:34,300 When they began, at least half the central committee 528 00:34:34,300 --> 00:34:36,420 was against armed insurrection. 529 00:34:37,980 --> 00:34:40,620 After ten hours arguing, 530 00:34:40,620 --> 00:34:44,420 the result goes 10-2 in Lenin's favour. 531 00:34:50,780 --> 00:34:53,140 'This is just the moment when you realise' 532 00:34:53,140 --> 00:34:56,260 the absolute paramount power of the individual in history, 533 00:34:56,260 --> 00:34:58,700 because, you know, half the central committee, 534 00:34:58,700 --> 00:35:02,260 or even a majority of the central committee of the Bolshevik Party 535 00:35:02,260 --> 00:35:04,940 doesn't want to seize power in October 1917. 536 00:35:06,020 --> 00:35:10,020 'The fact that Lenin got the vote and won the permission to go ahead 537 00:35:10,020 --> 00:35:12,460 'was entirely decisive. 538 00:35:12,460 --> 00:35:16,860 'This was indeed the cocking of the pistol of revolution.' 539 00:35:20,460 --> 00:35:25,300 By October the 24th, Kerensky is expecting an uprising, 540 00:35:25,300 --> 00:35:28,340 but he's still confident he will prevail. 541 00:35:28,340 --> 00:35:30,180 It'll be like July again. 542 00:35:31,500 --> 00:35:34,620 I'll be prepared to offer prayers to produce this uprising. 543 00:35:35,700 --> 00:35:38,140 I'll have greater forces than necessary. 544 00:35:39,980 --> 00:35:42,140 They will be utterly crushed. 545 00:35:49,060 --> 00:35:50,900 LOUD THUD 546 00:36:04,260 --> 00:36:08,980 Kerensky's overconfidence plays right into Lenin's hands. 547 00:36:08,980 --> 00:36:12,740 With Stalin in charge of the Bolshevik press, 548 00:36:12,740 --> 00:36:16,380 Kerensky orders two of the newspapers closed. 549 00:36:21,980 --> 00:36:25,980 Within hours, Stalin is free to get the newspapers running again... 550 00:36:27,060 --> 00:36:29,300 ..announcing Kerensky's censorship 551 00:36:29,300 --> 00:36:32,740 as the start of a full-blown counterrevolution. 552 00:36:33,780 --> 00:36:36,860 Now, the Bolsheviks can start their uprising 553 00:36:36,860 --> 00:36:40,380 under the pretext of defending freedom. 554 00:36:40,380 --> 00:36:44,660 A lie always has a stronger effect than the truth. 555 00:36:45,740 --> 00:36:48,580 The main thing is to obtain one's objective. 556 00:36:53,660 --> 00:36:55,580 You've come a long way, comrades. 557 00:36:55,580 --> 00:36:57,820 As head of the Petrograd Soviet, 558 00:36:57,820 --> 00:37:00,420 Trotsky plays his part in the deception. 559 00:37:00,420 --> 00:37:03,660 He orders that bridges and key government buildings 560 00:37:03,660 --> 00:37:06,220 be seized to protect the city. 561 00:37:06,220 --> 00:37:07,660 He claims... 562 00:37:07,660 --> 00:37:10,100 This is defence, comrades, 563 00:37:10,100 --> 00:37:11,940 this is defence. 564 00:37:13,420 --> 00:37:15,420 He goes so far as to say... 565 00:37:15,420 --> 00:37:18,580 An armed conflict, today or tomorrow, 566 00:37:18,580 --> 00:37:22,540 on the eve of the Soviet Congress, is not in our plans. 567 00:37:32,060 --> 00:37:35,460 By that evening, Lenin is convinced the hour, 568 00:37:35,460 --> 00:37:39,940 indeed the moment to seize power, has finally arrived. 569 00:37:41,380 --> 00:37:44,420 Everything now hangs by a thread. 570 00:37:46,060 --> 00:37:50,620 The matter must be decided without fail... 571 00:37:51,740 --> 00:37:53,380 ..this evening. 