The Lost World of Communism 2009
The Lost World of Communism (2009)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2976152/
In 1989 the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe brought an end to an entire way of life for millions of people behind the Iron Curtain. Beginning in Hungary, the retreat from communism picked up speed over the summer when the Poles won an overwhelming victory in free elections over their pro-Soviet rulers. In autumn, East Germany and Czechoslovakia achieved freedom with surprisingly little violence. Only Romania, at the end of the year, witnessed a savage battle in the capital and the summary execution of the most notorious of Eastern Europe's dictators, Nicolae Ceausescu.
In The Lost World of Communism, award-winning BBC producer Peter Molloy and his team collect first hand testimony from the people who lived in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania during the Cold War era and reveal an astonishingly rich tapestry of experience that goes beyond the headlines of spies and surveillance, secret police and political corruption - in fact, a number of people remember their lives under communism as perfectly ordinary and even hanker for the 'security' that it offered. But what was it really like to live under communist rule? The answers are sometimes surprising.
Part 1: A Socialist Paradise - East Germany (The GDR)
The German Democratic Republic was created out of the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany in 1949 to build a democratic, anti-fascist Germany. One of East Germany's greatest achievements was the creation of a more egalitarian society, but the other side of the coin was that there was also a Stalinist bureaucracy and East Germany is mostly remembered as "e;Stasiland"e;.
In the first episode we examine how the collapse of communism affected people in the 'socialist paradise' of East Germany.
Part 2: The Kingdom of Forgetting - Czechoslovakia
The second episode looks at Czechoslovakia's attempts to reform communism, which were brutally crushed in an invasion by Warsaw Pact allies in 1968. What followed was the reimposition of hardline communist rule known as 'Normalisation' - under which the reformers were removed, the reforms reversed and history rewritten, leaving the country known as 'the Kingdom of Forgetting'.
Part 3: Socialism in One Family - Romania
The final programme in the series looks at Romania, where Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu ran a personal dictatorship for nearly a quarter of a century. Abortion and contraception were banned as their rule reached far into the private lives of every Romanian. When communism collapsed and the regime was overthrown, the self-styled 'mother and father of the nation' were executed by a firing squad on December 25 1989.
Video Info
Codec MP4
BitRate (kbps) 1200 kbps
Resolution 720x416
Length (minutes) 50 Minutes
Audio Info
Codec MP3
BitRate (kbps) 128 kbps
Frequency 44100 HZ
Language English