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[narrator] What is truth?

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[all] I do solemnly swear--

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[narrator] As children, we learn
that some facts are beyond dispute.

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But if you're a tyrant
operating in a chaotic world,

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the truth…

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[gun blasts]

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…is often inconvenient.

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[woman] Truth is a problem
for an authoritarian or strongman

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because truth invites debate.

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Truth suggests that we can question
the stories that we're being given.

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[narrator] Few tyrants fought the war
on truth as relentlessly as this man:

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Joseph Stalin…

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[machine gun fires]

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…who used propaganda,
disinformation, and other clever tricks

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to maintain total control
over the vast Soviet Union.

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Stalin gave people
the foundation of their reality.

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It's very simple:

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if it preserves the interests
of the Revolution, it is true.

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[narrator] By mastering the playbook,

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Stalin didn't just control
his people's lives…

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[in Russian] There's no longer
any so-called "freedom of the person."

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[narrator] …he controlled their minds.

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During Stalin's three-decade reign
over the Soviet Union,

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he crushed all institutions that dared
challenge the power of the state.

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To understand how he pulled that off,

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you first need to know
key facts about the man himself.

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[man] Stalin was born Ioseb Dzhugashvili

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in a small Georgian town, Gori,
on the periphery of the Russian Empire.

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Later in life,
he decides to take the name Stalin.

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Stalin comes from the Russian word stal,

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which means "steel."

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[narrator] In his early 20s,
Stalin joined up with the Bolsheviks,

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Marxist rebels looking to overthrow
the Russian government.

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[Ronald] They engaged in violence.

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Stalin himself was the leader
of a small terrorist gang.

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[narrator] Stalin is arrested
multiple times and sent to Siberia,

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but he escapes and rejoins the cause.

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Those who survived, hardened.
They became tough.

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[man] Stalin got Lenin's attention

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because of his simple ability
to get things done.

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[narrator] When the Bolsheviks
take power in 1917,

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Lenin puts Stalin in charge of
a key government ministry.

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In 1922, Stalin's named
General Secretary of the Communist Party,

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which was, at the time,
a bureaucratic position.

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[man] Others contemptuously dismissed
him as nothing but a paper pusher.

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That was a plot
that Stalin deliberately cultivated

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so that people would not find him
to be a threat.

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[narrator]
So that's how Stalin got himself

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into a position of power and influence.

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But to rise to the level of tyrant,

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he still had to outmaneuver his rivals
and outrun his past.

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Luckily, the playbook has
the perfect tactic

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for wiping the slate clean.

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[jovial music plays]

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Someone once said, "He who controls
the past controls the future."

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[Jonathan]
Stalin was a student of history.

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He recognizes that you can't just sit back

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and wait for the laws of history
to work themselves out.

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It has to be imposed.

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[narrator]True for Stalin
and these guys as well.

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In an effort
to restore national pride under his rule,

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Hitler ordered the Nazi high command

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to destroy World War I memorials
in occupied Europe,

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erasing evidence of Germany's past defeat.

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The Kim regime in North Korea insists

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that South Korea fired the first shots
in the Korean War,

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when in truth it began
when the North Koreans invaded Seoul,

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while Mao Zedong firmly denied

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that any Chinese citizens starved
as a result of his Great Leap Forward,

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despite evidence
that the famine killed up to 45 million.

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[machine gun fires]

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By 1923,
Vladimir Lenin's health is failing.

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Stalin, along with fellow officials
Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev,

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are appointed to rule over the country.

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Meanwhile, Stalin is
already planning his next moves.

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Stalin had to demonstrate

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that he was the heir of Lenin's,

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that they shared visions.

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[narrator] But he has one small problem.

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Towards the end of his life,
Lenin was suspicious of Stalin.

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[Jonathan] He says, "Stalin is too rude.
He is too intolerant."

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"If he is allowed to continue,
I fear that he will divide the party."

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[narrator] January 1924.
Lenin is lying on death's door.

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So now, Stalin begins the process

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of giving their relationship
a more productive spin.

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After Lenin passes on,

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Stalin immediately takes charge,
planning his funeral.

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Stalin begins giving passionate lectures
on Leninist philosophy.

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He authorizes the building
of a mausoleum for Lenin

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in the middle of Red Square.

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And to prove their tight, personal bond,

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Stalin circulates
a private photo of himself and Lenin.

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But first,
he has retouchers blow up his figure

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so that Lenin recedes
beside his heir apparent

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and push them more closely together.

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As a bonus,
they smooth Stalin's complexion,

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marked by a childhood bout with smallpox,

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and lengthen his arm,
damaged by a childhood carriage accident.

