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00:00:10,440 --> 00:00:17,800
The River Volga, more than
2,000 miles of glistening water
flowing through the heart of Russia.

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00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:28,680
The very word Volga
touches every Russian soul.

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00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,960
It's spawned love songs and laments.

4
00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:35,720
It's seen wars of conquest
and struggles for survival.

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00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:39,480
And it is itself a source of life
and wealth.

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00:00:39,480 --> 00:00:44,960
The Russians themselves
call it Mother Volga because
it's so rich in resources.

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00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:51,640
It's a vital artery and the start
of this, the next stage of my
journey across this vast country.

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00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:28,680
RUSSIAN SONG PLAYS

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00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:43,000
As I set out on my Volga
trail the noises off
were anything but tranquil.

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00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:49,560
The Kremlin has started talked tough
to the west, and the Russian public
seems to love it.

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00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:56,800
Russia's national pride is
intense and to understand why

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00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:59,800
there's no better place
to start than the Volga.

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00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:07,280
The river raises far up in the
north of Russia beyond Moscow

14
00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:12,440
and from there snakes its way down
to the south and the Caspian sea.

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00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:17,400
My route was to take me up river
past the ancient trading port
of Astrakhan

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00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:21,120
to a spot on the map where
a foreign empire had once forced

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00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:24,080
every Russian prince
to bow down before it.

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00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:35,200
Today, on the outskirts
of what had once been a mighty city,

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00:02:35,200 --> 00:02:40,720
you find yourself in one of the many
poor villages strung out along
the Volga and its tributaries.

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The Volga delta has been
much favoured by poachers,

21
00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:51,960
their quarry the sturgeon from which
they extract that expensive delicacy
black caviar.

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00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:57,840
A little more than a decade ago
Oleg and his friend, also an Oleg,
only survived by poaching.

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00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:02,440
Oleg, Hi! Fantastic.

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00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:16,600
Nowadays, the Olegs fish
merely for pleasure.

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00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:19,520
One is in business,
the other a TV presenter.

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00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:26,200
And, as producer Teresa and
I found out, they're charming
and hospitable. Some Vodka, Oleg?

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00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:32,040
To the success of your fishing,
your great catch.

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00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:34,080
HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

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00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:42,640
He says we have a saying here,
if your work gets in the way
of your fishing,

30
00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:46,640
give up your work. Is it good
for fishing to drink Vodka?

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No.

32
00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:56,680
TRANSLATION: It's good for your
pleasure but not for fishing.

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00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:58,800
Because your eye isn't quite
as sharp or what?

34
00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:08,520
TRANSLATION: Because you need very
sensitive feel in your eyes

35
00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:10,920
and your hands,
and they work together.

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00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:15,040
So that means Oleg 2, who hasn't
had anything to drink because

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00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:19,000
he doesn't drink, is going to
be victorious this afternoon.

38
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:21,520
Hmm. No, he says he'll have his turn.

39
00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:23,760
He's just letting him have a good go.

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00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:28,160
Well, I'm on your side, Oleg.
SHE TRANSLATES

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00:04:30,280 --> 00:04:34,040
Above the river is the site of
the ancient city I'd come to see.

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00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:38,840
Today Sarai seems like a wasteland,
but it stirs the imagination

43
00:04:38,840 --> 00:04:42,000
to learn that this step
is still inhabited

44
00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:44,640
by the descendants
of the Golden Horde,

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00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:49,400
the Mongol invaders who conquered
all Russia more than 700 years ago.

46
00:04:52,840 --> 00:04:58,080
The Mongols colonised these lands
as they swept westwards
to establish an empire

47
00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:03,120
that covered a huge swathe
of territory from China
to central Europe.

48
00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:10,520
Sarai was founded by Batu Khan,
the grandson of Ghengis Khan.

49
00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:14,720
His armies overran almost
every major city in Russia.

50
00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:20,680
The Mongol yoke was not as
cruel as is sometimes supposed,

51
00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:23,880
so long as their colonial subjects
paid their taxes on time.

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00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:27,320
But it was a humiliation
and it still rankles.

53
00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:33,240
It lasted for 300 years until
the invaders were finally ousted
by Ivan the Terrible.

54
00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:40,000
Sarai itself was a very cosmopolitan
place with people from Egypt, Syria,

55
00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:46,840
Iraq, Turkey, Greece, Persia,
not to mention of course the
Russians and the Mongols themselves.

56
00:05:46,840 --> 00:05:50,040
They each lived in their
own quarters, communities

57
00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:54,640
complete with either their
mosques or churches, bazaars
and bath houses.

