because country is into calling some destructive and born again. to exaggerate that there were attempts at the right class that's for the first time the echo of those intense events now a case of a century ago can still be held today both in a new russia under around the globe. nearly nine hundred eighty s. the height of a soviet period that was later characterized as stagnation by nine hundred eighty two the country had been led to seventeen years by me an impression of who was by now a feeble and sick old man along with his allies known as the kremlin old god leadership strategy was to maintain the status quo. so it's as it is our positions became weakened in the late nine hundred seventy s. growth rates were on the way. and drop of came to power.

we had zero growth actually we had negative growth rates we. rose to the peak of soviet leadership english and died in november one thousand nine hundred two before the handover to the k.g.b. the most powerful and notorious of soviet institutions. in one of his speeches and drop of said this that he was we need to understand what kind of society with built those were his own words in the context of those to kinetic times that sounded like a dissident phrase. and was also elderly and in poor health he died after just thirteen months in office his replacement constantine was even more fragile the sequence of kremlin deaths was referred to by many as the gun carriage race which usually means the race to the grave. in one thousand nine hundred five. gorbachev

was fifty four many thought he was too young to head the government the decision was made by competing influential alliances within the top brass each with their own motives. is broken or elected karma. as the general secretary of the c.p.a. susanka me. the criminals go into now in a comfortable semi retirement they saw in gorbachev an inexperienced politician with peasant troops that they could easily manipulate. when gold which of gold nominal power he had not yet won a real authority in the party or the state. by contrast the few advocates of reform hope that this relatively young and energetic man would be able to transform the nation go but you have delivered a key report on economic reform just a month after taking the nation's top post in march of ninety five.

here we have a deeply developed strategy a program of perestroika that has been thought through and suffered. it is true that the. perestroika was meant to fax only the economy of the book but later the world also came to employ other issue is the report was based on what had been done under and drop of. the old party leadership viewed the young leaders ideas with suspicion and such an intensely indoctrinated country popular opinion was about as insignificant as it was difficult to gauge. to get a hearing my first days in power which it suddenly occurred to me and i must go out and listen to what people had to say. it was the first time ever that a soviet leader met with the people in such a spontaneous mannah head of state face to face with the public in a country where politics had long been conducted behind closed doors it was

a sensation. at least me closer to the people i'm a supposed to be. soviet television gave wide coverage to go but numerous trips and encounters with the people turned into a t.v. star with his popularity overshadowing even the country's favorite performers the party's top echelon and regional functionaries grew increasingly uneasy about popularity and his determination to push for economic reform. we had a new team it's all i had to put it together from scratch. by nine hundred eighty six half of the party at high level had been replaced with younger people of canton among his canonized yeltsin who became head of the moscow party apparatus and a member of the powerful politburo. the people supported that leda a team of reformers were sent to go ahead with the changes but there was a catastrophic shortfall in funding for fully fledged reforms the arms race and

cultural commitments accounted for the lion's share of the budget. let's get rid of the threats or the. met with american president ronald reagan in geneva in november one thousand nine hundred five the one on one meeting lasted around forty minutes. there was a one cheerio in a emerge from the reading i was asked about my impressions a veritable dinosaur i said when reagan was asked the same question he said a diehard bolshevik but a couple of days later those two diehards produced a joint statement that the whole world had expected to hear. was an american ambassador to russia during the perestroika years he knew just how difficult it was to move from strong enemies to good friends. i think that the

victory for gorbachev he was able. to in the. with the cooperation of of reagan and the first president bush was able to in the cold war it took both of them to do it their cooperation or what did it you can't say that one was a victor over the other because every agreement we made was in the interests of both countries on january the first nine hundred eighty six the people of the two nations saw the first movie as greetings by both a u.s. president the soviet leader i'm very glad to congratulate the american people with a new year. this is ronald reagan president of the united states and speaking to the peoples of the soviet union on the occasion of the new year. the climate of relations with foreign countries was getting warmer. but domestic issues were still pressing the planned economy had become second nature to bureaucrats at all levels

they could distribute things but they couldn't turn a profit new economic programs were not working. but there was a story. a short shelf and is a clue sister played a big. part they realized lincoln was really the neck of the qualities that. they need. for. in one thousand nine hundred nine yes it was put in charge of the state commission for economic reform a rank on a par with government ministers he served in that position up until the collapse of the soviet union today he's the president and founder of the highest school of economics if gainey still hold seminars to train economic experts in modern russia we can figure out when somebody at the top suggested people should no longer be sent to prison the labor camps and should be given a measure of freedom that was it but that was the decision spall the stamp of approval by millions of people but at some point things began breaking out of

control. and in a coma became a c.n.n. correspondent in russia during the second year of perestroika she watched the radical changes unfold in the mass media very closely topics that had never been raised before started to appear on the pages of soviet newspapers people were no longer afraid to speak their mind or attend many informal meetings that were taking place across the country and remember with my far my western colleagues western reporters we would sit in those meetings and sort of look at each other and kind of pinch ourselves and say i'm sitting at with the founding fathers just like it might have been two hundred years ago in this country at the continental congress it watching people debate what country they're going to have the topics were not only achievements and prospects the endless problems were also on everyone's minds. it's

too bad that more people in civil society more people at the grassroots of russian society are not really as economically benefited or politically benefited as as i think many people hoped so i think that's a disappointment and i where to put the blame who knows. the camera region in central siberia is one of russia's major coal producing areas people going down the mines every day have a particularly strong feeling of camera. the soviet union's first mass strikes began in the coal mining areas on one occasion half a million workers in various parts of the country went on strike almost simultaneously. no one was working they said go back so we took a bus and went to the square yes and to remember how many people were there.