572 00:37:55,020 --> 00:37:58,660 'Lenin has been told very categorically by his comrades' 573 00:37:58,660 --> 00:38:02,180 to stay put and he is crawling the walls. 574 00:38:02,180 --> 00:38:05,340 'He is desperate to be there, to be in the thick of it. 575 00:38:07,180 --> 00:38:09,260 'Lenin's face is notorious 576 00:38:09,260 --> 00:38:12,700 'so what he does is he puts on his disguise. 577 00:38:12,700 --> 00:38:17,420 'He puts on glasses, he puts on a fairly ridiculous wig, 578 00:38:17,420 --> 00:38:19,940 'he puts on a battered worker's cap. 579 00:38:24,060 --> 00:38:28,020 'And finally he, sort of, swathes some bandages around his face 580 00:38:28,020 --> 00:38:30,460 'to, sort of, look injured in some way 581 00:38:30,460 --> 00:38:33,940 'and also simply to obscure those notorious features.' 582 00:38:37,140 --> 00:38:39,660 He is wanted for high treason. 583 00:38:41,260 --> 00:38:44,340 Government troops are searching the city for him. 584 00:38:46,020 --> 00:38:51,020 Now, he must risk capture to get to Bolshevik headquarters. 585 00:38:51,020 --> 00:38:52,940 DOG BARKS 586 00:39:01,260 --> 00:39:05,940 'On his way, they're stopped by one of the last police patrols' 587 00:39:05,940 --> 00:39:07,900 of the provisional government. 588 00:39:07,900 --> 00:39:09,900 HE MUMBLES 589 00:39:13,020 --> 00:39:17,460 'And they look at this man and think he's some sort of drunk tramp...' 590 00:39:17,460 --> 00:39:21,100 What do you think? He's just drunk. 591 00:39:21,100 --> 00:39:23,140 ..and let him go. 592 00:39:23,140 --> 00:39:24,980 Get out of here. 593 00:39:30,060 --> 00:39:35,900 For me, this is the real turning point of 20th century history. 594 00:39:35,900 --> 00:39:38,780 This is the moment when one man makes all the difference. 595 00:39:40,420 --> 00:39:42,900 'If Lenin had been arrested... 596 00:39:44,420 --> 00:39:47,940 '..they probably never would have launched an insurrection. 597 00:39:48,980 --> 00:39:52,620 'But because those policemen failed to recognise Lenin,' 598 00:39:52,620 --> 00:39:54,860 for whom there was a warrant for arrest... 599 00:39:55,940 --> 00:39:58,140 ..the insurrection took place. 600 00:40:09,060 --> 00:40:12,260 'Everything is happening in a series of rooms 601 00:40:12,260 --> 00:40:15,180 'in the splendid Smolny Institute. 602 00:40:16,780 --> 00:40:20,460 'Lenin arrived at room 36, which was the key room, the headquarters,' 603 00:40:20,460 --> 00:40:23,500 the engine room, the beating heart of the revolution, 604 00:40:23,500 --> 00:40:27,540 'and there he found all the key players. 605 00:40:27,540 --> 00:40:29,180 'There's Trotsky. 606 00:40:30,540 --> 00:40:32,260 'There's Stalin. 607 00:40:33,380 --> 00:40:35,860 'And they're running everything from here. 608 00:40:38,980 --> 00:40:42,180 'There were soldiers playing cards, smoking. 609 00:40:43,180 --> 00:40:45,220 'People sleeping. 610 00:40:45,220 --> 00:40:48,460 'People drinking vodka. Some people drunk. 611 00:40:48,460 --> 00:40:50,540 'Soldiers rushing in with news' 612 00:40:50,540 --> 00:40:53,260 that this building or that building had fallen. 613 00:40:53,260 --> 00:40:57,020 'At this moment in Russian history, in world history, 614 00:40:57,020 --> 00:41:00,060 'these series of shambolic rooms 615 00:41:00,060 --> 00:41:05,140 'half encampment, half military headquarters, half student bivouac, 616 00:41:05,140 --> 00:41:09,220 'are the centre of the world and Lenin has to be in this room.' 617 00:41:12,060 --> 00:41:16,020 Lenin has always been called the Father of the Revolution. 