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00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:59,360
One Arab visitor writing in
the middle of the 14th Century

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00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:04,600
described the city as an immense
place and crammed with inhabitants.

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00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:07,800
He spoke of the fine markets
and its broad streets.

61
00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:13,720
It took him no less than half a
day to get from one side of the
city to the other and back again.

62
00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:21,080
Strange to think, isn't it, that
was only just over 500 years ago
and now...nothing.

63
00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:32,440
Well, not quite nothing.

64
00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:38,160
I was shown around by a Kazakh
descendant of the Mongol invaders,
Sacha, Sarai's guardian.

65
00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:43,480
It's much milder than usual here.

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00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:45,800
This year, yes, it is.

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00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:51,120
The site is under excavation,
but the climate is so harsh
that once the archaeologists

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00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:54,120
have recorded their finds
they have to rebury them.

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00:06:54,120 --> 00:07:00,080
What does it mean to the people
of this village to have Sarai here?

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00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:02,840
HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

71
00:07:04,840 --> 00:07:08,320
TRANSLATION: I'd say
they're proud of it,

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00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:11,480
in their soul
they're quite proud of it.

73
00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:15,680
If the Mongols chose it for their
capital, it means it must have been

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00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:19,000
one of the best places in the world,
so they're proud.

75
00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:26,200
Sacha lives nearby.

76
00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:30,520
He dreams that one day his village
will be part of a world heritage site

77
00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:35,080
and that his people will make
a fortune from tourists.

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00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:48,960
He took me to see some
of Sarai's treasures.

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00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:55,480
Very... Thank you.

80
00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:06,920
Pottery from over 600 years ago
decorated by Mongol craftsman.

81
00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:19,240
So much for the myth that
the Mongols were merely a hoard
of marauding barbarians.

82
00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:38,560
I was pretty far south but in
February the nights close in early.

83
00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:46,240
As it got dark, I set off on
a 200 mile journey to a place

84
00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:52,360
where the story of the Volga
and Russia's national pride
become totally entwined.

85
00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:57,440
The city of Volgograd.

86
00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:01,800
At first glimpse, Volgograd could
almost be mistaken for one of

87
00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:08,560
those great northern cities, like
Leeds or Manchester, built on the
great wealth of the 19th century.

88
00:09:08,560 --> 00:09:13,600
In fact, this city is quite
different, and is famous throughout

89
00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:19,640
the world for quite other reasons
because it's name was Stalingrad.

90
00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:31,680
I was starting to feel
the force of a real Russian winter.

91
00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:43,680
COMMANDS SHOUTED IN RUSSIAN

92
00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:54,440
The city echoes with the memory
of the great battle that halted

93
00:09:54,440 --> 00:10:00,760
the Nazis in their drive east,
but cost the lives of more than half
a million soviet soldiers.

94
00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:07,480
In the centre of Volgograd,
a guard of honour protects
the city's eternal flame.

95
00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:11,240
It's a privilege given to
teenagers still at school.

96
00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:19,960
And it's the custom for
newlyweds to place flowers
beside the eternal flame

97
00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:23,480
in memory of those who
died to save the motherland.

98
00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:35,320
What do you feel when you see
your students doing this?

99
00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:37,560
HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

100
00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:46,720
TRANSLATION: My feeling is one of
pride because it's so important that

101
00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:49,560
these things are passed on from
generation to generation.

102
00:10:49,560 --> 00:10:54,080
When I was a school child,

103
00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:56,920
I stood here and did it and
now for me as their teacher

104
00:10:56,920 --> 00:11:03,160
to see my own pupils standing
here and doing this very honourable
task fills me with pride.

105
00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:09,000
It's a double responsibility because
there isn't a young person here

106
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:16,480
who would do this duty who
doesn't have somebody in their own
family who didn't die during the war.

107
00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:29,520
The battle of Stalingrad began
in August 1942 with a devastating
bombardment by the Luftwaffe.

108
00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:33,280
Vladislav Mamantov
has never forgotten it.

109
00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:43,280
TRANSLATION: Stalingrad was
completely bombed to pieces,
they carpet bombed it.

110
00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:49,000
And for me as a small child,
it was absolutely terrifying
and the grown-ups kind of covered me

111
00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:53,920
with their bodies to protect me
from all the flying fragments
of metal and the noise.

112
00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:59,040
And there was terrible smoke
everywhere, that tasted
awful in the mouth.

