Inside Kremlin: The Years That Led To The Fall Of The Soviet Union | Heart Of The Kremlin | Timeline

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] only specially chosen soldiers of the Kremlin Garrison carry out this Duty the gods perform this ceremony hour by hour day by day year by year Frost rain and snow every time I watch this ritual on Red Square I think about lingen's dead body lying in the mausoleum the dead body in the very heart of our country [Music] foreign foreign is one of the world's greatest architectural ensembles within its triangular walls are buildings of government a barracks the old Royal palaces museums Cathedrals and churches word Kremlin means Fortress [Music] since the 12th century it has defended the people from their enemies symbol of security [Music] for the last 70 years it has protected the leaders from their people This Cloud is drawn from every corner of Moscow towards the Kremlin to express its love for the Communist leaders today is the official demonstration on the anniversary of the revolution first time we have gained access to film from inside one of the columns as I'm a journalist I asked the print workers of private newspaper if we could tag along [Music] [Music] the printing house to red square and halfway along the local party officials tried to keep up our enthusiasm foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Music] close my companions are not bothered by the fact that we are surrounded by soldiers for many years we have been accustomed to walking in columns behind each other our fathers and grandfathers marched in columns in columns everyone is equal when we March in columns we love our leaders and we know they love us too maybe Marching In columns is the thing we're best at foreign [Music] foreign ly the soldiers give way to plain clothes militia and KGB agents which means we've arrived at Red Square [Music] what a shame the KGB looks so gloomy but what can you do for them it's just another day's work thank you foreign there they are that's a Pity there's such a long way off I wonder if they notice how happy we are to see them [Music] been so busy building communism have we forgotten how beautiful the cranbian is the Cathedral of the Assumption is the oldest of the kremlin's three cathedrals it's now a museum restored and maintained by experts in Russian sacred art there's been no service here for 72 years I have been a curator of this Cathedral and other Cathedrals for more than for 15 years 15 years they should say that all the masterpieces which are preserved in these cathedrals there are two weak too fragile to be used as a relics because the ritual of Russian Services needs chandeliers needs some smoke needs some kissing icons and I am afraid they wouldn't preserve for next generations of people and to to show which was the Russian ancient culture I think that the churches which are full of frescoes and the icon paintings should preserve them in the museum these images were once thought of as the face of God and his Saints but they're now reduced to side shows in the Kremlin Fairground roll up come and see the largest cannon in the world that's ever been fired it's cannonballs are too big for it look the largest Bell in the world it's never been wrong in the Kremlin fantasy is everywhere [Music] the New Year children's party [Music] it's held in the Palace of congresses built for the party the parents have to wait outside [Music] yeah [Music] [Applause] two hours of fantasy are over and real life must start again thank you everywhere there are invisible lines that visitors may not cross today the soldiers of the KGB Carson are helping the children find the right path thank you don't worry your children can't get lost it's not allowed the Kremlin will keep a good eye on them children don't worry your parents already know the right path that's the path that leads to laying in we stand in queues for everything but the Queue at the lenient Mausoleum is the main queue in the country they say it was extremely cold when Lincoln died his wife begged for him to be bedded but the Bolsheviks couldn't bear depart with him having banished God they preserved laying in in a pagan Temple his Spirit does not lie quiet foreign over the country and in this Darkness strange fairy tales are told the clock has stopped in Lincoln's apartment only if you're an honored guest are you granted a tour foreign you won't be told about the terror lenient Unleashed instead you'll hear how he loved to work how he loved to hear his sister play Beethoven you'll be told what a devoted husband he was although he had no children of his own every child knows that laying in loves them the corpse that loves children [Music] in the Senate building the Guardians of these Legends still walk like Shadows they act like faithful retainers in a mansion where the master is absent Valerie of Chilean works in the prime minister's press office and he wants to show us the grandest room in the Senate building it's called the sir glov call this room is used for various ritual occasions for example various decorations could be done here or some important dates could be marked also and in the past this room was used for the government activity but nowadays only for important meetings of formal nature it's as if this hole was asleep under a spell who will awaken these empty rooms next door in the Brazilian building the Supreme Soviet is in session the new men in the Kremlin don't have time for Fairy Tales there's a game underway the referee has kicked off the world's press discussed the action right or many less checks the conservatives are in good form I mean uniform yeah the radicals attack on the left immigration everyone's interested what team the Prime Minister will play foreigns of people took to the streets of Moscow to call for an end to the Communist Monopoly of power [Music] [Applause] but even today there was a limit