The Dark Underworld of Brezhnev's Kremlin | Secrets Of War | Timeline

hi everybody welcome to this timeline documentary my name is dan snow and here i am in a lancaster bomber cockpit one of the few remaining lancasters from the second world war to tell you about my new history channel it's called history hit it's like netflix for history hundreds of history documentaries on there and interviews with many of the world's best historians follow the information below this film or just search online for history hit and make sure you use the code timeline to get a special introductory offer now enjoy this show [Music] [Music] during his 11-year reign soviet premier nikita khrushchev diverged from the path of former dictator joseph stalin by instituting many controversial liberal reforms khrushchev even pursued peace with the united states arousing concern among many within the kremlin finally after the soviets were forced to withdraw their missiles from cuba in 1962 in a humiliating retreat many within the country's communist party had had enough of khrushchev's new brand of leadership the secret plot to remove him from power began to take shape in 1963 many powerful members of the communist party and government officials appointed bar khrushchev were involved including his most trusted ally leonid brezhnev the conspirators risked execution if their treasonous plan was uncovered brezhnev had the support of the soviet military but he knew assistance from the kgb would be critical in a secret meeting he appealed to the head of the kgb vladimir semichazini can't we physically remove khrushchev i said impossible i can't do it alone i must involve other secret agents and somehow explain it to them brezhnev then said well maybe we can arrest him i told him leonid ilyich if you want the kgb to participate the party must give an order i won't do it otherwise he never raised this matter with me again it took the plotters almost a year to mastermind the plot brezhnev decided to disguise the coup as a democratic procedure while khrushchev was on vacation the conspirators convinced the party elite to remove khrushchev by voting him out brezhnev was terrified that khrushchev would uncover his betrayal but surprisingly enough everything worked as planned when khrushchev returned from vacation in the fall of 1964 he was summoned to moscow where a unanimous vote sent him into retirement khrushchev was crushed the politburo then formally offered the position of general secretary to brezhnev he accepted and immediately cancelled many of khrushchev's reforms [Music] came as a representative of the system he was supposed to bring stability and be predictable not for the sake of the country but for the system's own sake the stunning news from moscow spread quickly both within the country and abroad brezhnev had risked his life to grab power from his friend he quickly made it clear that he planned to follow a more orthodox political path in his inaugural speech he said under stalin people feared repressions under khrushchev they feared reorganizations and shake-ups the soviet people deserve a quiet life in his private life brezhnev was a man of risk he passionately loved party going hunting cold water swimming and car racing but as a politician he was cautious and avoided any radical moves brezhnev considered himself to be a peacemaker but he also had a strong desire to prevail in the cold war not in a nuclear conflict with the united states he believed there were safer and more effective means to achieve his goals we must stop immediately and firmly any acts of aggression and international tyranny no use of force must become the law in international relations brezhnev believed in the concept of de tom where the world's two superpowers would attempt to reduce the threat of conflict as they continued to disagree however in his view decreasing tensions did not involve making concessions to the west there was the belief that we could relax tensions with the soviet union this was based i would say on western hope western optimism there was really very little evidence of it we thought of detont as a relaxed relaxation of tensions the soviet term for dayton was peaceful coexistence which meant that under the umbrella of peace that they would gradually achieve more and more advantages vis-a-vis the west while brezhnev appeared to pursue peace on the surface he worked behind the scenes to drastically increase the power of the soviet military and the country's nuclear stockpiles he also supported countless wars of revolution around the world and did not hesitate to send his own troops into battle but in these militant attempts to achieve parody with the west brezhnev would unwittingly put the very system he had devoted his life to build into jeopardy brezhnev was from a family of traditional steel makers in the ukraine his road to power began in 1939 when at 33 years of age he became secretary of a regional communist party committee brezhnev was a handsome womanizer dynamic and good humored someone who knew how to read and influence people it was during this time that he first met another rising political figure in the ukraine by the name of nikita khrushchev when world war ii broke out brezhnev was a seasoned party functionary during the war he was promoted to major general in charge of the political department of the ukrainian front brezznev was never in any combat situations but