113
00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:02,760
And of course I was crying
because my mother wasn't there.

114
00:12:02,760 --> 00:12:05,240
I didn't know where my mother was.

115
00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:13,280
And then there was a kind of break
in the bombing and we looked out
and there was my mother.

116
00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:18,960
And she began to cry when
she saw that I was still alive
out of sheer relief.

117
00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:34,400
There were bodies everywhere.
We were stumbling over bodies and
everything was in smoke.

118
00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:40,560
You remember this very vividly.

119
00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:43,680
How old were you at this time?

120
00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:51,080
I was born in 1936
so I was 6 years old.

121
00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:53,440
I remember it all.

122
00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:09,640
The German onslaught forced the Red
Army to fall back through the city
to the very edge of the Volga.

123
00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:15,880
Hitler's troops
then launched a furious attack
against a vital military target -

124
00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:17,800
the factory district.

125
00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:27,480
Even on a bitterly cold February
day, it's still hard to imagine that

126
00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:32,000
a little over 60 years ago
there was fought, down there
among those factories,

127
00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:39,760
the final battle for Stalingrad,
arguably the most decisive
of the Second World War.

128
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:48,040
At the Red October Steel Plant,
the fighting was at close quarters
and often hand to hand.

129
00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:56,320
Vladimir Harchenkov is a veteran
of Stalingrad, one of the soldiers
who fought over this very ground.

130
00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:58,640
He was 16 years old.

131
00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:11,080
TRANSLATION: It was like
a real meat grinder just here
at the Red October Factory.

132
00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:14,520
There was no place where you
wouldn't be treading on a body.

133
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:16,880
Germans, ours...

134
00:14:16,880 --> 00:14:21,480
Wherever we killed them more were
coming, and what could we do?

135
00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:24,760
We killed them.
And there was just bodies everywhere.

136
00:14:24,760 --> 00:14:27,600
Death was hanging right
before your eyes all the time.

137
00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:29,680
You didn't know whether you'd

138
00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:32,720
be left living or dead.

139
00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:49,240
That one's for the
Defence of Stalingrad.

140
00:14:58,040 --> 00:15:00,600
After the war,
Red October was rebuilt.

141
00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:05,280
15,000 workers produced more than
2,000,000 tons of steel a year.

142
00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:13,480
After the collapse of communism
though, the plant was brought by

143
00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:17,560
entrepreneurs who downsized the
operation but made it profitable.

144
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:27,000
They did it by specialising in
the production of high grade steel.

145
00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:00,920
Today, however, the factory
is back in state hands,

146
00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:06,400
bought by an agency
of the Defence Ministry
to provide steel for armaments.

147
00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:21,280
There's a very special
view from the factory,

148
00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:23,760
a massive memorial statue.

149
00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:27,360
Mat' Rodina, mother of the nation.

150
00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:34,600
More than a million Russians,
men, women and children
died at Stalingrad,

151
00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:38,520
but it was a vital victory,
a mortal blow against the Nazis.

152
00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:42,240
After the war, the city was rebuilt.

153
00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:48,520
A symbol of Stalin's triumph,
it was showered with resources,
favoured above all others.

154
00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:51,520
But when his successor banned
the 'cult of personality',

155
00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:55,120
Stalin was banished to
the vaults of history.

156
00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:02,280
The city was renamed Volgograd
and the special treatment ended.

157
00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:08,120
But today, Stalin is
enjoying a renaissance.

158
00:17:08,120 --> 00:17:13,760
There are plenty of people
who would like their city to be
named after him once again.

159
00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:17,480
Svetlana Argatseva for example.

160
00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:21,200
TRANSLATION: One of the best
cities in our country.

161
00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:23,920
She steered me into
the city's planetarium.

162
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:31,280
There she showed me a mosaic which
was meant to have been destroyed
along with the cult of personality.

163
00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:35,760
Instead the workers concealed it
behind a coat of plaster.

164
00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:39,760
As the state became more open, so
Stalin worship was no longer taboo

165
00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:44,200
and Uncle Joe was once again
allowed to see the light of day.

166
00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:51,280
A hammer and chisel did the business
and there he was in all his glory.

167
00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:57,800
Svetlana, for me,
this is very disconcerting.

168
00:17:57,800 --> 00:18:01,080
In fact, it's really
rather appalling because

169
00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:07,440
for me like many, many other people
I think of the deportations,

170
00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:11,240
the gulags, show trials,
the terror,

171
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:16,680
the millions of Russian men and
women who died because of him.