618 00:41:16,020 --> 00:41:21,380 But the man who ran the October Revolution was not Lenin or Stalin. 619 00:41:22,460 --> 00:41:26,900 'Trotsky wasn't just a handsome face and a great orator, 620 00:41:26,900 --> 00:41:30,020 'he was also an organisational genius. 621 00:41:30,020 --> 00:41:34,180 'He put together the machinery, the personnel, the plan. 622 00:41:34,180 --> 00:41:36,820 'It was Trotsky that gave the orders.' 623 00:41:36,820 --> 00:41:38,660 Trotsky was the man of the hour. 624 00:41:43,260 --> 00:41:46,980 The Bolsheviks take control of Petrograd overnight, 625 00:41:46,980 --> 00:41:50,780 just hours before the Congress of Soviets is to meet. 626 00:41:50,780 --> 00:41:53,500 By the morning of October the 25th, 627 00:41:53,500 --> 00:41:56,260 only the Winter Palace remains in the hands 628 00:41:56,260 --> 00:41:58,340 of the provisional government. 629 00:41:58,340 --> 00:42:01,420 'Kerensky is in cloud cuckoo land, quite frankly. 630 00:42:01,420 --> 00:42:05,060 'And on the morning of the 25th of October, 631 00:42:05,060 --> 00:42:08,700 'thinks, well, it might be time to go and summon troops. 632 00:42:08,700 --> 00:42:11,260 'He can't get any on the telephone.' 633 00:42:11,260 --> 00:42:14,420 Of course, the Bolsheviks are already in control of virtually 634 00:42:14,420 --> 00:42:16,900 'every means of communication in the capital.' 635 00:42:22,260 --> 00:42:26,420 Though the provisional government still occupies the Winter Palace, 636 00:42:26,420 --> 00:42:31,500 that afternoon, Trotsky announces that the government has fallen. 637 00:42:31,500 --> 00:42:35,020 In the name of the military revolutionary committee, 638 00:42:35,020 --> 00:42:40,580 I declare that the provisional government is no more! 639 00:42:40,580 --> 00:42:42,780 CHEERING 640 00:42:42,780 --> 00:42:46,020 Well, talk about fake news. It hasn't happened at all. 641 00:42:46,020 --> 00:42:48,220 It had meant to happen by that point. 642 00:42:48,220 --> 00:42:51,700 The authority of the provisional government, 643 00:42:51,700 --> 00:42:54,740 presided over by Kerensky, 644 00:42:54,740 --> 00:42:56,700 was a corpse 645 00:42:56,700 --> 00:43:00,900 that only awaited the broom of history to sweep it away. 646 00:43:01,980 --> 00:43:05,020 Well, this was the first Bolshevik lie 647 00:43:05,020 --> 00:43:09,260 of...of many of the next, erm, the next 70 years. 648 00:43:09,260 --> 00:43:13,020 The Winter Palace is not yet taken 649 00:43:13,020 --> 00:43:18,060 but its fate will be settled in the course of the next few minutes! 650 00:43:18,060 --> 00:43:20,060 CHEERING 651 00:43:21,020 --> 00:43:23,860 But the minutes drag into hours. 652 00:43:23,860 --> 00:43:26,900 Why haven't they seized power? 653 00:43:27,940 --> 00:43:30,580 'He was promised, he was told by his military' 654 00:43:30,580 --> 00:43:33,180 that it would take just three or four hours. 655 00:43:33,180 --> 00:43:35,260 For heaven's sake, 656 00:43:35,260 --> 00:43:39,300 why aren't shells being fired into the Winter Palace? 657 00:43:39,300 --> 00:43:41,940 Why haven't they stormed it? 658 00:43:43,780 --> 00:43:46,700 'They couldn't find the artillery, the guns didn't work,' 659 00:43:46,700 --> 00:43:49,700 they were blocked, could anyone find anyone to work them? 660 00:43:49,700 --> 00:43:51,980 They needed a lantern to give the signal 661 00:43:51,980 --> 00:43:53,980 but no-one could find a lantern. 