大象传媒

Germany swept across the Soviet Union, but failed to take Moscow before winter, and as Stalin urged the Red Army to ever greater sacrifices, Soviet society became an all-consuming military state. 1 in 3 of the inhabitants of Leningrad died during the 900-day siege when the city was shelled nonstop, but Victory at Stalingrad in February 1943 turned the tide of the war. The retreat westward gathered pace.

The Red Army pursued the Nazis to Warsaw but let the retreating SS murder 50,000 civilians in order to secure the future dictatorship of Communism. In mid April the Soviet assault on Berlin began and on May the 9th Stalin told the Soviet nation Germany had surrendered. "Victory had been a remarkable national achievement and a chance for national unity that might have healed a fractured society," says Martin Sixsmith. Instead Stalin used the war as a pretext to destroy those nationalities he viewed with suspicion. People who expected their heroism to be rewarded with freedom and the right to participate in the running of their country, found the party-state had reasserted its grip on power and was not letting go.

Courage, initiative and enterprise were deemed dangerous; former soldiers were seen as a potentially hostile force; freedoms (religious and artistic) granted during the war were withdrawn. The pre-war suspicion between the Soviet Union and the Western powers returned and Churchill's powerful image of "an iron curtain" dividing Europe came to define the realities of post-war Europe; once Russia developed the bomb neither side could prevail unscathed. The first flashpoint in this conflict of ideologies centered on Berlin. The allied airlift forced Stalin to capitulate humiliating the Soviets, which left a legacy of bitterness and mistrust. The Cold War had begun.

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking

Producers: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown
A Ladbroke Production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.