was proud of the fact that he'd served near the battlefronts for most of the war when peace returned brezhnev held senior party positions all over the soviet union in 1956 khrushchev made him secretary of the central committee in charge of defense this was one of the most powerful positions in the country throughout his career brezhnev remained devoted to the interests of the military complex and in return enjoyed its loyal backing his strong relationship with the military was one of the key factors that allowed him to retain power for almost 20 years during khrushchev's time as leader he often wildly exaggerated the strength of soviet military forces and strategic capabilities however brezhnev knew that he could not rely on khrushchev's preferred method of bluffing as technological advances continued in the west politically they were competing with us but militarily they were far behind it they were aware of the new intelligence that the united states indeed knew exactly what they had and that they better have something rather than simply attempt to fake it and so brezhnev launched a build up of the soviet military and most notably the soviet strategic forces discovery of rich oil fields in western siberia allowed brezhnev to allocate billions of dollars for military spending by the late 1960s the soviet union secured its status as the world's second superpower but brezhnev knew that military power was not enough to retain his leadership within the country and to truly compete with the united states he had to control the kgb as well the most effective way to do this was to put his own man in charge of the powerful secret service in may 1967 brezhnev dismissed vladimir semichazny and appointed yuri andropov as the new head of the kgb an orthodox communist hardworking and obedient and drop-off had won brezhnev's affection and unconditional trust with his personal loyalty each day andropov briefed brezhnev on the most valuable intelligence information worldwide both in capitalist and communist countries brezhnev's model to challenge the west indirectly by building up his own forces seemed to be progressing according to plan but trouble closer to home would soon threaten the peaceful era of detox secrets of war will continue in a moment here on although khrushchev enacted many liberal reforms within the soviet union he was feared throughout eastern europe during his regime after crushing a revolt in hungary it was actually brezhnev who had instituted progressive economic reforms in these countries in the mid-1960s but after several years of these new economic policies it seemed eastern european leaders and residents still craved more extensive political and personal freedoms in early 1968 soviet secret agents alerted the kgb to growing anti-soviet sentiments in czechoslovakia warning of its potential breakaway the kgb claimed that the american central intelligence agency and other nato member secret services had orchestrated the demonstrations in czechoslovakia we have now the documentation available on drop-offs reports that clearly show that the kgb played the role of sort of arjen provocateur trying to present some kind of evidence of the presence of west german intelligence or u.s intelligence but it was a very very weak case i mean they really couldn't find anything in order to provide more justification for soviet intervention the kgb began to forge evidence of czech militancy [Music] they showed hideouts full of weapons on tv it was a sheer provocation just before the invasion the kgb sent agents to czechoslovakia disguised as west german tourists they had secretly filled these rooms with weapons and they also accidentally found them later in reality the czech government and its leader alexander dubchek merely called for political and further economic reforms based on a more compassionate form of socialism the czech people enthusiastically supported dubchek's new policies which included a free press and limited democracy [Music] the political situation was still unclear but the czech people suddenly felt free during the time in early 1968 known as the prague spring brezhnev was eager to make an example out of the checks but he also knew that any large-scale military action even within the soviet block might destroy the climate of peaceful coexistence with the west it took brezhnev and his associates almost six months of debate and indecision to make a move to disguise the invasion in june of 1968 moscow announced large-scale military maneuvers of the warsaw pact troops meanwhile kgb agents in prague identified several pro-soviet secondary members of the czechoslovak government and convinced them to send a letter to the soviet leadership the letter asked the kremlin to bring in troops to combat counter-revolution brezhnev had to choose between the system in other words sheer power and his desire to look like a modern and civilized leader naturally he chose to protect the system [Music] once the decision was made brezhnev was ruthless and swift the invasion codenamed the tumor began on august 21 1968. within 24 hours czechoslovakia was completely occupied the united states was somewhat surprised how could they do this don't they know that this will ruin dayton the answer was the soviets if they were to preserve their east european empire really had no alternative but to suppress this to complete the operation the kremlin needed to crush the spirit