172
00:18:16,680 --> 00:18:21,200
And yet you regard him
as some kind of hero.

173
00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:23,720
SHE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

174
00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:32,520
TRANSLATION: He's a hero not
just for me but for many,
many other people too.

175
00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:35,480
Even for people throughout the world,

176
00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:40,560
even for people who hated the
Soviet Union, who hated communism.

177
00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:46,760
Even Churchill said, "Little
people make little mistakes,
big people make big mistakes."

178
00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:50,920
And I would like to say that the
numbers that you say,

179
00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:54,440
millions and millions
is very much exaggerated,

180
00:18:54,440 --> 00:19:00,080
who died in the gulags and so on, and
that it wasn't Stalin alone who was

181
00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:01,960
to blame for these things.

182
00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:05,840
There were other people
who were in his entourage and

183
00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:09,360
many people went to the gulag
only because of one another.

184
00:19:09,360 --> 00:19:14,160
When I look up there at that figure,
I'm afraid I see someone
who was a monster.

185
00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:16,680
Don't forget that,

186
00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:23,800
if the people he ruled over
love him as much as they do,
he couldn't have been such a monster.

187
00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:27,240
You would like another Stalin
to rule this country?

188
00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:31,880
Stalin, or not Stalin, I don't know.

189
00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:37,120
But I would like to see our country
as it was when Stalin ruled over it.

190
00:19:37,120 --> 00:19:41,640
Economically strong, beautiful
with people who are happy

191
00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:45,640
and that there is something
that they can believe in

192
00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:47,960
and that will continue.

193
00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:53,640
To the northeast of Volgograd
is another of the motherland's

194
00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:57,200
great cities standing on
the banks of the Volga.

195
00:19:57,200 --> 00:20:04,400
Had Moscow fallen to the Nazis,
Samara was earmarked as the wartime
capital of the Soviet Union.

196
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:13,320
I arrived in the spring.

197
00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:24,040
It's hard to imagine
that not so very long ago,
Samara was a closed city.

198
00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:29,920
In the cold war, no foreigner was
permitted to enter its precincts.

199
00:20:34,360 --> 00:20:40,800
The Soviet military establishment
depended on Samara for weapons,
aircraft and missiles.

200
00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:49,440
The arms race with America
consumed a huge proportion
of the Soviet Union's budget

201
00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:53,000
and in the end
it proved catastrophic.

202
00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:03,920
Samara has changed greatly,
but a wander through the city

203
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:06,960
gives an occasional glimpse
of what it used to be like.

204
00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:12,520
Barbed wire on top of the wall
to remind you this was
once a high security zone.

205
00:21:14,840 --> 00:21:17,880
The factories were
an official secret.

206
00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:23,120
To disguise their purpose, they
were known only by their numbers,
or given false names.

207
00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:30,920
This nondescript building
posed as a company making equipment
for the film industry.

208
00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:33,960
In fact it made gas masks.

209
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:36,920
Today, it could hardly be
more different.

210
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:40,520
Meet the new Russia.

211
00:21:50,120 --> 00:21:51,920
It's intensely serious, isn't it?

212
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:54,280
It costs 1000 a year nearly.

213
00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:57,480
We live longer.

214
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,680
Kin Up is now a very
popular leisure centre.

215
00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:26,640
Ten pin bowling is taken
seriously in Samara
which boasts of breeding champions.

216
00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:31,560
It didn't stop one generous player
inviting this hapless foreigner
to be his guest.

217
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:43,920
It looks so damned easy too.

218
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:49,320
OK, once I've had a drink
then I'll be able to score!

219
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:54,960
I got it!

220
00:23:06,360 --> 00:23:10,160
It was great in there but something
very odd happened as I was leaving.

221
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:13,120
I was talking to the manager and I
said, "Who owns this place?"

222
00:23:13,120 --> 00:23:16,160
And he said "I don't think
we should talk about that."

223
00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:19,800
I thought he was joking and I
said, "Who does own it then?"

224
00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:24,080
He said "We should not talk
about that," in the kind of voice
that meant you didn't.

225
00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:28,960
This being Russia, that makes
you immediately suspicious. Is it
the mafia? Is it an oligarch?

226
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:32,720
An oligarch's wife?
Is it drug money?

227
00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:38,600
Not just idle thoughts. Russia
is riddled with corruption, but the
guilty are rarely called to account

228
00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:42,760
and the media, which is muzzled
by the state, is also fearful.

229
00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:47,440
To question or challenge is to
risk your job, and even your life.