police sealing off red square and the approach to the Kremlin was the march on official if so why did Radio Moscow publicize it little is clear in Soviet politics at the moment can you tell me why you are contemplating the possibility of your group separating from the Communist party and forming a new party why are you doing that for political commentators like Jonathan dimbleby of the BBC it's now easier to cover politics here and to report opposing points of view like those of Yuri are for Nassif one of the leaders of the radicals but it's still the party that's in control I want to talk to the one man who might be able to change all that but is yields him what does he think about the present image of the Kremlin yes foreign [Applause] Democratic groups some more radical than him [Applause] you have to be pretty lazy these days not to criticize the government but why don't they react are they deaf we demonstrators want a dialogue with the Kremlin powers [Music] all right there is a table in the Kremlin but it's not a round one here laying in around the firm and so did Mr Big Uncle Joe and his boys who inherited the business foreign they looked at each other with a smile without knowing whose chair would be empty tomorrow and who had helped in the rubbing out but there was one pair of eyes into which they dared not look when Stalin went from here it was the time of horror and those black spots on the wall its people buried in different times sometimes they killed one another sometimes they were executioners and those who were executed they were buried there and the main killers are buried in personal Graves it's Stalin it's jadanov it's the dirtiest sometimes but it's our history and in the same way you have crumbling Kings standing together near the Westminster I think it's necessary to have it here but we're still looking at this trying to understand what it was with us what it was in Kremlin and outside it's difficult to believe that these calm and beautiful buildings once the balance of amusements contained the apartment of one of the world's most terrible men [Music] Stalin was the last leader to actually live in the Kremlin completely sealed off from the outside world [Music] it really was like this when Stalin died people came from all over Moscow to take part in his funeral Devils were killed in the crash that they is being recreated for the screen by The Poetry no one could believe that the great leader was not Immortal she says [Music] foreign [Music] I was here and I remember very well everything what happens March 5th 1953 all my childhood was under the students dictatorship so that's do I want or not that's part of my life so that's why I think starting unfortunately still alive uh so that's what we're trying with our film could bury him forever stallions Shadow still demands blood in the basement of the Supreme Soviet deputies seeks the causes of nationalist violence but the Empire is just falling apart foreign behind the scenes the KGB go about their daily business carrying the tools of their trade not many visitors to the Cleveland know what actually goes on in the Trinity Tower [Music] the Kremlin regiment have set up their own Orchestra Lenin loved music so the kgb2 love the classics will the KGB stay true to their traditions foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the grand Kremlin Palace Stands Tall and proud foreign staircase has been thrown both by Charles and by Soviet political leaders it was here that Yuri Gagarin the first man in space was greeted on his way to receive an award in the Magnificent Saint George's Hall [Music] the garden received from the highest Soviet honor hero of the Soviet Union [Music] the past the Order of Saint George was awarded to Russia's military Heroes [Music] this Georges Hall and the neighboring Saint Vladimir Hall have witnessed few ceremonies in this last year few Mortals get to see their glories create rooms of the Kremlin Palace are frequented only by their curators good enough [Music] um foreign there's nothing much to celebrate it's the accepted image of the MayDay Parade orderly ranks of the party faithful filing through Red Square under the benevolent gaze of their leader but for Mikhail Gorbachev today things went horribly wrong waiting their turn to enter the square radicals marching under the banner of a red flag with the hammer and sickle torn out but Mr Gorbachev held his ground drumming his fingers in frustration as they screamed past him to shout their disapproval there were cries of Shame Shame and politburo get out the Kremlin leaders eventually turned their backs departing to cat calls and shouts of resigns yes the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is beneath the Kremlin wall we must try and understand this generation their cherished decorations their victories the deaths of their comrades in arms they have to believe that these were not in vain [Music] today's Cadets have no such past yet they behave like their forefathers coming to the Kremlin for their graduation day to the Kremlin as the symbol of military power and authority [Music] [Music] [Music] the Kremlin has another face Mystic and magical it symbolize Russian to me automatically we're centralized in in the Kremlin and when you travel you see things as they really are in photos and movies or anything never do justice to what you can see with your own eye and this is incredible but only a small part of the Kremlin is seen by tourists the most beautiful rooms are hidden from public View one forbidden corner is the Exquisite tearing Palace built in the 17th century it was the private quarters of the tsars [Music] according to the official line lenient ordered the conservation of the kremlin's historic buildings [Music] a special government commission initiated a truly scientific approach to the restoration of monuments [Music] among the buildings destroyed where the monastery of