He Came to Give Us Freedom

During Gorbachev's perestroika, a Chicago student, visits Moscow while the Soviet Union is changing from Communist to Wild West capitalist society. Purely by bad luck, he becomes a pawn in a dangerous cat and mouse game for a precious icon.

When the communist government raises food prices in 1962, the rebellious workers from the small industrial town of Novocherkassk go on strike. The massacre which then ensues is seen through the eyes of a devout party activist.

Ukrainian journalist Katya Soldak, currently living in New York City and working for Forbes magazine, chronicles Ukraine's history: its strong ties to Russia for centuries; how it broke away from the USSR and began to walk alone; the Orange Revolution, the Maidan Revolution, the Crimea annexation, the Donbass War; all through the eyes of her family and friends settled in Kharkiv, a large Ukrainian city located just eighteen miles from the Russian border.

Tells the story of five people from the last generation of Soviet children who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain. Just coming of age when the USSR collapsed, they witnessed the world of their childhood crumble and change beyond recognition. Through the lives of these former schoolmates, this intimate film reveals how they have adjusted to their post-Soviet reality in today's Moscow.

A high school student and a young criminal are trying to get reciprocity from the most popular guy in the school. The general and the dancer in 1985 put their careers and life on the line to be together.

As his country is gripped by revolution and war, a Ukrainian victim of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster discovers a dark secret and must decide whether to risk his life and play his part in the revolution by revealing it.

In 1985, perestroika began in the Soviet Union and the Laskovy May group appeared. At their concerts there were only full houses, from unrequited love for them, suicides were committed. The figure of Mikhail Gorbachev faded in the glory of the creator of "Tender May" - Andrei Razin. An accidental photo taken on the beach, where Andrei Razin, as a child, was captured with the Gorbachev family, turned his fate upside down. It was with the help of this photograph that he became Gorbachev's nephew. He did not say this directly - just hinted, and he was instantly believed. Functionaries of all ranks acted without delay: the doors of television and radio opened before him, the Soviet stage lay at his feet. Razin traveled to all the orphanages of the Soviet Union in search of gifted children for his twin groups.

On Nov. 22, 1963 the world was shocked by the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The mystery surrounding this history-changing event has led to many unanswered questions.

Fiona Shaw narrates this exploration of Russia's medieval origins through to its bloody expansion to become the biggest country in the world. It's a tale that set the scene for one of the world's most enigmatic figures, and his vision of modern Russia. From a tyrannical grip on ordinary citizens to rampant corruption at the highest level, this film reveals the secrets behind holding the world's largest country together in a narrative that takes in the KGB and its ancestors as well as Stalin, murder and gulags.

A guide to human history through its most audacious power grabs. From Julius Caesar to Napoleon; from Mussolini to the strongmen of the present day - we see how the world we know has been shaped by those who dream big.

Veteran journalist and author Edward Behr spent a year investigating the rise and fall of Nicolae Ceausescu. Executed on Christmas Day 1989, Ceausescu was once a hero to his own people, and in the west. Behr's film reveals the truth behind the myth, in a tale of megalomania, farce, and horror.

Jonathan Meades examines the cult of Stalinism through its buildings and monuments.

The dramatic story of three great Russian avant-garde painters from the beginning of the last century – Kazimir Malevich, Pavel Filonov and Vladimir Tatlin – and their supporter, Nikolai Punin, the first post-revolution Commissar of the Hermitage and Russian Museums. They dedicated their lives to belief in the revolution and its connection to avant-garde art, but the communist regime betrayed them. The history depicted on the painted canvases reflects the tumultuous period of the 1920s and 30s in the Soviet Union, in Leningrad and in artistic circles of the time. Only with perestroika have the avant-garde paintings, stored in museum archives, again seen the light of day.

15 August 1990. Viktor Tsoi, the Soviet Union’s most famous rock star, leader of the band Kino, a symbol of freedom and change, dies in an accident on a Latvian highway. The bus driver who was involved in the tragic accident will bring his body back to Leningrad. A party of mourners – Tsoi’s wife and her new boyfriend, his mistress, his producer, his young son and an obsessed photographer – are part of the trip back. This is going to be a long trip, the perfect occasion for an agonizing unravelling of love, jealousy, ambition, and greed.

Top astrophysicist Sasha Greenberg has spent the past 17 years working in the United States. An invitation to speak at a Congress on Cosmology in his native Moscow brings him home for the first time to confront colleagues, and unanswered personal questions. As Russia undergoes perestroika, public and private lives are radically re-assessed and Sasha sees the social and sexual upheavals as a crisis

A documentary television series of the Nazi-Soviet War, edited from over 3.5 million feet of film taken by Soviet camera crews from the first day of the war, 22 June 1941, to the Soviet entry into Berlin in May 1945.

The acclaimed documentary series from 1991 that examined political in-fighting in the Soviet Union and the battle for perestroika.

The story of the underwater war between US, UK and Soviet submarines in the second half of the 20th century.

Reggie Yates gets up close and personal with three very different communities in contemporary Russia, exploring what it's like for young people there, 24 years after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The life pages of a man who changed the world but paid back everything he had. Leon Trotsky is being interviewed in Mexico city of the year 1940 by Canadian journalist Frank Jackson. During eight days they have eight interview sessions revealing the true face of Comrade Trotsky.

The early 1960s. The Soviet Union is experiencing a bright Khrushchev-era, full of hope. A group of young diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs come face to face with world-changing global events. Before long, these wide-eyed idealists find themselves deep in the breathtaking world of spy games, mortal dangers, and brilliant political maneuvering.

Dashing authors, the first porn sites and the last bastards. How the Russian Internet appeared and how it changed: from complete freedom to the appearance of censorship and the law on isolation.

The year is 1930. In a small Tartar village, a woman named Zuleikha watches as her husband is murdered by communists. Zuleikha herself is sent into exile, enduring a horrendous train journey to a remote spot on the Angara River in Siberia. Conditions in the camp are tough, and many of her group do not survive the first difficult winter. As she gradually settles into a routine, Zuleikha starts to get to know her companions. The eclectic group includes a rather dotty doctor, an artist who paints on the sly, and Ignatov, Zuleikha's husband's killer. A screen version of the best-selling novel by Guzel Yakhina.

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

In the spring of 1982, as Brezhnev’s power is waning, Yuri Andropov decides to tackle corruption and apathy in the Soviet Union.

This is a project that tells about the key figures in the leadership of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1953. Felix Dzerzhinsky, Kliment Voroshilov, Semyon Budyonny, Vyacheslav Molotov, Andrey Zhdanov, Victor Abakumov, Lavrenty Beria. Their names are known throughout the country today, but few people remember how they went down in history and what they did for their state. They were in the midst of civil confrontation and social upheaval, changing the course of history. Cities, streets and mountain peaks were named in their honor, monuments were erected to them, their victories were told in schools, but they could not know that after years their biographies would undergo careful editing, and all achievements would be forgotten.

In the late 1980s, when “perestroika” was taking place in the USSR and the era of the Soviet Union was about to collapse, life became unstable and very different. The 1980s brought not only freedom, but also waves of crime on the city streets. While some young people began to ‘grow up’ on the streets, others found it difficult to find their place in this unpredictable reality. Andrey, lives with his mother and five-year-old sister. He studies at a music school and often encounters street teenagers who harass him. To protect himself, Andrey makes friends with one of these teenagers, Marat, who introduces him to gang life. Youth groups fight for every piece of territory; they defend their right to live the life, even breaking laws and promises. The only thing that matters to them is the vows they make to their gang members-brothers, with whom they confront the violence and fears of the adult world.