662 00:43:53,980 --> 00:43:57,620 'There's a sort of hilarious crisis where the Mayor of Petrograd 663 00:43:57,620 --> 00:43:59,740 'actually marches in front of the troops 664 00:43:59,740 --> 00:44:02,700 'and stops the whole seizure of the Winter Palace. 665 00:44:02,700 --> 00:44:06,260 'An entire group of men in frock 666 00:44:06,260 --> 00:44:09,100 'and saying, "You're not going to seize power now."' 667 00:44:09,100 --> 00:44:12,660 They have to be moved out of the way and still nothing has happened. 668 00:44:12,660 --> 00:44:15,260 By this point, Lenin is apoplectic. 669 00:44:16,260 --> 00:44:18,340 What the hell's going on? 670 00:44:18,340 --> 00:44:21,300 These people should be shot for their incompetence! 671 00:44:22,980 --> 00:44:25,860 As long as ministers are in the Palace, 672 00:44:25,860 --> 00:44:28,940 the provisional government still stands. 673 00:44:30,020 --> 00:44:33,260 I think the seizure of the Winter Palace is the key, 674 00:44:33,260 --> 00:44:36,020 'because until then there's a Cabinet 675 00:44:36,020 --> 00:44:39,300 'sitting around a Cabinet table, still running Russia.' 676 00:44:40,380 --> 00:44:42,500 And Lenin himself recognises this. 677 00:44:42,500 --> 00:44:46,700 This is why Lenin doesn't go to the Congress or do anything else. 678 00:44:50,220 --> 00:44:53,260 Trotsky deals with the other socialist parties 679 00:44:53,260 --> 00:44:55,700 at the Congress of Soviets. 680 00:44:55,700 --> 00:44:57,980 Having travelled from all over Russia, 681 00:44:57,980 --> 00:45:02,220 they are shocked to find Petrograd already seized by the Bolsheviks. 682 00:45:02,220 --> 00:45:06,700 But their protests are shouted down by Trotsky's men. 683 00:45:06,700 --> 00:45:09,700 Trotsky has another strategy ready. 684 00:45:10,740 --> 00:45:15,380 'Trotsky's order of the day was that if the people in the Winter Palace' 685 00:45:15,380 --> 00:45:17,220 didn't surrender, 686 00:45:17,220 --> 00:45:22,740 'the battleship Aurora should fire blanks at them. 687 00:45:23,820 --> 00:45:27,220 'He said that very noise of the battleship, 688 00:45:27,220 --> 00:45:30,020 'which they could all see with its guns pointing,' 689 00:45:30,020 --> 00:45:33,260 would be enough to send them out scurrying like rabbits. 690 00:45:36,220 --> 00:45:42,380 At 10:40pm, the warning shot is fired from the Aurora. 691 00:45:44,060 --> 00:45:47,140 And is heard as far away as the Congress. 692 00:45:48,300 --> 00:45:51,940 The other socialist parties are outraged by the aggression... 693 00:45:52,940 --> 00:45:54,540 ..and walk out. 694 00:45:55,620 --> 00:46:00,700 Without realising it, they have just handed power to the Bolsheviks. 695 00:46:01,820 --> 00:46:05,420 'It was a godsend that his chief opponent just walked out, 696 00:46:05,420 --> 00:46:07,380 'leaving the field of battle.' 697 00:46:09,060 --> 00:46:13,060 So many socialist delegates leave that the Bolsheviks are now 698 00:46:13,060 --> 00:46:16,100 in the majority and can do as they please. 699 00:46:19,500 --> 00:46:22,460 'I think we have to agree with the great memoirist,' 700 00:46:22,460 --> 00:46:26,060 Nikolai Sukhanov, who was at the Soviet Congress himself, 701 00:46:26,060 --> 00:46:29,420 when he said, it was just a huge gift to Lenin. 702 00:46:30,580 --> 00:46:35,020 As the delegates leave, Trotsky mocks his one-time allies 703 00:46:35,020 --> 00:46:38,500 in one of the most quoted speeches of the 20th century. 