of general secretary dubchek and the other czech leaders a special kgb team received the top secret assignment [Music] we went to the second floor into dukechek's office dubchek was sitting with us back to the windows i told him that they were expecting him in the soviet embassy right away and that he could take with him anyone he trusted [Music] but the discussions at the embassy led nowhere then a decision was made that our czech comrades should come to moscow the kgb operatives airlifted the czech leader and most of his cabinet members to moscow the kremlin disguised the situation as an official visit in moscow some of the checks were subjected to sleep deprivation and relentless interrogation dubchak remained in power but his government forever dropped any talk of their liberal brand of socialism with the eastern bloc once more firmly in soviet control brezhnev intended to turn his attention back to the cold war struggle against the west instead he was surprised to find his next challenge came from an ally communist china [Music] brezhnev's conflict with china was of a geostrategic nature both the soviets and the chinese couldn't challenge the americans in an open confrontation so they had to compete in another sphere the third world but both the chinese and the soviets were vying for the same influence in the third world this was the defining reason for their conflict [Music] aggravating the competition for communist supremacy in the third world were long-running territorial disputes between the giant neighbors thousands of minor armed clashes took place along the border during the 1960s by 1969 soviet military manpower in the area increased from 200 000 soldiers to 1 million however some in the west wondered if there was a hidden reason for the buildup the united states tended to think in terms of a sino-soviet block indeed after long after the soviets and the chinese were at each other's throats there were many who continued to think that this was all some kind of charade designed to deceive the west damansky island known to the chinese as zenbao became the flashpoint for these very real skirmishes the island is about a mile and a half long by half a mile wide it sits in the middle of the usori river the border between northeastern china and russia's far east ownership of the island had been disputed for centuries but in 1969 it was uninhabited on march 2nd the chinese landed approximately 30 soldiers on this tiny island the soviets considered this a violation of their border and sent a patrol from their side of the river to investigate a firefight erupted on the island and more than 20 soviet soldiers were killed the soviets claimed their patrol had been ambushed and prezinev approved a vicious response which occurred 13 days later artillery and rocket strikes flattened the entire island and devastated territory along the border several kilometers into china hundreds of chinese soldiers were killed although the chinese claimed to have inflicted a greater number of casualties during the one-day battle they remained apprehensive for the next two decades since 1969 soviet chinese border clashes ceased even as tension between the communist rivals continued [Music] however there were many critical events during the cold war which galvanized the soviet union and china the american conflict in vietnam was one such event since the mid-60s a half-million-strong u.s army group had suffered heavy losses in south vietnam brezhnev decided to send moscow's latest weaponry military equipment and hundreds of advisors to the communist north vietnamese in order to weaken the united states the soviet military advisors trained vietnamese anti-aircraft missile units and pilots the chinese also provided weapons and other equipment the most useful thing that the soviets did aside from providing much of the firepower for the north vietnamese was to provide them with the sam missiles that made it very difficult for our operations against north vietnam in total soviet-made anti-aircraft systems destroyed over 2 500 u.s military aircraft many american pilots were killed while hundreds of others were tortured in north vietnamese jails several soviet intelligence coups in the united states also aided the north vietnamese john walker worked as an officer in the communications center of the u.s submarine fleet in the atlantic region during the vietnam war he had access to top secret code keys as well as coding and decryption devices walker began spying in 1966 and worked for the soviets for more than 18 years during that time kgb agents paid him over one million dollars to hand over cryptographic secrets and provide access to more than one million messages on u.s weapons naval tactics submarine and airborne training the classified information that walker passed along allowed the soviets to intercept and understand u.s military plans and operations in vietnam the soviets then passed the information over to the vietnamese soviet trawlers using eavesdropping equipment near the waters of vietnam also provided early warning about inbound u.s bombers the cia station chief in saigon noted that the north vietnamese usually knew in advance of any impending air raids even when air raids were diverted to secondary targets the animeno in advance which targets would be hit this advanced knowledge severely diminished the effectiveness of u.s airstrikes on the north vietnamese the cia