Summary: Educational programme (one of a series about modern history presented by Brian Redhead) asking "why did Russia become communist?"
Description: Montage of shots of modern Russia. First World War footage. Russia in 1917 - absolute monarch, idle aristocracy, starving peasantry - "a country ripe for revolution". March 1917 - riots in Saint Petersburg - Tsar abdicates. New government set up under Kerensky. More protests. Bolsheviks organise under Lenin. November 1917, Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace; Lenin assumes power. Brief explanation of Marxism, and Lenin's ideas - "the people should own everything". Takeover of heavy industry, wresting of land from landowners. Explanation of system of Soviets - workers' councils. Opposition to revolution; Britain and France aid counter-revolutionar ies - "the whites". Formation of Red Army. Whites defeated but Russia in ruins. Kronstadt Mutiny of 1922. Lenin makes concessions - peasants allowed to sell own produce. Lenin's death in 1924. Russia still backward peasant country - real change would come later.
Alternative Title:HISTORY 1917-67 [Series Title]
Colour:B&W
Digitised:
Object_Number:IWM 1109
Sound:Sound
Access Conditions:NON-IWM: PROJECTION PRINT ONLY - NOT FOR PRODUCTION USE
Featured Period:1919-1938
Production Date:1967
Production Country: GB
Production Details: BBC (Production sponsor)
BBC (Production company)
Radcliffe, John (Production individual)
Nove, Alec (Professor) (Production individual)
Cowdy, Harry (Production individual)
Harris, Jack (Production individual)
Pask, Eric (Production individual)
Redhead, Brian (Production cast)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Redhead, Brian (person)
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich (person)
Kerensky, Alexander Fyodorovich (person)
Keywords: 08/3(47) [1917 October Revolution] (event)
Russia (geography)
Russia & Petrograd (geography)
Russia & Kronstadt (geography)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Sound
Soundtrack language: English
Title language: English
Subtitle language: None
Technical Details: Format: 16mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 775 ft; Running time: 21 mins
