Leningrad

Episode number 2 of Series “The Hand of Stalin”.
In the 1930s Stalin consolidated his power by creating a strict heirarchical level of command which depended upon paranoia and authoritarian repression for success. Millions of people were accused of “crimes against the state” and forced to sign confessions in show trials which only added to the growing societal hysteria. In interviews with both survivors and administrators of the “purges”, we see how the use of informers and the secret police led to a social order of mistrust where neigbour turned on neighbour and sibling on sibling. Filmed in the old city of Leningrad this powerful documentary shows how the purges, with their subsequant tortures, imprisonments and violence are still the cause of deep anguish for contemporary Russians.