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Just as America envisioned Communist threats during much of the 20th century, the specter of capitalism loomed large in the Soviet Cold War psyche. This program surveys Soviet animated propaganda embodying that fiercely anti-capitalist spirit. Foreshadowing the space race, Interplanetary Revolution depicts a Communist triumph over free-market forces on Mars; China in Flames warns against capitalist interference in the Chinese Revolution; The Shareholder...
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Hitler's invasion of Russia and Germany's post-WWII partition inspired a great deal of animated Soviet propaganda. This program presents short films that disparage fascist aggression and America's supposed continuation of it. Fascist Boots and Cinema Circus vilify Hitler and the Nazi invaders; A Lesson Not Learned plays on Russian fears of a reunited, vengeful, and American-supported Germany; and Vasilok, The Adventures of the Young Pioneers, and...
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Behind the smokescreen of the massive Anglo-American/Soviet pincer movement that would inevitably crush the German war effort, Churchill and Stalin were locked in a grim struggle of wills to set the terms that would decide the immediate future of postwar Europe-a contest in which victory was tipped to the U.S.S.R. through the secret intervention of President Roosevelt. This program reveals the details, supported by readings from the diaries of Sir...
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From the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact to the launch of Operation Barbarossa, this program explores in detail the efforts of Hitler and Stalin to outwit each other during the so-called period of cooperation lasting from August 1939 to June 1941-and how their mutual distrust wrong-footed them both, with disastrous results for their countries. Numerous quotations from the dictators are included, as well as readings from the diaries of Joseph Goebbels,...
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Toward the end of World War II, as the era of European empires was coming to a close, a new world order was in the making-and Roosevelt and Stalin were at the center of its creation. This program tracks the political hopes and fears of the Allies during the period that ended with the death of FDR and the collapse of the Third Reich. The words of Roosevelt, Stalin, W. Averell Harriman, Daisy Suckley, Anthony Eden, and Lord Moran offer insights into...
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The rosy picture of Anglo-American amity during the run-up to America's entry into World War II is more myth than fact. Starting in May 1940 with the fall of continental Western Europe and the isolation of Britain, this program explores the tenuous relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt as the U.S. haltingly progressed first to arsenal of democracy and then to full-fledged combatant. Quotations from the Prime Minister and the President and diary...
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Shortly after the establishment of Bolshevik rule in Russia, brewing conflict threatened the party's leadership. This program depicts Lenin's response to those threats through ruthless campaigns against political rivals and foreign forces. Drawing on letters and personal accounts, the film also makes use of dramatic reconstructions and colorized archival footage, portraying the era as those at the vanguard of the revolution would have seen it. Viewers...
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No episode of history illustrates the interplay between violence and radical idealism more clearly than the overthrow of Russia's czar and aristocracy. Using vivid reenactments and colorized archival footage, this program depicts the seizure of power by a political party which, although initially representing a small fraction of the Russian nation, rapidly engulfed it. Viewers learn about the formation of the Red Army and the Cheka, or secret police;...
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Was it patriotism or treason that led Soviet military leaders to seize control of the government in August of 1991? This riveting program documents in detail the attempted takeover that marked a turning point in world history and resulted in the dissolution of the Communist Party. Marshal Yazov, the Minister of Defense; the Deputy Minister of Defense; and Boris Yeltsin's head of security candidly reveal their thoughts as co-conspirators. Compelling...
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Would the collapse of the Soviet Union have been possible without American sponsorship of Islamic fundamentalism? Did U.S. policies pave the way for 9/11? Does the American media help sustain Osama Bin Laden's popularity? This documentary examines those questions, studying the machinations of key players - the CIA, Bin Laden, Afghani mujahideen and opium traders, Presidents Carter and Reagan, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, and others...
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"I have found my mission in Kyrgyzstan," says French horse expert Jacqueline Ripart. In remote areas of the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan, Ripart hopes to find descendents of the small, tough horses with which Genghis Khan once conquered Central Asia - if they are not already extinct. Under Soviet rule, the Kyrgyz horse was bred with larger Russian strains to produce meat for slaughter. Traditional riding games were also abolished, as were traveling...
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Likened to "a strange religion. with millions of invisible believers," Radio Free Europe gave listeners in Eastern Bloc countries a much-needed alternative to government media. This program examines the impact of RFE broadcasts on Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania and the lengths to which Romanian authorities went to suppress U.S.-backed radio. Viewers learn how the 1977 Vrancea Earthquake enabled RFE to step up its activities in the country; how Ceausescu's...
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For former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the war in Kosovo was both political and very personal. This program focuses on how America's first female Secretary of State built national and international consensus against Slobodan Milosevic to derail his agenda of ethnic cleansing in the wake of the failed Rambouillet peace negotiations. Albright also discusses the shaping of her values through both her early years of life in the Europe of Hitler...