704 00:46:38,500 --> 00:46:42,940 The rising of the masses of the people 705 00:46:42,940 --> 00:46:45,940 requires no justification. 706 00:46:46,980 --> 00:46:50,220 What has happened is an uprising, 707 00:46:50,220 --> 00:46:52,540 not a conspiracy. 708 00:46:52,540 --> 00:46:55,420 Trotsky's the real star of the Petrograd Soviet. 709 00:46:55,420 --> 00:46:57,260 He's a brilliant orator. 710 00:46:57,260 --> 00:47:02,420 The masses of the people moved under our banner 711 00:47:02,420 --> 00:47:04,660 and our uprising 712 00:47:04,660 --> 00:47:06,860 has won victory. 713 00:47:06,860 --> 00:47:09,500 But he's also a brilliant theoretician 714 00:47:09,500 --> 00:47:14,460 who understands how rhetoric and politics are intertwined 715 00:47:14,460 --> 00:47:17,620 and how he can play on an audience to mobilise them. 716 00:47:19,300 --> 00:47:21,940 Trotsky is able to make the Bolshevik view 717 00:47:21,940 --> 00:47:23,940 sound like everyone's view. 718 00:47:24,980 --> 00:47:26,580 And now... 719 00:47:27,700 --> 00:47:30,020 ..we are told... 720 00:47:30,020 --> 00:47:33,500 to renounce our victory. 721 00:47:33,500 --> 00:47:35,420 Make concessions. 722 00:47:35,420 --> 00:47:37,140 Compromise. 723 00:47:38,180 --> 00:47:40,020 With whom? 724 00:47:40,020 --> 00:47:43,060 With that wretched group who've just left us? 725 00:47:43,060 --> 00:47:46,420 No-one in Russia is with them any more. 726 00:47:46,420 --> 00:47:48,220 No. 727 00:47:48,220 --> 00:47:50,940 No compromise is possible. 728 00:47:52,420 --> 00:47:56,460 The Bolshevik position becomes the Soviet position. 729 00:47:56,460 --> 00:47:58,980 To those who have left 730 00:47:58,980 --> 00:48:01,540 and those who make these proposals, 731 00:48:01,540 --> 00:48:05,980 we say, you are pathetic individuals! 732 00:48:05,980 --> 00:48:07,940 You are bankrupt! 733 00:48:07,940 --> 00:48:11,100 Your role is played out. 734 00:48:11,100 --> 00:48:13,940 Go off to where you belong from now on. 735 00:48:15,140 --> 00:48:17,420 To the dustbin of history! 736 00:48:17,420 --> 00:48:19,420 CHEERING 737 00:48:21,700 --> 00:48:26,780 'His kind of dripping contempt lets them know that power is moving now,' 738 00:48:26,780 --> 00:48:30,020 minute by minute, erm, to the Bolsheviks, 739 00:48:30,020 --> 00:48:32,780 and to the creation of an entirely new world. 740 00:48:42,500 --> 00:48:47,460 At virtually the same moment, Lenin's wish is becoming reality. 741 00:48:47,460 --> 00:48:50,260 The Winter Palace is about to be taken. 742 00:49:00,060 --> 00:49:03,300 Though its capture may not have been quite as spectacular 743 00:49:03,300 --> 00:49:07,020 as Sergei Eisenstein's film, October, portrayed it. 744 00:49:15,060 --> 00:49:17,300 First of all, it wasn't even locked. 745 00:49:17,300 --> 00:49:20,380 Secondly, it was guarded by a group of adolescent boys 746 00:49:20,380 --> 00:49:22,860 who were about 15 years old - cadets, 747 00:49:22,860 --> 00:49:25,260 and by a group of female soldiers 748 00:49:25,260 --> 00:49:28,260 who were getting more and more terrified. 749 00:49:30,460 --> 00:49:34,940 So when they finally did, on that evening, enter the Winter Palace... 750 00:49:38,060 --> 00:49:40,700 ..when the doors were open, no-one stopped them. 751 00:49:40,700 --> 00:49:43,140 There was no fighting, there was no storming. 752 00:49:43,140 --> 00:49:48,980 The heroic scale of that film is creating a myth of October, 753 00:49:48,980 --> 00:49:50,900 far from the reality. 