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It's one of history's first Photoshops.

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Stalin's many efforts to reframe
his relationship with Lenin pay off.

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Over the next five years,

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Stalin fortifies his position
atop the Soviet government,

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sidelining all competition
on his path to absolute power.

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He became
the sole leader of the Soviet Union.

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And from then on, Stalin produced
his own history of the Communist Party,

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and everyone was taught
that view of history.

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[narrator] But doctoring the past
will only get you so far

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if your people have access to other,
more current sources of information.

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If you're really going to win
the war on truth,

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you're just getting started.

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[machinery whirring]

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One of the most powerful tools
that any leader has

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is who controls information.

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[woman] When you can actually shut down
channels for information,

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then you can press one preferred narrative

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and make that the reality
that your citizens live in.

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[narrator] Stalin didn't have to
do this all by himself.

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He had a head start.

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Stalin had inherited
a totalitarian dictatorship.

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They already had
complete control of the mass media.

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And of course,
there'd been censorship under Czarism,

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but it was chicken feed
compared to under Stalin.

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[narrator]
And when it came to off-limits subjects,

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Stalin thought of everything.

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Individual incomes: out of bounds.

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Price increases,
anything involving food shortages,

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or generalized hunger: unspeakable.

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Statistics on crime, unemployment,
or homelessness: scandalous.

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Reports of natural or man-made disasters,
such as earthquakes or airplane crashes,

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news of prison conditions,
ads for foreign goods.

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Oh, wait, there's more.

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The names of officials and their spouses,
the availability of medicine,

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and anything
about the architecture of the Kremlin

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or repairs to the Bolshoi Theater,
obviously.

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Under Stalin,

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libraries either destroyed…

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[high-pitched beeping]

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…or restricted
texts that the state deemed offensive,

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which kept impressionable Soviet minds
safely protected

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from characters like Sherlock Holmes.

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Why Sherlock Holmes?
Well, Sherlock Holmes,

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very much his own man.

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Maybe a little too individualistic
for the collectivized mind of Stalinism.

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[narrator] And Robinson Crusoe.

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Robinson Crusoe's
a kind of capitalist hero.

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He's entrepreneurial.
He makes do and somehow survives.

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[narrator] If you think
censoring books is extreme,

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wait until you see what happens
when a real crisis arrives.

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In the late 1920s, to raise revenue
for the transformation of the economy,

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Stalin started this major process
of reforming the Soviet agriculture,

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of trying to put people
into collective farms.

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[Ronald] They decided to make the peasants

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the producers for the cities,
the army, and export.

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And the result was famine.

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[machine gun fires]

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Millions of people in Ukraine alone
were starving to death.

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People turned to cannibalism.

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None of that was reported in the press,
and people had no idea it was occurring.

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[Arturas] Instead of admitting
that the strategy was a mistake,

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he decided actually to sacrifice
these millions of lives

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for what he saw was a more important goal,

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which is to preserve
the existing socialist system.

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[Jonathan]
So Stalin creates his own reality.

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It's totally under control.

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It's going to be
taken care of very shortly.

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At the same time, Stalin closes off
the Ukraine from world view.

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[narrator] But at the end of the day,

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the vultures in the international press
are going to find their way in.

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Follow the playbook

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and you won't have to
deal with this problem alone.

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-[lighthearted music plays]
-[machine gun fires]

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In the 1930s, many people in the West,
liberals and leftists most importantly,

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thought the Soviet Union was providing

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an alternative
to the capitalist Depression,

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so they didn't wanna believe bad things
about the Soviet Union.

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[narrator] Stalin's predecessor Lenin
reportedly had a term

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for these sorts of unexpected allies:

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useful idiots.

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You basically exploit
a vulnerability that they have:

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00:11:09,648 --> 00:11:11,817
their ego, through money,

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to get on board with your narrative,

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which then lends credibility
and legitimacy to your regime.

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[narrator] Stalin wasn't the only tyrant
who knew this.

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Hitler had prominent early advocates

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00:11:29,126 --> 00:11:32,129
in the Duke and Duchess of Windsor
and Charles Lindbergh,

186
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who helped elevate his image
as a statesman.

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As much of the world turned against
Fidel Castro's tyranny in Cuba,

188
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Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez

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remained a close friend
and defender of his regime.

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And North Korea's Kim Jong-Un
found an unlikely wingman

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00:11:49,062 --> 00:11:52,065
in former NBA superstar Dennis Rodman.

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00:11:52,149 --> 00:11:53,358
[game buzzer sounds]

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00:11:53,442 --> 00:11:55,110
[crowd cheering]

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Stalin takes the tactic even further.