230
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:51,760
All the more astonishing
to find a journalist who
refuses to be browbeaten.

231
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:54,520
Hi, hello, I didn't see you there.

232
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:58,880
Sergei Kurt-Adjiev edits the Samara
edition of Novaya Gazeta,

233
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:04,760
virtually the only paper left
which still dares to expose
Russia's seamy underbelly.

234
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:08,720
I told him about my little
encounter at the leisure centre.

235
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:15,040
What do you make of that? Is that
common is that or is that a very
unusual thing to have experienced?

236
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:21,440
TRANSLATION: It's quite a common
conversation for Russia.

237
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:26,480
Everybody here would know

238
00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:31,600
that if you actually looked into
who owned what you'd find that

239
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:36,560
companies are registered in
the passports of dead people,

240
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:41,120
of tramps and that the real money
is somewhere hidden behind it.

241
00:24:41,120 --> 00:24:45,360
Unfortunately in Russia most of
the big money is in the shadows.

242
00:24:45,360 --> 00:24:51,880
It's just not out in the open and
until that comes out in the open,

243
00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:54,240
we won't have any proper
order here.

244
00:24:54,240 --> 00:25:01,160
Of course, Sergei, it's easy
for me because I come through,
I form my impressions.

245
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:06,480
You're here all the time,
living with the problems.

246
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:12,520
I suppose you have to be optimistic
even if in the meantime,

247
00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,280
you're unlucky, you get yourself
beaten up or worse.

248
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,720
HE LAUGHS

249
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:22,800
What am I supposed to do, go to
England? Go and live in Germany?

250
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:26,080
This is my town,
this is where I live.

251
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:32,320
And I want my children
to live here and I want
my grandchildren to live here.

252
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:37,400
And it's a question of us
or them and this is my job

253
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:42,040
and my task and I will stay here.

254
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:49,560
I was invited to visit an aircraft
factory where they have good cause

255
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,080
to remember Sergei,
the troublemaking editor.

256
00:25:54,880 --> 00:26:00,600
They used to build Tupolev bombers
and civilian airliners here,
and in huge numbers.

257
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:05,800
When the Soviet Union collapsed,
what had been a great state
enterprise fell apart.

258
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,120
And then one of Russia's
oligarchs rode to the rescue.

259
00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:15,200
Oleg Deripaska is
on one of those tough nuts

260
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:19,160
who emerged in the anarchy
of the 90s to make a killing.

261
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:24,600
With assets now estimated at some
40 billion dollars, he is by far
the richest man in the country.

262
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:29,200
He's also one of the Kremlin's
most trusted allies,
a member of the Putin clan.

263
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:36,080
Keripaska has put a fistful of
roubles into this factory,

264
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:40,760
which now reconditions old airliners
and is building a new one.

265
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:49,080
The Antonov 42 was launched
in a blitz of publicity.

266
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:52,080
The media was invited,
Sergei among them.

267
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,120
The plane they were told
was ready to fly.

268
00:26:55,120 --> 00:26:58,600
But Sergei was more curious
than his colleagues.

269
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:04,200
He climbed into the shiny new
fuselage only to discover
that the plane had no engine.

270
00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:10,040
An embarrassing fact which
he duly reported in the next edition
of Novaya Gazeta.

271
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:12,680
Troublemaker indeed.

272
00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:17,120
The Antonov has now flown
and is selling.

273
00:27:17,120 --> 00:27:23,960
Sergei Licharev, who has an American
MBA to his name, was hired by
Deripaska to make the business pay.

274
00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:30,280
"You can't do business,"
everyone says in Russia,
"without paying under the counter,

275
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:36,720
"without bribing, without getting
your passes and therefore it is a
corrupt semi-Third World system."

276
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:39,680
As a new Russian,
what's your comment on that?

277
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:42,880
Well, very unfortunately...

278
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:49,040
and very painfully for me
it's not without reason.

279
00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:53,400
It used to be like this and in
certain cases still like this.

280
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:57,680
We're trying to avoid this by
any means, and sometimes painful,

281
00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:01,000
sometimes we lose business
because we're trying to be...

282
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:02,960
How to say it? More...

283
00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:05,200
Transparent?

284
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:08,440
More transparent,
more honest, more...

285
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:14,040
straightforward than sometimes
Russian environment allows.

286
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:16,280
Well, somebody should start.

287
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:23,920
Two days later
I was outside the police station.

288
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:29,040
Not for the first time, the
whistle blower from Novaya Gazeta
had been arrested.