754 00:49:52,060 --> 00:49:56,580 'The storming of the Winter Palace creates this foundation myth 755 00:49:56,580 --> 00:49:59,340 'of it being a mass uprising. 756 00:50:00,540 --> 00:50:03,460 'That the thousands who stormed the Winter Palace,' 757 00:50:03,460 --> 00:50:06,300 instead of the few dozen who actually did so, 758 00:50:06,300 --> 00:50:09,300 were representatives of the whole people. 759 00:50:11,980 --> 00:50:15,220 'Revolutions are, by nature, illegitimate.' 760 00:50:15,220 --> 00:50:18,060 So you need to create foundation myths. 761 00:50:18,060 --> 00:50:23,140 The moment that power passes to the Bolsheviks is an epic example. 762 00:50:24,780 --> 00:50:26,980 They walked into the Cabinet meeting. 763 00:50:34,020 --> 00:50:37,460 'And the Cabinet looked up and said, "What do you want us to do?" 764 00:50:37,460 --> 00:50:40,660 'And the Bolsheviks said, "You're under arrest."' 765 00:50:43,500 --> 00:50:47,300 That is the moment the October Revolution happens. 766 00:50:50,740 --> 00:50:52,380 CHEERING 767 00:50:53,380 --> 00:50:56,180 An heroic new world is born. 768 00:50:57,700 --> 00:51:00,420 At least in Eisenstein's version of events. 769 00:51:03,980 --> 00:51:08,700 In reality, Lenin is in room 36 when he gets the news, 770 00:51:08,700 --> 00:51:10,660 far from the action. 771 00:51:14,460 --> 00:51:16,620 It is finally done. 772 00:51:18,980 --> 00:51:20,900 Russia is his. 773 00:51:31,500 --> 00:51:34,980 But did Lenin just grab power in a coup 774 00:51:34,980 --> 00:51:37,180 or did he have popular support? 775 00:51:38,180 --> 00:51:40,340 'I think it was a coup d'etat.' 776 00:51:40,340 --> 00:51:42,740 There were people who wanted bread and land 777 00:51:42,740 --> 00:51:44,740 and all power to the Soviets, 778 00:51:44,740 --> 00:51:49,220 but did they want a Bolshevik government led by Vladimir Lenin? 779 00:51:49,220 --> 00:51:51,220 I don't think so. 780 00:51:51,220 --> 00:51:54,460 Was there an element of conspiracy in it? 781 00:51:54,460 --> 00:51:58,420 Well, of course, because you can't plan an insurrection 782 00:51:58,420 --> 00:52:01,260 by publishing the details the day before. 783 00:52:01,260 --> 00:52:05,940 But everything till then, till the day before, 784 00:52:05,940 --> 00:52:09,780 had been discussed in Lenin's speeches, in his writings, 785 00:52:09,780 --> 00:52:12,420 and those of Trotsky, what he was saying, 786 00:52:12,420 --> 00:52:15,700 they were saying, yes, we are making a revolution. 787 00:52:15,700 --> 00:52:18,420 How the hell is that a coup d'etat? 788 00:52:18,420 --> 00:52:22,980 For sure, the coup d'etat of October, which is what it was, 789 00:52:22,980 --> 00:52:27,620 based itself on the underpinnings of a mass social revolution 790 00:52:27,620 --> 00:52:31,020 which originated in February 1917. 791 00:52:31,020 --> 00:52:35,780 And we see the radicalisation of peasants, workers, soldiers, 792 00:52:35,780 --> 00:52:41,460 across the country, giving a mandate for Soviet power by October. 793 00:52:41,460 --> 00:52:46,020 But Soviet power is not what Lenin makes 794 00:52:46,020 --> 00:52:48,780 of the events of the 25th of October. 795 00:52:48,780 --> 00:52:52,220 Lenin is using the cloak of Soviet power 796 00:52:52,220 --> 00:52:55,420 to establish a Bolshevik dictatorship. 797 00:52:58,900 --> 00:53:00,940 APPLAUSE 798 00:53:06,220 --> 00:53:10,900 The next day, Lenin appears at the Congress of Soviets to announce... 