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He invites a series
of leftist writers and thinkers,

196
00:12:00,365 --> 00:12:05,036
from George Bernard Shaw
to H. G. Wells to Jean-Paul Sartre,

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00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:09,040
to see the socialist utopia
of their dreams firsthand.

198
00:12:09,750 --> 00:12:12,294
But to truly sell
his version of the truth to the world,

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Stalin would need to enlist
a trusted voice of authority…

200
00:12:17,382 --> 00:12:19,342
like Walter Duranty.

201
00:12:19,426 --> 00:12:20,552
[machine gun fires]

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00:12:21,636 --> 00:12:25,891
Duranty had been the New York Times'
man in Moscow since 1922,

203
00:12:25,974 --> 00:12:28,310
but among his fellow journalists,

204
00:12:28,393 --> 00:12:33,398
Duranty was more known for his womanizing
and wooden leg than for his principles.

205
00:12:34,900 --> 00:12:37,611
Rumors of Duranty's ambition
and shaky ethics

206
00:12:37,694 --> 00:12:39,529
make their way to the Kremlin,

207
00:12:39,613 --> 00:12:42,532
where Stalin sees
the reporter's potential…

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00:12:42,616 --> 00:12:43,825
[phone ringing]

209
00:12:43,909 --> 00:12:47,788
…to help him draw attention
away from the ongoing famine.

210
00:12:48,747 --> 00:12:52,542
Stalin offers Duranty
an exclusive interview at the Kremlin…

211
00:12:54,544 --> 00:12:57,464
where he holds court
on the wonders of Communism

212
00:12:57,547 --> 00:12:59,758
and his plan for Soviet prosperity.

213
00:13:00,675 --> 00:13:03,345
Duranty is grateful for the access.

214
00:13:03,428 --> 00:13:06,932
He writes glowing articles
about the Soviet leader.

215
00:13:08,099 --> 00:13:10,477
Duranty is invited to visit the Ukraine,

216
00:13:11,102 --> 00:13:14,147
which has been off-limits
to most foreign reporters.

217
00:13:14,231 --> 00:13:15,649
They took him to Ukraine

218
00:13:16,233 --> 00:13:19,778
and they selectively showed places
where there was no famine.

219
00:13:19,861 --> 00:13:21,404
[birds chirping]

220
00:13:22,364 --> 00:13:25,075
[narrator] But as he ventures deeper
into the countryside…

221
00:13:26,034 --> 00:13:26,910
[woman crying]

222
00:13:26,993 --> 00:13:29,621
…the reality becomes undeniable.

223
00:13:31,414 --> 00:13:33,208
Does Duranty report the truth?

224
00:13:34,793 --> 00:13:35,627
Nope.

225
00:13:37,712 --> 00:13:42,926
He continues filing articles that claim
rumors of the famine are overblown.

226
00:13:43,009 --> 00:13:47,180
Amazingly, Duranty's fake news reports
earned him a Pulitzer Prize,

227
00:13:48,723 --> 00:13:52,602
as they shape Stalin's reputation
around the world.

228
00:13:54,896 --> 00:13:57,399
Now that you've got
your censorship regime in place

229
00:13:57,482 --> 00:13:59,985
and key allies
putting out PR fires abroad,

230
00:14:01,236 --> 00:14:04,155
it's time to take your war on truth
to the next level.

231
00:14:04,739 --> 00:14:09,661
And to do that, it requires you take aim
at the most sacred institution of all.

232
00:14:10,161 --> 00:14:11,329
[gun fires]

233
00:14:11,413 --> 00:14:14,875
[choir vocalizing]

234
00:14:14,958 --> 00:14:17,127
[rock music plays]

235
00:14:17,711 --> 00:14:22,716
Religion usually answers the questions
that can't be answered.

236
00:14:25,093 --> 00:14:28,263
Things like, "What's the meaning of life?"
"Why are we here?"

237
00:14:29,347 --> 00:14:30,599
[narrator] But as a tyrant,

238
00:14:30,682 --> 00:14:33,476
there's only room
for one source of spiritual truth…

239
00:14:33,894 --> 00:14:34,811
[gun fires]

240
00:14:34,895 --> 00:14:38,106
…and God knows that's you.

241
00:14:39,274 --> 00:14:42,444
Stalin wanted to see religion destroyed.

242
00:14:43,403 --> 00:14:49,200
Not only because of religious doctrine
that was the opiate of the masses.

243
00:14:49,284 --> 00:14:51,244
They were against the Church

244
00:14:51,328 --> 00:14:56,041
because it had gold, gems,
valuable works of art.

245
00:14:56,124 --> 00:15:02,380
Wealth that Stalin needed
for building the Soviet state.