289
00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:31,800
The ritual harassment
of a troublemaker.

290
00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:38,120
But with no evidence against him,
they had to let Sergei out,
just as I arrived.

291
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:41,720
You've just been released from here.

292
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:43,240
How did this happen?

293
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:48,320
TRANSLATION: I was walking along
the street with my daughter

294
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:53,920
and suddenly a major in the police
uniform came and he just grabbed me

295
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:58,160
without any kind of explanation.
And my daughter.

296
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:00,560
He took us both
to the police station.

297
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:03,960
They kept me here for three
hours without any explanation.

298
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:09,600
Without producing any kind of
evidence and then after three hours
just said, "Go, go. You're free. Go."

299
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:11,800
Has this happened to you often?

300
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,480
They can just take anyone off
the street and bring them in.

301
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,840
Presumably it's not going
to make any difference to you?

302
00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,920
I knew what he'd say.
Sergei would never give up.

303
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,280
But the harassment
has taken its toll.

304
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:37,080
There is no longer a Samara
edition of the paper because
they've impounded his computers.

305
00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:44,720
Sadly, most other Russians
care more about national
resurgence than freedom of speech.

306
00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:51,520
It's May 9th. Victory day.

307
00:29:54,440 --> 00:30:01,520
When all Russia honours the veterans
of the Second World War or as they
know it, The Great Patriotic War.

308
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:09,880
In Soviet times, the skies were
always clear on victory day,

309
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:14,120
because the authorities
would disperse the clouds
with silver oxide.

310
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:21,080
Actually, the weather made
little difference to the spirit
of this occasion.

311
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:45,960
Victory day in Russia
is notably difference from
Remembrance Day in Britain.

312
00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:49,360
The mood is still reflective
but far more overtly patriotic.

313
00:30:57,080 --> 00:31:01,520
The defence of the motherland is now
very high on the national agenda.

314
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:05,400
American plans to install a missile
shield close to the Russian border

315
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:11,920
and the rapid expansion of NATO
have fuelled a deep Russian
fear of encirclement.

316
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:19,160
Afterwards, a symbolic handout
from a field kitchen.

317
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:23,760
A moment of nostalgia
for the veterans,
and then for everyone else.

318
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:28,400
It's great.
Everyone gets this, who shows up.

319
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:31,160
Sorry. You want that one?

320
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:33,400
You have that one?

321
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:43,080
Russia may have lost its status
as the other superpower, but its
pride in its soldiers is palpable.

322
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:50,040
And victory day genuinely unites an
entire people and all generations.

323
00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:57,760
The day ends touchingly
at the cemetery.

324
00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:07,760
I'd no idea there'd be so many
people, just coming
on Victory Day like this.

325
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:09,360
It's a really...

326
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:15,280
Just makes you realise it
isn't just a military event,
a military memorial.

327
00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:18,800
It's a real human experience
for the Russian people.

328
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:23,760
Everywhere you look,
right back as far as you can see
that way, right down here as well.

329
00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:27,960
It's just like this
on and on and on.

330
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:39,080
It's the custom on Victory Day
for families to share food by
the graves of their loved ones.

331
00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:49,120
I'm very, very sorry to interrupt.

332
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:53,560
We're from England.
I just wanted to ask you about...
SHE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

333
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:56,880
TRANSLATION: Let's join them.
Thank you.

334
00:32:56,880 --> 00:32:59,640
Explain to me the ritual
of having the food and eating

335
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:03,520
at the cemetery which is very
strange if you are English.

336
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:05,560
Yeah, it's in remembrance.

337
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:16,800
TRANSLATION: And today in
particular it's because it is
a holiday that we are eating,

338
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:21,280
we're thanking them that they created
peace for us to live in.

339
00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:24,600
But it's a way of remembrance really.

340
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:27,680
This lady says that her husband,
the men liked to drink

341
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,400
so they would put a little glass
on the grave for them.

342
00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:32,640
For that, for the men who died?

343
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:37,920
Yeah. The hospitality is absolutely
extraordinary like this...

344
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:40,640
All of us have got
to have something to eat,

345
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:45,080
otherwise we really are causing
some offence, so let's...
Thank you.

346
00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:50,480
David, I must give
you something as well.

347
00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:54,880
And Ivor, Ivor. No?

348
00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:58,160
There you are.

349
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:01,120
And, David, for you... Teresa,
you've got something.

350
00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:09,760
May is also spring call-up time,
when military conscripts
are summoned to barracks.