799 00:53:11,900 --> 00:53:14,380 We shall now proceed 800 00:53:14,380 --> 00:53:17,380 to construct the socialist order. 801 00:53:21,060 --> 00:53:24,300 'This is a man who had spent years working out the theory 802 00:53:24,300 --> 00:53:26,380 'of exactly what he was going to do.' 803 00:53:27,980 --> 00:53:30,580 And so the moment that they took over, he was ready. 804 00:53:32,060 --> 00:53:36,260 Trotsky is named the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. 805 00:53:36,260 --> 00:53:40,220 Stalin, the People's Commissar for Nationalities. 806 00:53:40,220 --> 00:53:43,180 And Lenin becomes the leader of the government. 807 00:53:44,220 --> 00:53:49,100 A new era in the history of Russia and of the world begins. 808 00:53:51,980 --> 00:53:56,380 Lenin issues scores of decrees that transform Russia in days. 809 00:53:58,060 --> 00:54:01,940 'You start to see the first stirrings of a different kind 810 00:54:01,940 --> 00:54:04,380 'of social control, for example. 811 00:54:04,380 --> 00:54:07,980 'Workers' control and peasantry having control of their own lives. 812 00:54:09,020 --> 00:54:12,020 'Equal rights of men and women, of divorce law, 813 00:54:12,020 --> 00:54:14,420 'decriminalising homosexuality.' 814 00:54:16,140 --> 00:54:20,620 To me, there's no question that October represents a moment of hope. 815 00:54:22,220 --> 00:54:26,300 'Just weeks after the October Revolution,' 816 00:54:26,300 --> 00:54:29,900 Lenin created a one-party state, a totalitarian state. 817 00:54:30,980 --> 00:54:34,420 'He also created the Cheka, the secret police, 818 00:54:34,420 --> 00:54:38,260 'with power over life and death, to kill enemies of the revolution.' 819 00:54:39,380 --> 00:54:43,740 He repeatedly ordered mass shootings of thousands of innocent people. 820 00:54:44,540 --> 00:54:46,420 'He specified that, you know, 821 00:54:46,420 --> 00:54:50,060 'annihilation was the only way for the party to keep power. 822 00:54:50,060 --> 00:54:52,700 'So, gradually, he created a dictatorship' 823 00:54:52,700 --> 00:54:57,140 that was inherited by Stalin, and made much more intense by Stalin. 824 00:54:59,820 --> 00:55:02,980 'When the ideologue is confronted with reality, 825 00:55:02,980 --> 00:55:05,300 'that doesn't fit into his scheme,' 826 00:55:05,300 --> 00:55:07,700 he can't defeat reality with argument, 827 00:55:07,700 --> 00:55:09,300 so the fist tightens. 828 00:55:10,380 --> 00:55:14,620 Vladimir Lenin dies of a stroke in 1924. 829 00:55:16,020 --> 00:55:19,060 Joseph Stalin rises to power. 830 00:55:19,900 --> 00:55:21,980 He eliminates his rivals. 831 00:55:21,980 --> 00:55:24,220 Notably, Leon Trotsky, 832 00:55:24,220 --> 00:55:27,460 who was assassinated in 1940. 833 00:55:30,860 --> 00:55:34,260 Joseph Stalin, the quiet backroom fixer, 834 00:55:34,260 --> 00:55:37,420 outlasts both Lenin and Trotsky. 835 00:55:37,420 --> 00:55:40,020 His reign becomes the Great Terror 836 00:55:40,020 --> 00:55:42,860 that lasts for over a quarter of a century. 837 00:55:44,700 --> 00:55:48,100 The Tsars, in their last half century, 838 00:55:48,100 --> 00:55:51,980 were averaging 17 executions a year. 839 00:55:51,980 --> 00:55:54,340 Within a month... 840 00:55:54,340 --> 00:55:57,060 a few months of Lenin taking power, 841 00:55:57,060 --> 00:56:00,740 erm, it was 1,000 a month, executions. 