The Lost World of Communism
2009 · BBC Two · 60 min · 1 season
S01E03 · Socialism in One Family
Sun, 29 Mar, 8:15 am
Examining communist Romania where Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu ran a personal dictatorship for nearly a quarter of a century. Abortion and contraception were banned as the Ceausescus' rule reached far into the private lives of every Romanian. When communism collapsed, the self-styled "mother and father of the nation" met their end in front of a firing squad.
About
Documentary series on the fall of the Iron Curtain and its legacy.
1989 marked the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe and an end to a way of life for millions of people. Having lived through extraordinary times, they tell their stories of life behind the Iron Curtain, looking beyond the headlines of spies and surveillance, secret police and political repression, to reveal a rich tapestry of experience.
Episodes
- E01
A Socialist Paradise
Sun, 15 Mar· 60 minSeries painting a picture of a way of life that disappeared with the sudden collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989. The first edition focuses on the former East Germany, where leaders claimed to be creating a paradise.
- E02
The Kingdom of Forgetting
Sun, 22 Mar· 60 minExamining how Czechoslovakia's attempts to reform communism were brutally crushed in an invasion by the Soviet Union and members of its Warsaw Pact allies in 1968. What followed was the re-imposition of hardline communist rule known as "normalisation", where the reformers were removed, the reforms reversed and history rewritten.
- E03
Socialism in One Family
Sun, 29 Mar· 60 minExamining communist Romania where Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu ran a personal dictatorship for nearly a quarter of a century. Abortion and contraception were banned as the Ceausescus' rule reached far into the private lives of every Romanian. When communism collapsed, the self-styled "mother and father of the nation" met their end in front of a firing squad.
Cast
Michael Pennington
Narrator