the demons out of a retired miner remembers the events of those days frequently with his former colleagues his team was the first to go on strike. when you were to grow we didn't perform. we didn't try to change the system we did want was to change the attitude of the party bureaucracy for us the workers is that they know if you're over there decided to launch perestroika ok it's again a rapist a good show for you start from above then we'll start from miller going to. many coal mines were given a measure of independence now the cash available to the miners directly depended on coal sales basically that's what compelled them to strike. that will stand until the final decision is made. prime minister nick clegg which calls the himself came from a mining family went to negotiate with the miners the negotiations involved some

very hard words good risk of came here to face people from all over this town his facial expression abruptly changed he brigade realised that here were the people he was supposed to be working for it wasn't just a faceless mob. yeah i would have liked to see you facing coal miners and talking to them i can tell you it's not a pleasant experience but. if you have to say something to them one of the same. will think about it and make a decision. he said. at that moment the black faced masses of people with coal dust all over their overalls breathed out as one with the great. enough is enough. this was all first slogan enough thinking speak up now you'll have no other chance. that. what the differences seem to define

a solution only soviet on for printers could find a common language with the miners. first private companies were called cooperatives and businessmen operators. were against the column it would do if it were against the resellers over there with it but we're not against the corporate sort of. the cooperators were ready to take the responsibility upon themselves and pay the salaries of families and of mine as it were who was going to tell them would start selling coal at a high price and we'll introduce innovations in the coal mines you know. the long cooperatives was the first timid attempt to allow private entrepreneurs ship in the soviet union. was the first soviet millionaire his co-operative made its money supplying computers given that foreign currency exchange was banned in the soviet union some of his first dollars from prostitutes working in hotels for foreigners

is a bit for bo more than five hundred dollars for example could get you a computer like this one it took some five days to bring the computer into the country with official is sold at an enterprise willing to buy it so a five hundred dollar computer does nearly five hundred thousand troops nearly one hundred and seventy thousand dollars. by the time the so-called new russians were lucky co-operative workers quickly and huge sums of money while the vast majority of their countrymen faced growing hardship. the nature and discover it's easy.

to lose. a communication with the wild and. test yourself and become free to. see what nature can give you. the. rush was introduced in the soviet union in one thousand nine hundred nine for the first time since the end of the second world war some items were sold in strictly limited quantities nobody could buy more than two hundred grams of bus or at a time no more than ten packs of cigarettes long queues and empty shelves for the whole of the times a wave of strikes and spontaneous rallies did not occur prices swept the country. some of its people are in. a communist country to be preaching friendship among its

people for nearly seventy years sorts first serious ethnic disturbances these massive the soviet collapse that eventually broke the massive mishearing one of the soviet republics with white nationalist demonstrations and unrest. there was a platform put up for the first mass rally in june one thousand nine. hundred professor at the vilnius conservatory he always pictured himself at the head of an orchestra not the head of a nation. he became the rallying point for a host of disconnected new political forces in lithuania which united in an

association. with you we wanted to hear a strike or to go through to the end but yes we wanted to see changes in the economy more glasnost and more freedom of expression but we also wanted to be free in decision making order. glasnost the russian word for openness proclaimed by gorbachev looked ever more like a genie let out of the bottle for the first time infighting among the soviet elite became a matter of debate in the media boris yeltsin was unhappy about the slow half hearted progress of reforms he publicly demanded that the party's leaders initiate more vigorous and thorough transformations sensing a potential rival gorbachev booted yeltsin from the politburo and stripped him of his seat at the top of the moscow party organization. that he who claims that he can solve everything for the better when he comes to power is a political crook. in the old days this would have spelled the end of

a political korea. and i can forgive myself for being too liberal and didn't send boris yeltsin where i should have that was my mistake the liberal press now saw yeltsin as a political matter and man of the people yeltsin vigorously backed any democratic initiatives such as freedom of speech and market reforms. the vent prime minister nicholai rushkoff not to rush with the political reforms in the country. i used to tell the old witch of many times we have to stop all of that we will lose the country tomorrow i will resign and to morrow you will be left on your own with yeltsin and the same team you won't last for long but he lost it for a year. he