the Holy miracle the church of Saint Catherine and the 14th century judge of the savior in the wood [Music] for the first time since the revolution church bells ring again over Cathedral Square the Kremlin authorities have allowed a service to take place [Music] the Servants of God banished by the Bolsheviks have been allowed to return and the new patriarchalic sea celebrates the liturgy [Music] for centuries the Kremlin was the center of the Russian Orthodox Church in the earlier times the patriarch himself resided here but his Palace is now a museum [Music] yet the Cathedral of the Assumption has not been returned to the church it's been learned for the occasion [Music] [Music] [Music] let's see [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] leaves through the Trinity gate blink and you could be back in pre-revolutionary days thank you foreign like the icon of a martyr the portrait of the last Sir Nicholas II assassinated with his family by the Bolsheviks [Music] the great great niece of Nicholas II arrives at the Kremlin foreign is the first member of the British royal family to make a state visit here in the armory museum Princess Anne is shown the Royal treasury of her distant relatives the Throne of Catherine the Great and the Sable aged crowns of the tsars foreign Nicholas and Alexander came to the Kremlin to celebrate the 300th Jubilee of the Orman of dynasty the Russian imperial family was once closely linked to the Royal houses of Europe can we ever restore these close links European Craftsmen like fabric became famous for their work at the Russian Court silver gold Etc and inside there was kind of special trip the museum has a fine collection of English silver soon to be exhibited in London this was made in 1600 or 1601 and this one was made in 1604 and belonged to James the first how important would you say they are in terms of English History immensely important English silver is concerned they're two of the grandest pieces from Material there are no other things like this in the world so they really will be Sensational when it comes out yes they're wonderful things I mean not only from the point of your design but the workmanship everything you can think about the weight is quite incredible each one weighs 900 ounces yeah in the past the tables of the Kremlin buckled under the weight of sumptuous banquets now they're no longer under that threat it is said and correctly that there has been no such visit to our country since the time of the romanovs once again we are delighted that you are with us at your own highness and may I propose a toast to her majesty the queen green where has all the food in the country gone it wasn't that SARS that ate it all Russia used to provide half the world with crane now it can't even feed its own politicians properly though for the delegates lunch in the buffet of the Supreme Soviet is better than trying to eat outside in the lobby there's been a special delivery of much sought after books an English dictionary the Memoirs of Paris Gilson and this one grow your own food nearly every day another head of state makes a visit to meet the Soviet leaders and the Press is ushered in for yet another photo opportunity today it's the turn of the Bulgarian prime minister to be greeted by Nikolai for years Bulgaria has supplied the Soviet Union with tomatoes will there be any Tomatoes tomorrow Paris Gilson is now president of the Russian Parliament he has a simple solution to the government's problems foreign this is the hall where in earlier years government votes were always unanimous they will there be a landslide for the general secretary at the party Congress the Press at least can't wait to find out will he be re-elected will his policies be adopted will the Communist Party give away any of its power will the radicals split the party could this be the party's Last Waltz [Music] poor party bureaucrats it'll be a hard day for them they'll have to make up their own minds [Music] his own speech lasted nearly two and a half hours the message if reforms were blocked the country would face dark times and he attacked those who blamed his perestroika program for current ills the response to his speech was decidedly tepid the delegates have an insoluble problem they don't want to vote for and they don't know how the vote against protected by the KGB and guarded by the Army the masters of the Kremlin seem unaware that to many of their people they and their Fortress are no longer frightening even the Savior Tower can be cut down to size [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] meanwhile the queue to the mausoleum is getting shorter is foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign the people have found a hero yilsson has left the party and today he's left the Kremlin the people follow him but where will he lead them and to those who walk the corridors of power really care [Music] the oval Hall in the Senate building is where the Council of ministers meet under the watchful gaze of Lenin all bureaucrats like things to be neat and tidy and to stay the way they are [Music] um to whom then should the Kremlin belong butchoff and his Entourage to the military to the church to the museums to the tsars or maybe to the people perhaps videos videos examples expensive food [Music] Kremlin to whom do you think you belong [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you we Russians have a saying above Russia is the Kremlin above the Kremlin are the heavens will Russia ever see the heavens [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 242,085

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, kremlin, heart of the kremlin, soviet russia, russian kremlin, history of moscow, history of russia, soviet russia documentary, secrets of kremlin, a look inside russias kremlin

Id: tJa5ZdhDS18

Length: 49min 41sec (2981 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 27 2022