COLD WAR: AFTER STALIN, 1953-1958 {PART 7 OF 24} (TV)
Summary
The seventh in this twenty-four-part documentary series examining the events of the Cold War, from 1917 to the early 1990s. This series consists of interviews and archival footage, accompanied by historical narration by Kenneth Branagh. This episode concerns the changes that occurred throughout the Soviet bloc after Joseph Stalin's death. While Stalin was mourned in the Soviet Union, the government arranged a new collective leadership. In the United States, President Dwight Eisenhower's administration vowed to take a more aggressive stance against post-Stalin Communism -- but, as Robert Bowie of the U.S. State Department explains, Eisenhower was also determined to maintain peace with the Soviet Union. Stalin's death was a catalyst for change: East Germans chafed under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Walter Ulbricht. East German workers Alfred Berlin, Werner Hervbig, and Heinz Homuth discuss the poor conditions of working people in their country, which soon led to mass demonstrations. Karl Schirdewan of the German Socialist Party and Alexander Bogomolov of the Soviet Embassy state that Ulbricht and the local government were panic striken by the revolt, and the Soviet leadership consequently sent in armed forces. British journalist Charles Wheeler explains that when the military sealed off East Berlin, Western powers were concerned only with maintaining routes to West Berlin and avoided confrontation with the Russians. The uprisings resulted in renewed Soviet support of Ubricht and in West Germany's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Warsaw Pact responded to NATO, formalizing Soviet military authority throughout the Soviet bloc. Against the advice of Vyacheslav Molotov, rising leader Nikita Khrushchev also led Soviet negotiations with Yugoslavia and Austria, however, withdrawing troops from Austria and acknowledging past wrongdoing against Yugoslavia and President Tito as a gesture of goodwill. Dmitri Sukhanov of the Politburo Secretariat notes that Khrushchev's efforts to end Stalin's legacy and turn over a new leaf in Russia met with opposition. Although many welcomed the change, Jan Nowak of Radio Free Europe Poland recalls that Khrushchev's speech denouncing Stalin's policies ran counter to the people's faith in Stalin's infallible power. Nonetheless, agitation for change was soon echoed in Poland and Hungary with workers' rebellions. American journalist Flora Lewis and Jerzy Morawski of the Polish United Workers' Party comment on the Soviet reaction to the Polish demonstrations. Officials and troops were quickly sent from Moscow to meet with popular leader Wladyslaw Gomulka and end the protests, and a compromise was forged. The Hungarian movement was not so easy to shut down, however. Prime minister Andras Hegedus recalls that the Soviet Union forced Hungarian leader Matyas Rakosi to retire; it also sent troops to combat the armed civilians defending Budapest. Hungarian fighter Erzsebet Hrozova states that radicals embraced the new popular leader Imre Nagy only when he supported their revolution. Hungary became chaotic as radicals attacked officials of the Communist Party and the secret police, and fighting escalated between Soviet troops and Hungarians. Major Grigori Dobrynov and Vladimir Kruichkov of the Soviet foreign ministry state that after a time military officials simply wanted to end the violence, while Budapest resident Aniko Vajda argues that the revolutionaries fought for liberty hoping for support from the United States. The revolution was eventually quelled, Nagy was executed, and the borders were closed. Robert Bowie concludes that the U.S. could not intervene in Eastern European countries for fear of sparking a third world war with the Soviet Union. Commercials deleted.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, 1999.
This selection from the Alan Gerry Cable Collection has been made available by the Gerry Foundation, Inc.
Details
- NETWORK: CNN
- DATE: November 8, 1998 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:46:30
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:58870
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Cold War; Communist countries; U S S R - History - 1953-1975; North Atlantic Treaty Organization; U S S R - Foreign relations - Poland; U S S R - Foreign relations - Hungary; She Made It Collection (Pat Mitchell)
- SERIES RUN: CNN - TV series, 1998-1999
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Pat Mitchell … Executive Producer
- Jeremy Isaacs … Co-Executive Producer
- Vivian Schiller … Senior Producer
- James Barker … Producer
- Martin Smith … Series Producer
- Isobel Hinshelwood … Series Associate Producer
- Alison McAllan … Series Associate Producer
- Hella Pick … Writer
- Gillian Widdicombe … Production Executive
- Ted Turner … Series Concept by
- Trevor Williamson … Editor
- Emma Black … Editor
- Tessa Coombs … Research
- Gerald Lorenz … Research
- Svetlana Palmer … Research
- Judit Szasz … Research
- Miriam Walsh … Film Research
- Carl Davis … Music by
- Kenneth Branagh … Narrator
- Alfred Berlin
- Alexander Bogomolov
- Robert Bowie
- Grigori Dobrynov
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Wladyslaw Gomulka
- Andras Hegedus
- Werner Hervbig
- Heinz Homuth
- Erzsebet Hrozova
- Vladimir Kruichkov
- Nikita S. Khrushchev
- Flora Lewis
- V.M. Molotov
- Jerzy Morawski
- Imre Nagy
- Jan Nowak
- Matyas Rakosi
- Karl Schirdewan
- Joseph Stalin
- Dmitri Sukhanov
- Josip Broz Tito
- Aniko Vajda
- Walter Ulbricht
- Charles Wheeler