351
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,320
I'd heard disturbing
reports about the tactics

352
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:16,600
used to encourage the young
to turn up for national service.

353
00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:22,680
The evidence was apparently
to be found on the internet,
so I went online.

354
00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:30,800
This video posted on the web
portrays America as a predatory

355
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:35,400
power seeking to strangle
Russia and seize its assets.

356
00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:46,160
It was made by the Russian
youth movement Nashi,

357
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:51,520
which literally means 'ours'. Nashi
has the backing of the Kremlin.

358
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:02,840
In its crude way, that video offers

359
00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:06,480
a riveting insight into
changing Russian attitudes.

360
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:11,680
Not so long ago, a few months ago,
when I was starting my journey
there was the summit in Petersburg.

361
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:14,800
Putin filled with warm words
and bonhomie.

362
00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:21,560
Now there is a distinct chill
in the air as if America is not
so much a partner as a threat.

363
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:26,680
Of course, it's not the Cold War
all over again, it's not
communism versus capitalism.

364
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:30,600
It's about nationalism,
the feeling here that

365
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:34,320
America is putting pressure
on Russia, that the motherland

366
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:39,320
is in some way under siege from
the United States and its allies.

367
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:42,880
This is not a very encouraging omen.

368
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:51,160
The video's appeal to patriotism
is to combat a widespread
aversion to national service.

369
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:53,720
Although it lasts 18 months,

370
00:35:53,720 --> 00:35:58,200
soon to be only a year,
it's a notoriously harsh regime.

371
00:36:09,260 --> 00:36:15,300
Sometimes, as we bounce and
grind our way through this
long journey through Russia,

372
00:36:15,300 --> 00:36:21,980
I find myself going into
a kind of reverie, a sort of bubble
in which I feel slightly lonely.

373
00:36:21,980 --> 00:36:28,980
A bit sort of homesick,
and long for the soft valleys
and low hills of England.

374
00:36:32,740 --> 00:36:36,140
The roads in Russia
can seem endless.

375
00:36:37,140 --> 00:36:42,460
They look nothing on the map
but we drive for hour after hour.

376
00:36:42,460 --> 00:36:45,220
Sometimes the landscape
never changes.

377
00:36:50,700 --> 00:36:53,580
And yet there's always
something to raise the spirits.

378
00:36:53,580 --> 00:36:58,220
This truck stop
boasted a fish market.

379
00:37:14,060 --> 00:37:17,060
Which one would you like?
Which one do you want me to have?

380
00:37:20,100 --> 00:37:24,460
It's a sea fish. She'll make
a reduction for you, it's 40.

381
00:37:24,460 --> 00:37:27,700
Only 40? That's less than 50 pence.
It's like a trout.

382
00:37:27,700 --> 00:37:31,340
She'll make it ready. Great.

383
00:37:36,940 --> 00:37:39,180
It all looks juicy.
That's what she was saying.

384
00:37:44,740 --> 00:37:46,540
She's very nervous doing it.

385
00:37:46,540 --> 00:37:48,060
That's very good.

386
00:37:54,340 --> 00:37:56,780
It's completely heaven.
Really, really good.

387
00:37:58,340 --> 00:38:01,940
So I'll have, we'll have
two of them please.

388
00:38:10,380 --> 00:38:13,660
Our route had taken us
into Tatarstan which is

389
00:38:13,660 --> 00:38:17,500
part of the Russian federation but
is permitted a degree of autonomy.

390
00:38:27,340 --> 00:38:29,940
The capital, Kazan, lies
on the banks of the Volga.

391
00:38:29,940 --> 00:38:32,620
It's an elegant and prosperous city.

392
00:38:42,700 --> 00:38:46,700
More than half the population of
Tatarstan is descended from a tribe

393
00:38:46,700 --> 00:38:51,860
that formed the shook
troops of the Mongol invasion
almost 800 years ago.

394
00:38:53,780 --> 00:38:56,700
Today Tatars and Russians
mingle freely in the capital.

395
00:38:56,700 --> 00:39:00,500
But the city's past
was horribly bloody.

396
00:39:04,180 --> 00:39:07,940
By the 16th century,
the Mongols were losing their grip.

397
00:39:07,940 --> 00:39:11,700
Kazan, the most important of
their remaining strongholds,

398
00:39:11,700 --> 00:39:15,780
was about to face the full wrath
of Russia's injured pride.

399
00:39:19,220 --> 00:39:25,140
Ivan the Terrible fell upon the
city with all the cruelty for
which he later became notorious.

