Summary: The execution of the Romanovs, in 1918, marked Russia's irrevocable shift from a monarchy to a communist state. The destruction of the Berlin Wall, in 1989, signified the collapse of that state and its Marxist ideology. This gripping, highly realistic program cinematically dramatizes the events of these two historic watersheds: indelible emblems of the birth pains and death throes of the Soviet...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: 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....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Her father was an ex-Nazi and alcoholic who clung to his fascist beliefs. For much of her life, she struggled against Nicolae Ceausescu's dehumanizing regime. But no matter how prolonged or alienating her hardships, they never crippled Herta Muller's spirit-and have, in fact, shaped and amplified her astonishing literary output. Commissioned by the Nobel Foundation, this program features...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: 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...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: 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...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: 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,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: In tsarist Russia, Nicholas II had absolute power over his vast realm, yet he was helpless in the face of his son Alexei's life-threatening hemophilia. Enter Rasputin, a self-styled holy man whose apparent ability to heal the young heir to the throne won him the devotion of Empress Alexandra, to the dismay of practically everyone else. This program presents the wrenching drama of the collapse...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: 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...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Examining Ukraine's past and present politics, this program features firsthand accounts from six Ukrainians who witnessed and took part in the 2004 Orange Revolution-a climactic chapter in the country's transition to a free, self-governing state. An in-depth look at Ukrainian history is provided, while candid interviews reflect both the optimism of citizens who welcome brand-new freedoms and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Racism, unemployment, aggression, excess-the USSR's animation studios frequently took aim at these aspects of American culture. Representing five decades of animated Soviet propaganda, this program features short films that blast the United States and its perceived evils. Black and White and Mister Twister extol the absence of bigotry in Soviet society, while Someone Else's Voice portrays jazz...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: 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...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Boris Yeltsin dismantled the Soviet Union and destroyed the Communist Party-and then resigned before he could create a political party to continue his vision or build the institutions necessary for democracy. This intriguing program traces Yeltsin's climb to the top of the Communist Party and his personal power struggle with Mikhail Gorbachev. Interviews with opposition leaders as well as many...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program documents the achievements of the Russian avant-garde movement and the impact of the Russian Revolution, which at first nurtured modern art as an emblem of communist culture and then banned it in favor of socialist realism. Set within the context of the life of the pivotal art critic Nikolai Punin, the key events of the Lenin/Stalin years and the contributions of major artists such...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: In the midst of the trauma of the Vietnam War, a U.S. diplomatic strategy evolves that begins the unraveling of the Soviet Empire. This program on the Cold War of the 1970s and 80s, hosted by David Frost and featuring historian Michael Beschloss, focuses on such key events and tactics as detente, the manipulations that sparked Middle East tensions between Soviet-supported Egypt and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: As a movement, socialism thrived in Europe-but America was its cradle. This program explores the origins of socialist principles and how they evolved into military revolution in Russia and political strife in the United States. Recounting Robert Owen's New Harmony experiment, the program details the intellectualization of socialism by Marx, Engels, and Bernstein, followed by the rise of Lenin...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Soviet film studios worked hard to portray their government's system as idyllic and forward-looking. This program showcases animated films designed to promote that utopian vision. Soviet Toys, the earliest known example of Soviet animation, condemns Lenin's New Economic Policy; The Victorious Destination celebrates the achievements of Stalin's first five-year plan; Samoyed Boy praises the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Is there a light at the end of the Balkan conflict's long, dark tunnel? Or does Kosovo represent an end game for the hatred between ethnic Serbians and Albanians? This program searches for answers as it travels through the bleak, war-torn region, presenting the expertise of politicians, activists, peacekeepers, and ordinary citizens. With animated maps that clarify focal points in the struggle...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Instigated in the name of the Russian people, the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II was actually guided by moderates and aristocrats. What parallels can be drawn between the February and October Revolutions, and in what ways did the two events differ? Did the Tsar's ouster set the stage for Lenin's rise to power, or was it an attempt to stem the tide of true radicalism? This program provides...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: This comprehensive ten-year history of Russia following glasnost and perestroika presents a dismal picture of a nation in disarray, battling with seemingly insurmountable economic, social, and political problems. Major topics include the election of Mikhail Gorbachev; dissolution of the gulag system; Boris Yeltsin's opposition to Gorbachev's initiatives; environmental legacies, including the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Although the shocking murder of Sergei Kirov-the charismatic Party member whose popularity threatened the power base of his friend, Stalin-impacted the lives of millions, the truth behind it has long remained a mystery. Was it motivated by politics, or by something else? In this program, Boris Starkov, of St. Petersburg Academy of Economics, and Yuri Amiantov, chief archivist of the Communist...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: The end of World War II brought a desolate European landscape with two countries and two ideologies in an epic face-off. Sir David Frost and noted historian Michael Beschloss examine a multitude of essential topics and events of the period, including the roots of the Cold War, the early challenge to Truman, the Berlin Airlift, the Korean War and the spread of "red scare" paranoia, the arms race...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: By grim coincidence, archaeologists are ideally suited by their conventional techniques to determine whether or not war crimes have been committed. This program looks at forensic archaeologist Richard Wright, whose work has greatly helped the international community in the pursuit of justice. The program shows details of his team's findings at the Ukrainian village of Serniki, proving with such...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Author, lawyer, Marxist revolutionary, creator of the Soviet Communist Party, and founder of the U.S.S.R., Vladimir Lenin led the Bolsheviks and the Red Army. This Biography episode follows Lenin's revolutionary career.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Chechnya's war of independence has raged for years, but Americans rarely see the human face of the conflict. This Wide Angle report illuminates the ruined-yet still inhabited-cityscape of Grozny and its surrounding countryside, sifting through both Russian and Chechen perspectives on the ongoing clash. The program depicts Russian troops conducting "cleansing missions" through a rural Chechen...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006