Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone

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What it felt like to live through the collapse of communism and democracy.

What it felt like to live through the collapse of communism and democracy. A series of films by Adam Curtis.

Series 1

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Adam Curtis

Rose Garnett

Sandra Gorel

Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone: Series 1: Part One - 1985 to 1989

Part One - 1985 to 1989

BBC - Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone, Series 1, Part One - 1985 to 1989

Perestroika. The dream of saving communism. But the oligarchs start to loot the system.

Perestroika. The dream of saving communism. But no-one believes in anything any longer. The managers loot the system. Soldiers return defeated in the war to liberate Afghanistan.

What it felt like to live through the collapse of Communism - and Democracy.
 
Adam Curtis’ immersive history takes you through Russian society as it lived through a cataclysm that wrecked the lives of millions of people and tore apart the foundations of the whole society. What the Russians lived through in the 1990s was not just the end of communism, but the failure of democracy too. They experienced the collapse of the two great ideologies of our time in a period of less than ten years.
 
By 1999 the word democracy was used as a curse. A curse against your enemies. 
 
It is out of that rage, the violence, the desperation and the overwhelming corruption that Vladimir Putin emerged.

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Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone

Series 1

Part One - 1985 to 1989

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