never uncovered the problem during the war despite the kgb's valuable assistance the north vietnamese attitude towards the soviet union was somewhat mysterious the relations between the vietnamese and soviet intelligence were extremely tense and difficult the vietnamese often refused to cooperate for example when the kgb asked to see the wreckage of a u.s plane the vietnamese claimed they could not find it we then suspended the delivery of weapons they promptly located the plane and we got access to it [Music] soviet and chinese assistance and the unconventional tactics employed by the north vietnamese eventually led to america's withdrawal from vietnam brezhnev had succeeded in temporarily draining america's resources deterring the u.s from opposing communist expansion in southeastern asia he had also demonstrated to other countries the value of aligning themselves with the soviet union however brezhnev's strategy of building soviet influence would not always prove to be as successful in other regions of the world secrets of war will continue in a moment here on the history channel in 1972 the friendly charade of dayton continued as richard nixon became the first u.s president to visit the soviet union but in private soviet leader leonid brezhnev made it clear to his military staff that he would welcome an increase in all types of covert military actions in moscow nixon and brezhnev signed the historic strategic arms limitation talks agreement or assault treaty designed to reduce each country's nuclear arsenal it seemed to represent an encouraging turning point in the cold war the following year during brezhnev's visit to the united states the leaders signed another treaty pledging to avoid nuclear confrontation at any cost brezhnev declared the cold war to be over however another conflict which had been brewing for years was about to erupt again in 1967 egypt and syria suffered crushing defeats at the hands of israeli forces for the next six years brezhnev spared neither money nor effort to re-arm and re-equip the armies of egypt and syria the ink and the signatures of the new u.s soviet treaty was still drying when the world found itself on the brink of a new war brezhnev longed for an arab victory over israel as a means to reduce american influence in the middle east on october 6 1973 on the jewish holiday of yom kippur egypt and syria unleashed a surprise attack on israel to regain land lost in 1967 and other previous conflicts moscow denied any role in encouraging the arabs but recently declassified documents tell another story days before the attack a kgb report warned egypt's leaders of israel's military buildup along the border interpreting it is a sign of an imminent israeli assault the kgb report was either a deliberate provocation or simply inaccurate since it appears that the israelis had no intention of striking regardless of the intent the kgb's warning justified egypt's claim that its attack was not an act of aggression but a preemptive and protective strike for the first few days the arab assault was highly successful in the following days the world's two superpowers quietly became more involved when the war broke out the first resupply operations were by the soviet union the united states had been reluctant to get into resupply operations but then the soviets started to resupply their clients and the united states responded now our objective was to keep them basically out of the middle east [Music] on october 10th the tide of the war suddenly turned in favor of the israelis brezhnev was furious on his orders the soviet black sea navy sailed full speed toward egypt two soviet paratrooper divisions also stood ready to be airlifted to the middle east battlefield in response president nixon announced a global red alert for american troops dayton was once again on the brink of collapse [Music] as the israelis took control brezhnev ordered a halt to the relocation of soviet forces despite his desire to reduce american influence in the region he could not risk an open confrontation with the us on october 25th the war in the middle east ended the arab nations won back only a small fraction of the territory they had hoped to regain a new attempt at dayton took place in august of 1975. brezhnev u.s president gerald ford and the leaders of 30 european countries gathered in helsinki finland to sign a document known as the helsinki agreement it promoted peaceful resolution of conflicts and respect for international borders as well as a variety of economic and human rights initiatives throughout europe at the same time brezhnev and the other kremlin leaders secretly stepped up military support to anti-american and pro-communist regimes worldwide just three months after the helsinki conference in november of 1975 brezhnev dispatched military equipment and advisors to angola to prop up a pro-soviet movement the soviets lost egypt but they gained angola in 75 they supported a military coup or revolution depending on your views in ethiopia then there was mozambique then there was yemen and so forth for americans it created the pattern of soviet expansionism by the late 70s american presidents were under increasing public pressure to discipline the soviets to hold the soviets accountable for what was going on in the third world and if the soviets were not going to stop assisting these revolutionary regimes the united states would force them to pay a price the price the soviet union paid for continued expansion would soon become very high in a bloody war just across its border but brezhnev's deteriorating health secretly became the next great crisis for those inside the kremlin's walls [Music] secrets of war will continue in a moment here on by the late 1970s the most closely guarded soviet secret had nothing to do with nuclear weapon stockpiles or covert military operations the kremlin leadership's top priority was to conceal any facts about the health of leonid brezhnev beginning in the mid-1970s brezhnev's health began to decline due to a disorder which restricted blood flow within his brain his ability to work and focus on a variety of tasks quickly began to fail twice he asked the politburo to let him go but the kremlin's inner circle didn't want to change the status quo he became a puppet in the hands of his own inner circle all the serious decisions were made by the most influential members of the pollock bureau they were using brezhnev as a symbol or rather as a helpless straw scarecrow now they were in charge of the country's destiny the main power brokers were military leader dmitry ustanov head of the kgb yuri and dropoff and foreign minister andrei gromiko kromiko had managed to hold key positions as far back as the stalinist era he served as soviet ambassador to the u.s under stalin in the 1940s then started his long career as foreign minister under khrushchev in the 1950s these three men were the most influential members of the kremlin's old guard they continued brezhnev's double-faced version of daetant while using him as a puppet for ceremonial appearances and to communicate public policy [Music] in 1976 brezhnev addressed the communist party plenary media on behalf of the party and the nation i pledge that our country will never take the path of aggression never will raise the sword against another nation just a few years later soviet troops prepared to invade neighboring afghanistan the soviets had exerted their influence over afghanistan for decades and helped to install leaders who would act in moscow's best interest but in 1978 a group of afghan officers trained in soviet military schools assassinated the pro-soviet afghan president and took power the kremlin old guard was alarmed then curiously enough the new leadership in afghanistan declared that they would follow the soviet past [Music] by that time not only afghanistan but the entire third world had discovered the weak spot of the soviet government they knew that as soon as you proclaim that your nation wants to follow a socialist line you are guaranteed both money and weapons in 1979 hafizullah amin a former graduate student at new york's columbia university became afghanistan's new president the new leader of the afghan revolution desperately tried to assure the soviets of his loyalty amin asked the kremlin to bring soviet troops into afghanistan claiming he needed their support to defend his new pro-soviet regime from the opposition the mujahideen [Music] the soviet leaders were aware of u.s and arab support for the mujahideen but a vital domestic issue was also at stake the soviets were concerned about nationalism in the soviet union nationalism in this regard was viewed as muslim fundamentalism or muslim identity the struggle for a muslim self-expression the soviets solved the afghan problem as a way of sending a signal to muslim elites throughout the soviet union that enough is enough as brezhnev's old guard debated the situation kgb had yuri and rupoff received top secret information about afghanistan's new leader that added another layer of intrigue he got intelligence reports from the kgb chief of station who basically said that amin now is trying to open contacts to americans and he might defect to americans and we might lose afghanistan so and drop off decided to be on the safe side and suggested that we should remove hafizal amin the decision was made amin's persistent requests to brezhnev for military intervention came as a handy excuse for a soviet invasion his fate was sealed on christmas day 1979 soviet troops entered afghanistan the era of detont was effectively over american analysts predicted that the war in afghanistan would drag moscow into a soviet vietnam the first secret mission of the war was carried out by two kgb spetsnaz or special hit units alpha and vimple they were assigned to eliminate amin two days later alpha and vimple stormed the residence of the afghan leader in the capital city of kabul [Music] they killed everybody in sight including women and children when the shooting started i mean in total confusion actually tried to reach the soviet embassy pleading for help he was killed and his head was secretly brought to moscow in a plastic bag as proof of his demise a means assassination would prove to be one of the few soviet successes in the 10-year war the 100 000 strong soviet force and all of their advanced aircraft tanks and heavy artillery failed to crush the resistance within months the kremlin's old guard realized their horrible mistake in a rare lucid moment brezhnev angrily snapped it and drop off you dragged me into this filthy mess the soviet leaders were trapped a shameful early retreat would damage their credibility as a superpower both in the eyes of the west and within their own sphere of influence soviet losses continued to mount and their biggest failures and disappointments still loomed ahead secrets of war will continue in a moment here on the history channel in 1980 one year after the soviet union became embroiled in a war in afghanistan the american people elected ronald reagan as their next president he immediately took a much tougher stance against communism than had former president jimmy carter reagan drastically increased military spending and dubbed the soviet union the evil empire unknown to the outside world soviet leader leonid brezhnev's brain disorder had reduced him to acting merely as a mouthpiece for the members of the kremlin's old guard kgb director yuri andropov led the old guard's reaction to their new threat from reagan's strong anti-communist views in the early 80s and dropoff strongly believed that an attack by the united states and nato on the soviet union was imminent the kgb launched an enormously expensive long-term operation every week each soviet spy station abroad was to answer an endless list of questions like were u.s hospitals getting additional blood units where the windows at the nato military headquarters lit longer than usual at night and so on these exhaustive soviet intelligence measures coupled with the costly war in afghanistan and the continuing arms race with the west began to severely drain the empire's economic resources the old guard was also having a more difficult time hiding brezhnev's illness by 1980 he elapsed into senility [Music] one day brezhnev decided to decorate the soviet television star of his favorite program with the nation's highest military award the hero of the soviet union actor vacherslav tiganov played a successful soviet spy in germany during world war ii but brezhnev believed the actor really was a successful agent his aides finally persuaded brezhnev to decorate the actor with a more suitable non-military award [Music] on another occasion in the middle of the night brezhnev became convinced that enemy forces were invading moscow he refused to go back to sleep until his personal guard lied and told him the soviet troops were mobilizing to stop the imagined attackers however the threats that soviet forces faced in afghanistan throughout the 1980s were very real as predicted in the west their campaign did begin to mirror america's experience in vietnam during that war soviet aid and a determined enemy using unconventional tactics had paralyzed u.s forces by the mid-1980s the cia was returning the favor in afghanistan by training in supplying that country's guerrilla fighters just as in vietnam there were no front lines in afghanistan the highly mobile mujahideen guerrilla units attacked from hiding places in a hit-and-run manner only to immediately disappear and return to their bases in mountains extremely mobile american-made stinger missiles took a heavy toll on vulnerable soviet tanks helicopters and personnel carriers [Music] the united states wanted to show the soviets that they would not go unpunished when invading neighboring countries they wanted to show us that this just won't work well they made their point and they did teach us a lesson kgb head yuri andropov was the first to realize that this war couldn't be won the kremlin leadership looked for a way to retreat while minimizing international humiliation in 1987 they tried initiating peace negotiations through afghani president dr muhammad najibullah but the mujahideen knew he was simply a soviet puppet and refused to back down years of conflict in afghanistan and the kremlin's ineffective domestic policies began to take a toll in the soviet people food shortages appeared as the standard of living in the communist bloc continued to decline the longing for a peace accord became so intense that on occasion the kgb took extraordinary measures [Music] recently uncovered documents have revealed that the kgb actually provided the mujahideen with information on the time and location of several soviet assaults to reduce casualties on both sides [Music] soviet military leaders no longer believed in their country's propaganda and the common soldier did not understand what he was fighting for finally in april 1988 moscow began to withdraw its troops from afghanistan [Music] by that time more than a million afghan people had been killed mostly civilians the official soviet casualties stood at 15 000 men but it's widely believed that the actual number was over 50 000. the last soviet soldier left afghanistan in 1989 [Music] leonid brezhnev did not have to endure most of this disastrous conflict he died from a heart attack on november 10 1982 for his 18 years of leadership he was given the honor of being buried in red square however brezhnev's policies ultimately did more to destroy the soviet union than those of any other leader his reign has been labeled the era of stagnation but his hypocritical version of daetant continually channeled spending to the soviet nuclear arsenal and its conventional forces as well as secretly pouring money into countless wars of revolution around the globe these policies carried on by the kremlin's old guard after brezhnev's death eventually drained the resources of the communist bloc in the end his cold war policies left the soviet empire unable to feed its own people less than a decade after brezhnev's regime ended the soviet system finally collapsed

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Length: 44min 41sec (2681 seconds)

Published: Sun May 16 2021