The Soviet Union Past And Present (1970)

[Music] the soviet union is a land of vast forests in days gone by thick forests covered an even larger part of northern russia than they do today the quickest means of travel was often by boat along the many rivers or across the lakes [Music] in those days most structures were built of wood outside the towns nearly every house was made of logs but some of them were elaborate buildings beautifully decorated the entrance of these old houses was usually several feet off the ground approached by a flight of steps or by a wooden ramp so that the deep winter snow would not block it the men who built these homes out of the trunks of trees from nearby forests were fine craftsmen [Music] in addition to houses they also built windmills from the plentiful timber to grind their wheat into flour and they built churches in which to worship [Music] and not only churches but cathedrals [Music] inside the walls were hung with paintings of christ and the virgin mary known as icons when this cathedral was built in the time of ivan the terrible in the 16th century russia had no outlet to the sea she was landlocked and had no coastline except in the frozen north she was cut off from the rest of europe sweden held the baltic coastline the russians are peter the great defeated the swedish army at the battle of poltava in 1709 and seized the coast at the eastern end of the baltic giving russia an outlet to the west at last after his victory he founded the city of petersburg now known as leningrad at the mouth of the river neva on the banks of the neva he built a great fortress known as the fortress of peter and paul to guard the entrance to the river it was the first building of his new city the fortress soon lost its military significance and became a notorious prison in fact the first prisoner was peter the great's own son who was put to death on his father's orders [Music] peter built a cathedral here the cathedral of saint peter and saint paul for which the fortress is named [Music] [Applause] [Music] petersburg grew a graceful city its 18th century houses lining the banks of the numerous rivers and canals of the neva delta [Music] the style of its architecture showed the strong influence of france and of byzantium with which the russian church had many links peter built himself a palace not far from petersburg very much like the french palace of versailles this became the summer residence of the tsarist court peter's successors built the huge winter palace in petersburg for the royal family and court containing so many rooms that you'd have to walk 20 miles to see them all on the sub-tropical coast of the crimea the tsars built another summer palace the aristocracy acquired great estates and they built fine palaces and grew very rich these great landowners spoke french not russian and they copied the styles and fashions of the french court their houses were furnished with the best that europe could offer for russia had few industries or crafts of her own [Music] incredible wealth was accumulated in the palaces of the czars and the nobility the rich upper class virtually owned the peasants or serfs who worked for them serfdom became a force that degraded the whole community it led finally to the collapse of the entire system in this graceful palace the last of the tsar spent his summers with his family he was nicholas ii a weak kindly man at one time a third of his huge empire was under martial law because of innumerable localized revolts in 1917 he abdicated a provisional government was formed in which a party known as the mensheviks was in the majority the first world war was raging and russia was suffering badly at the hands of the germans nikolai lennon and his bolshevik party planned an uprising he and his followers were in a minority in the government on the 25th of october 1917 this warship fired the first shots of a revolution that changed everything the nearby winter palace was stormed and the government overthrown [Applause] [Music] lenin's bolshevik party seized power from the smallness palace in petersburg lennon directed the revolution the long rule of the tsars and aristocrats was over just after lenin's revolutionaries took power the only free election russia has ever had took place it had been organized previously and could not easily be stopped lenin's party lost the election disastrously but he saw to it that the winning party never took power lenin transferred the capital of russia from petersburg to moscow and spent the last part of his life in this house in these rooms he struggled with the aftermath of revolution over this telephone he heard of the failure of agriculture an appalling famine and industrial chaos [Music] in the early days lenin faced great opposition he was struck by a bullet and partially paralyzed and in this bed on the twenty first of january 1924 he died his house is preserved as a museum in the stables his car is carefully kept a rolls royce fitted with caterpillar tracks and skis to enable it to travel over the deep snow of the russian winters [Music] an austere square building now houses his body the lenin mausoleum stands outside the kremlin in red square all day long a line of people stretches across the square they're waiting to enter the mausoleum [Music] lenin's successor was joseph stalin after stalin's death his body was placed here too but it was soon removed and now a plaque in the wall of the kremlin is the only reminder of a ruler who is said to have been responsible for the death of 15 million of his subjects what is the new russia like the soviet union that has replaced the old czarist empire let's look first at moscow now the capital once more since lenin transferred it back here from petersburg it is a city of 7 million people it has spread not upwards like new york but outwards and covers about 125 square miles it has a subway first opened in 1935 of which muscovites are very proud at the center of moscow is red square scene of all the great parades of military might along one side of it runs the wall of the kremlin dominated by the tall spaskaya tower the chimes of