400
00:39:25,140 --> 00:39:30,460
The year was 1552,
the destruction, unspeakable.

401
00:39:33,220 --> 00:39:35,460
Ivan the Terrible fully
lived up to his name.

402
00:39:35,460 --> 00:39:38,060
The slaughter
was just as you'd imagine.

403
00:39:38,060 --> 00:39:40,140
Bodies hacked to pieces.

404
00:39:40,140 --> 00:39:42,540
Corpses left to rot in the street.

405
00:39:42,540 --> 00:39:44,820
Blood flowing down the gutters.

406
00:39:44,820 --> 00:39:48,940
The city, the centre of the city
razed to the ground.

407
00:39:48,940 --> 00:39:53,100
No vestige of the Golden Horde
was allowed to remain.

408
00:39:53,100 --> 00:39:56,780
No reminder of the humiliation
suffered by Imperial Russia

409
00:39:56,780 --> 00:39:59,660
at the hands of the
descendants of Ghengis Khan.

410
00:39:59,660 --> 00:40:02,300
DRAMATIC MARTIAL MUSIC PLAYS

411
00:40:04,300 --> 00:40:07,540
The Russians
have been the masters ever since.

412
00:40:09,940 --> 00:40:13,900
CHANTING

413
00:40:17,740 --> 00:40:22,660
Today, the former Christian fortress
is dominated by a new mosque.

414
00:40:22,660 --> 00:40:28,380
The first on this site
since the original mosque was
obliterated by Ivan the Terrible.

415
00:40:33,940 --> 00:40:39,100
Most of the population of Tatarstan
is Muslim, but though Tatars

416
00:40:39,100 --> 00:40:42,220
outnumber Russians and their
population is growing faster,

417
00:40:42,220 --> 00:40:44,500
there is refreshing little
evidence of tension between them.

418
00:40:44,500 --> 00:40:49,940
In a state which has the
unofficial motto "We can,"

419
00:40:49,940 --> 00:40:53,340
business and pleasure
clearly come first.

420
00:40:54,660 --> 00:40:58,940
SOULFUL RUSSIAN SINGING

421
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:20,520
I wanted to get to the top
of the Urals and you can only
do that by walking.

422
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:25,640
It's not the Himalayas but...

423
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:29,000
up here it is
a pretty spectacular view.

424
00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:42,640
The Urals were once regarded
as the dividing line between western

425
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:48,560
civilisation on this side, and a
barbarian wasteland on the other.

426
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:53,920
But they aren't quite the physical
barrier I'd fondly imagined,
just a little too gentle.

427
00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:58,560
For the last bit of this trip,
I joined a group of off-roaders

428
00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:02,720
who had suggested that one
of them should accompany me
to the edge of Siberia.

429
00:42:05,720 --> 00:42:07,440
Hi. Hello.

430
00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:12,280
They are an off-road kind of club
and they are laying the route
for a new competition,

431
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:14,680
that they're going to be entering.

432
00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:16,920
It's really nice to come across
your group,

433
00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:20,720
so I don't want to spoil your day
but I quite like the look
of your machines.

434
00:42:20,720 --> 00:42:25,040
Which is the best of
the vehicles here?

435
00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:26,560
LAUGHTER

436
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:29,040
Yeah, each team reckons
his is the best.

437
00:42:29,040 --> 00:42:31,800
Would it be possible to go
out in one of the vehicles?

438
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:34,720
Of course they will. No problem.

439
00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:40,320
LAUGHTER

440
00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:41,840
Yeah, this is serious.

441
00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:52,360
Forgetting all about my carbon
footprint, I'm ashamed to say
I felt nothing but exhilaration.

442
00:42:55,480 --> 00:43:00,480
Oh, good lord. OK!
LAUGHTER

443
00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:08,600
How was that? Oh, David!

444
00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:11,200
Sorry.

445
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:20,560
In due course we arrived more
or less safely at my destination,

446
00:43:20,560 --> 00:43:26,240
the monument that celebrates
the place of the Urals
in Russian history.

447
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:36,080
The Urals, if they haven't
been a physical division between

448
00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:42,760
East and West, they've always
been an extremely important
psychological barrier between Europe

449
00:43:42,760 --> 00:43:47,680
and, as I cross across...Asia.

450
00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:54,360
So, for me, I may not exactly be at
the top of Everest but it feels

451
00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:59,320
a pretty significant staging post on
my journey through Russia.
Next stop...

452
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:00,840
Siberia.

453
00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:15,360
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

454
00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:18,400
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk