COLD WAR: RED SPRING: THE SIXTIES {PART 14 OF 24} (TV)
Summary
Part fourteen of twenty-four. One in this documentary series examining the events of the Cold War, from 1917 to the early 1990s. This series consists of interviews and archival footage, accompanied by historical narration by Kenneth Branagh. This episode examines the 1960s in Soviet Russia and Czechoslovakia, an era of unrest and reform. The program begins with a look at Nikita Khrushchev's belief, as described by his son Sergei, that Russian socialism needed to be liberated from bureaucracy and the memory of Stalin's rule and gradually to take on some aspects of democracy. Khrushchev's theory that the Soviet people would work even harder if freed from fear and poverty led him to attempt certain reforms that were not wholly successful as the Cold War used up many of the country's resources for defense and heavy machinery. Defense workers Khionia Kraskina and Avgusta Kiskachi, and soldier Yuri Moskelenko, testify to the importance and prestige of military involvement in the 1960s as the government relied on patriotism and propaganda to keep the economy buoyant. Head of the KGB Vladimir Semichastny, 1960s teenager Nikolai Chernikh, and teacher Alexandra Nedoboyeva present their views of the Soviets' acceptance of hardship under the threat of Western military force. Khrushchev aide Vadim Zagladin explains that the leader's desire to raise the nation's standard of living was thwarted by professional diplomats and politicians, who resisted shifting the thrust of the economy to light industry and consumer needs. Housewives Nina Shabalina and Alevtina Krasilnikova describe the improvements in housing during this period, and Ada Kithtiar describes the Virgin Lands project, a failed initiative to plant wheat in the grasslands of central Asia. One of Khrushchev's agricultural reforms, it was intended to alleviate the nation's food shortages. In a segment devoted to foreign influences, Moskelenko and film director Alexei Gierman talk about the "war of the trousers," in which young people dressing "English style" were rounded up; Chernikh describes the invasion of Western rock and roll; and Kiskachi recalls the changing attitudes toward premarital sex while Semichastny and Nebodoyeva discuss the government's interference in personal freedoms. Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko explains the bold forms of expression indulged in by writers and artists, Semichastny comments on the KGB's reaction to anti-Soviet forms of expression, and sculptor Ernst Neizvestny recalls an abstract art exhibition that led Khrushchev to repress avant-garde artistic expression. Czech playwright Vaclav Havel explains trying to elude censorship by working in symbolism, and Czech film director Milos Forman talks about the self-censorship that reflected fear of honest expression. Zagladin discusses unrest in the elite of the Communist Party in response to Khrushchev's disastrous agricultural reforms, which led to the leader's replacement by Leonid Brezhnev in a return to the stability and lack of reform of a previous era. The following portion of the program concentrates on Czechoslovakia, where reforms were making particular headway. Eduard Goldstrucker, the president of the writer's union, chronicles yielding of Antonin Novotny's oppressive regime to the reforms of Alexander Dubcek, who ended censorship in an attempt to make concessions and to avoid losing all governmental control. Havel and Forman recall the resulting sense of growing trust in Czechoslovakia and the euphoria of freedom. Vasil Bilak, a Czechoslovakian communist politician, talks about the fear of these reforms on the part of Brezhnev and Soviet prime minister Alexei Kosygin and their desire to halt disintegration of the party and anti-socialist propaganda. Stefan Chervonenko, the Soviet ambassador to Prague, looks at the Soviet decision to restore order and renew previous censorship policies. Footage follows of Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces invading Czechoslovakia. Czech government minister Zdenek Mlynar recalls the imprisonment of the nation's leaders by Soviet paratroopers, and Goldstrucker, Soviet paratrooper Nikolai Rubanik, and student Eva Zidkova remember the bewilderment of the Czech population over the attack. Chervonenko ends the program with comments on the invasion of Czechoslovakia as an indication of the Soviets' need to preserve the balance of power with the West. Commercials deleted.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, 1999.
This selection from the Alan Gerry Cable Collection has been made available by the Gerry Foundation, Inc.
Details
- NETWORK: CNN
- DATE: January 17, 1999 Sunday 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:46:47
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:58628
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Czechoslovakia - History - 1968; U S S R - Foreign relations - Czechoslovakia; Czechoslovakia - Foreign relations - U S S R; Cold War; Communism; She Made It Collection (Pat Mitchell)
- SERIES RUN: CNN - TV series, 1998-1999
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Pat Mitchell … Executive Producer
- Jeremy Isaacs … Executive Producer
- Vivian Schiller … Senior Producer
- Martin Smith … Series Producer
- Cate Haste … Producer
- Isobel Hinshelwood … Series Associate Producer
- Alison McAllan … Series Associate Producer
- Ted Turner … Series Concept by
- Harry Kyle … Editor
- Svetlana Palmer … Research
- Martina Balazova … Research
- Kate Clark … Research
- Miriam Walsh … Film Research
- Neal Ascherson … Writer
- Carl Davis … Music by
- Kenneth Branagh … Narrator
- Vasil Bilak
- Leonid Brezhnev
- Stefan Chervonenko
- Nikolai Chernikh
- Alexander Dubcek
- Milos Forman
- Alexei Gierman
- Eduard Goldstrucker
- Vaclav Havel
- Nikita S. Khrushchev
- Sergei Khrushchev
- Avgusta Kiskachi
- Ada Kithtiar
- Alexei Kosygin
- Alevtina Krasilnikova
- Khionia Kraskina
- Zdenek Mlynar
- Yuri Moskelenko
- Alexandra Nedoboyeva
- Ernst Neizvestny
- Antonin Novotny
- Nikolai Rubanik
- Vladimir Semichastny
- Nina Shabalina
- Joseph Stalin
- Yevgeny Yevtushenko
- Vadim Zagladin
- Eva Zidkova