the clock are heard nightly on moscow radio inside the kremlin sightseer stroll a thing unheard of in stalin's day when entry was absolutely forbidden the kremlin dates from the 12th century and contains many examples of russian architecture since then the bell tower of ivan the great with the bell that has never peeled and ancient cathedrals containing the tombs of some of the russian czars these cathedrals are museums today religious services are no longer held in them in striking contrast is the modern hall of congresses built in 1961 the central feature is the grand kremlin palace here the supreme soviet sits its members the absolute rulers of a vast country made up of fifteen republics these fifteen republics display themselves in the exhibition on the outskirts of the city each republic has its pavilion filled with examples of its own arts crafts and products and each of the gilded figures surrounding the fountain represents one of the republics republics that stretch from eastern europe right across asia to the pacific the second city of the soviet union is leningrad the new name for the city founded by peter the great that used to be called petersburg the main street is the nevsky prospect long and straight but the old houses lining the canals are still there from the days of the czars and even some of the statues of the tsars themselves tourists come to gaze at the winter palace and peter the great's summer residence and at the admiralty building from here russia's growing navy is administered leningrad has a population of some four million let's take a look at these people of the soviet union today [Applause] a very few people own cars traffic is mostly commercial almost everyone travels by public transportation streetcar or bus where are they all heading at the end of the day what kind of homes await them the soviet union is the land of apartment buildings there are great blocks of them everywhere they're mostly small apartments a vast number consists of only one room the tenants must share kitchens and bathrooms apartment buildings are going up everywhere it is the official plan that everyone eventually will have an apartment not an apartment or a house but an apartment but despite appearances there is in fact an acute housing shortage many young couples cannot get married because there's nowhere to live but there are still millions of houses most of them made of wood like the very old ones we saw earlier they're not kept in very good repair because they will be torn down when apartments have been provided for the occupants furniture and decoration are often quite formal the goom department store is where large numbers of the citizens of moscow shop this is the state-run department store all stores are run by the state no one may own a business until recently consumer goods have been scarce foreign tourists use special souvenir shops where they must spend foreign money one way by which the state can acquire foreign currency the development of heavy industries has been given top priority this is one reason for the shortage of everyday consumer goods [Music] now russia produces many of her own industrial requirements from locomotives to airplanes there is an extensive system of inland waterways along which the more bulky products are carried efforts are being made to increase the output of consumer goods and improve the quality and style of such things as clothing how does the ordinary russian citizen spend his leisure time extremely popular in the soviet union is the circus which always draws a large audience everywhere [Music] for lovers of opera and ballet there's the bolshoi theater and similar theaters in other big cities many spend their leisure time on vacations there are vacation resorts the favorites being on the shores of the black sea one of russia's few warm coastlines they're very popular this is the beach at yalta in the crimea [Applause] unfortunately none of the beaches is sandy the vacationers lie on wooden boards to avoid the discomfort of the stones [Applause] separate areas are provided for the workers from various industries industrial workers are separated from workers in food processing the workers in lumber and paper and foreign tourists each have their section often a vacation on the black sea is the reward for having worked particularly hard at one's job is not everyone here has come on a vacation many of the old palaces of the tsars and the rich families have been turned into hospitals even the palace of the last tsar is a hospital the initials of his four daughters can still be seen at the top of the pillars occasionally families are seen vacationing with young children most often parents vacation separately while their children spend their summer vacation in camps for the young pioneers the young pioneers is an organization for children run by the state providing out-of-school activities as well as instruction in politics at about 15 selected children enter the young communist league which has about 20 million members religion is officially discouraged in russia some of the great cathedrals are merely museums but many churches are still in use a church must be registered with the government before it may function and a list of the members names and addresses submitted many of the church-goers are old people and most of them are women in fact religious instruction for anyone under the age of 18 is forbidden nevertheless there appears to be a religious revival taking place in russia the number of priests of the russian orthodox church is said to be 30 000 and the church membership is believed to exceed 50 million there are mosques as well reminding us that many people in the south and east are muslims for the inhabitants of the soviet union's 15 republics are astonishingly varied these people are all citizens of the soviet union they live in many different climatic regions in this huge land from the snow-covered mountains and forests of the north to the sub-tropical coasts of the black sea from the deserts of the southeast to the rich vineyards of the crimea this is the soviet union the largest nation on earth you