was the first russian official to show his. true through the basic knowledge boris yeltsin always was a sporting man with a fighting spirit one who kept himself fit that was especially true of tennis its main theories are countered with. by nine hundred ninety two ninety vocalists had become yeltsin's right hand man both on the court and in government yeltsin appreciated people's fighting spirit many of his associates had to learn to play tennis. they discuss politics in the locker room. there was no getting away from that. yeltsin himself played tennis quite well political tennis was another of his strong points he was good at attacking and counter-attacking his opponents by exploiting their weaknesses he conflicted with the kremlin's position by backing republics when they bid for independence. in one nine hundred ninety

five town to slams bogus was elected chairman of the if you any and parliament under his leadership the body immediately proclaimed the baltic republics independence. in january nine hundred ninety one we received an ultimatum from gorbachev demanding that lithuania should admit it the soviet constitution was again in force in our country that's to say he recognized the fact that it was already known for here he threaten to use military force in the us we rejoin the soviet union with. a detachment of ahmed vehicles and special forces units and to vilnius lithuania and started building fortifications around the building of the new parliament using concrete blocks and bombed while. later part of the barricades were put on the glass walls and turned into the museum for the republic's independence. and that is a barbed wire symbolizes the oppression. the prisons the camps and the

borders. the kremlin hoped a demonstration of force would be enough to compel the young republic to make concessions. we said we had no right we've not been elected to have the country rejoin the soviet union it was a massacre followed. the television center was attacked in the early hours of january the thirteenth the building was soon counted on the work of independently viewing in television shut down. i know hello mark. i feel we have been attacked. we can hear shots coming from all sides in this when in radio station has already been captured we're still a delay but it's still an anchor on a state run television channel that was the report which sealed her fame as a young journalist. i knew that they broke the door with their

axes this batch has been left here. as a reminder of. the bella. back in the kremlin some of the top brass was still in denial hastily drafted knew he needed treaty was designed to keep the u.s.s.r. together. it was the result of joint work by delegates representing nine out of fifteen republics the treaty was shadowed to be signed on august the twentieth one thousand nine hundred one but unexpected events that broke out in moscow a day earlier buried all hopes for the preservation of what was left of the soviet union. we really didn't let them sign the soviet union agreements on august the nineteenth that's right but its creators could sign it the next day. after toppling gorbachev from power eight elite party officials designated themselves as

the state emergency committee all television programming was replaced with tchaikovsky's ballet swan lake and committee members addressing the nation. their proclaimed political program has faded into memory but the trembling hands of state emergency committee chairman get now d.n.i. if with the most symbolic sign of the coup. tanks on moscow's streets a coup in the world's biggest nucleus state. cnn's moscow correspondent ellen o'connor had taken that day off she spent a whole year gathering the correct paperwork to adopt a russian go called marina from a moscow orphanage on august nineteenth one thousand nine hundred one the final meeting was shuttled in the meantime of course there were tanks. all over the streets and there was a huge line between me and the office so i was literally ran

that story had a happy ending marina lived in russia with her new moment till she was nine then the entire o'connor family moved to the us marina remembers well the primary school she attended in russia and dreams of visiting her native country after she graduates from an american university. do you consider russia a home. i don't really have or. it's still like that now like right now i'm living. like like. moscow almost nine hundred ninety one boris yeltsin was one of the most active opponents of the state emergency committee. the committee itself twenty first. landed in. the uk.

no doubt the way to solve it the union collapsed was a sad event and it was a tragedy but when that happened the soviet treasury was empty there was a dislocated economy and there was a real threat of famine more importantly its governance had broken down with unpredictable consequences from a bloody civil war to nuclear weapons landing in the hands of uncontrollable forces but we've managed to prevent all that. december the eighth one thousand nine hundred one so the last chapter in the history of the soviet union with the appearance of the better veggie cream and they confirmed the statehood of the former soviet republics and the emergence of a new political entity the commonwealth of independent states the agreements were signed by two top ranking officials representing each of the republics yeltsin misrepresenting russia. and the communes that document there is a masterpiece of twenty first century diplomacy. empire crammed

with nuclear weapons and an enormous backlog of deep seated problems that had piled up over more than seventy years broke up almost peacefully. december the eighth one thousand nine hundred one was also the soviet sufficient last day but also much of perestroika one country gave way to fifteen each of them subsequently followed its own path.

if you. see from.

the. t.v. . a piece of ice in the arctic that's the beginning of a year long proof of russia's claims over the natural riches of the north pole. russian explorers will spend a year on. trying to find as to what to what treasures it hides and who. stay with me because it is a good job all. new york new records the number of homeless people in america's most populous city is the highest since the great depression despite u.s. government claims the economy is back on track. to take center stage. with

the twenty four hours a day this is in central moscow one of the coldest the most desolate places on earth the north pole is turning into a hotspot for science it's it's over there with a vast untapped natural riches hidden beneath its waters a group of russian researches are already feeling at home on the ice in a brand new station. was at the house warming party. there are only fifteen of them and the majority are in their twenty's russia's budding ocean knowledge is oceanographers and antony is will spend a year on floating eyes in the arctic they'll be trying to shed light on why be oxic is melting how reach its gas and all deposits are and.