842 00:56:00,740 --> 00:56:05,220 And during the Great Terror, it was more like 1,000 a week. 843 00:56:05,220 --> 00:56:08,460 'Under Stalin, something like 20 million people' 844 00:56:08,460 --> 00:56:12,540 would go through the concentration camps, the Gulag camps. 845 00:56:12,540 --> 00:56:17,020 Somewhere between 20 and 30 million people were killed. 846 00:56:17,020 --> 00:56:19,740 These were on the orders not just of Stalin, 847 00:56:19,740 --> 00:56:22,340 but of Lenin and the Bolshevik Party. 848 00:56:22,340 --> 00:56:25,260 Stalin is not Lenin's heir. 849 00:56:25,260 --> 00:56:27,740 In his last will and testament, 850 00:56:27,740 --> 00:56:31,380 Lenin made it very clear that he should be removed 851 00:56:31,380 --> 00:56:33,860 as General Secretary of the party. 852 00:56:33,860 --> 00:56:37,660 Said he was not the right sort of person to be leading the party. 853 00:56:41,780 --> 00:56:47,060 Stalin's impact on Russia lasts beyond his death in 1953 854 00:56:47,060 --> 00:56:51,140 or even the death of the Soviet Union in 1991. 855 00:56:52,260 --> 00:56:54,620 ANNOUNCED IN RUSSIAN 856 00:56:55,980 --> 00:56:58,820 'Putin really understands the October Revolution. 857 00:56:58,820 --> 00:57:02,140 'In many ways, he's a result of it, one of the results of it. 858 00:57:03,300 --> 00:57:06,140 'When he looks back at history, he's really interested,' 859 00:57:06,140 --> 00:57:08,980 not in Marxism or Bolshevism, 860 00:57:08,980 --> 00:57:13,020 'he's most impressed by the Red Tsar, by Stalin. 861 00:57:14,500 --> 00:57:17,700 'Because Stalin is the successful manager 862 00:57:17,700 --> 00:57:19,700 'of the Russian nation.' 863 00:57:19,700 --> 00:57:21,420 HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN 864 00:57:21,420 --> 00:57:25,460 'Putin's not interested in the chaos caused by Lenin and Trotsky. 865 00:57:25,460 --> 00:57:28,940 'He's interested in the prestige and the victory' 866 00:57:28,940 --> 00:57:30,980 delivered by Joseph Stalin. 867 00:57:35,420 --> 00:57:39,220 So, has history proved Stalin to be more influential 868 00:57:39,220 --> 00:57:40,900 than Lenin or Trotsky? 869 00:57:42,020 --> 00:57:45,740 For so many years, 70 years of the Soviet Union, 870 00:57:45,740 --> 00:57:49,660 it was Lenin who was always invoked as the godlike figure, 871 00:57:49,660 --> 00:57:51,740 the Father of the Revolution. 872 00:57:51,740 --> 00:57:55,900 And now, in the Putin era, he's been sort of left to one side a bit. 873 00:57:55,900 --> 00:57:57,740 The statues are still there, 874 00:57:57,740 --> 00:58:00,220 but somehow he's not talked about as much. 875 00:58:00,220 --> 00:58:04,460 When there was a poll recently about some of the greatest leaders 876 00:58:04,460 --> 00:58:08,060 or figures in Russia, it was Stalin who figured, not Lenin. 877 00:58:13,740 --> 00:58:16,180 But is Lenin's time coming again? 878 00:58:20,220 --> 00:58:25,780 'We live today in a world of rampant populism, of post-factual politics, 879 00:58:25,780 --> 00:58:30,020 'and much of this can be traced back to Lenin. 880 00:58:30,020 --> 00:58:32,900 'That ultimate political manipulator...' 881 00:58:34,900 --> 00:58:37,940 ..who, though he was a fanatical Marxist, 882 00:58:37,940 --> 00:58:40,980 was also the master of pragmatism. 883 00:58:40,980 --> 00:58:46,020 'He understood that politics was all about who controls who 884 00:58:46,020 --> 00:58:51,060 'and any means were suitable to achieving his ends.'