246
00:15:03,131 --> 00:15:05,425
[narrator]
But to turn people away from faith,

247
00:15:05,508 --> 00:15:07,677
you need to do more than repress religion.

248
00:15:08,845 --> 00:15:10,305
You need to replace it.

249
00:15:11,473 --> 00:15:16,019
In the place of religion,
the Soviet Union provided their own dogma.

250
00:15:16,102 --> 00:15:19,272
That is what they called Marxism-Leninism.

251
00:15:19,356 --> 00:15:21,650
[narrator]
Instead of Christmas and Easter…

252
00:15:21,733 --> 00:15:24,152
The Soviets created their own holidays.

253
00:15:26,029 --> 00:15:27,697
May Day, Labor Day,

254
00:15:27,781 --> 00:15:32,202
and November 7th, the anniversary
of when the Bolsheviks came to power.

255
00:15:33,286 --> 00:15:35,538
[narrator]
And in place of Jesus and the saints,

256
00:15:35,622 --> 00:15:38,416
Stalin's regime elevated
new Communist martyrs

257
00:15:38,500 --> 00:15:40,460
for people to emulate and revere,

258
00:15:41,628 --> 00:15:42,629
like this kid.

259
00:15:44,047 --> 00:15:45,423
According to the story,

260
00:15:45,507 --> 00:15:50,387
thirteen-year-old Pavlik Morozov was
a model student and ardent young communist

261
00:15:50,470 --> 00:15:53,848
living in a small village
deep in the Ural Mountains.

262
00:15:53,932 --> 00:15:57,644
But one day, during the Great Famine,
his loyalty to the state is tested.

263
00:15:59,688 --> 00:16:04,109
When he discovers his father has been
hoarding grain and selling it for profit…

264
00:16:04,192 --> 00:16:05,360
[coin clatters]

265
00:16:06,611 --> 00:16:10,156
…young Pavlik makes the patriotic choice.

266
00:16:10,824 --> 00:16:12,659
He informs on his father,

267
00:16:12,742 --> 00:16:15,704
alerting the local secret police
to his crimes.

268
00:16:19,165 --> 00:16:24,254
But his uncle, grandparents,
and cousin are not impressed.

269
00:16:25,630 --> 00:16:29,634
They surprise young Pavlik
in the nearby forest and murder him.

270
00:16:33,847 --> 00:16:37,142
As the Soviet newspapers spread word
of the horrendous crime,

271
00:16:37,726 --> 00:16:39,436
Pavlik becomes a folk hero…

272
00:16:39,519 --> 00:16:40,937
[bell tolling]

273
00:16:41,021 --> 00:16:43,023
…and his relatives are executed.

274
00:16:44,858 --> 00:16:47,902
Stalin makes sure Pavlik's story lives on.

275
00:16:48,528 --> 00:16:54,784
His exploits are retold in songs,
plays, books, and a full-length opera.

276
00:16:57,245 --> 00:16:59,456
But this heroic tale has a twist.

277
00:17:00,832 --> 00:17:02,500
The story is probably false.

278
00:17:02,584 --> 00:17:04,586
Since the end of the Soviet Union,

279
00:17:04,669 --> 00:17:09,340
we've learned Pavlik Morozov is
an invented Soviet myth

280
00:17:09,841 --> 00:17:12,093
as part of their propaganda efforts.

281
00:17:13,678 --> 00:17:17,474
[narrator] But if you think that matters,
you haven't been paying attention.

282
00:17:18,516 --> 00:17:22,729
When you replace religion with the state,
your truth becomes divine.

283
00:17:23,730 --> 00:17:28,526
And yet, some of your people will still
stubbornly cling to another set of truths:

284
00:17:28,610 --> 00:17:31,196
so-called scientific facts.

285
00:17:31,279 --> 00:17:34,949
Don't worry.
You can take care of those too.

286
00:17:41,956 --> 00:17:45,043
[woman] The whole culture
of science and research,

287
00:17:45,126 --> 00:17:47,462
where you have objective facts

288
00:17:47,545 --> 00:17:52,842
and conclusions that draw
not on ideology but factual accuracy,

289
00:17:52,926 --> 00:17:54,385
is anathema to tyrants.

290
00:17:54,469 --> 00:17:56,137
[narrator] Well, of course it is,

291
00:17:56,221 --> 00:17:59,390
because scientists think
their truth is superior.

292
00:17:59,974 --> 00:18:02,268
But that can't possibly be the case.

293
00:18:04,562 --> 00:18:06,523
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco

294
00:18:06,606 --> 00:18:09,651
dissolved the nation's
scientific research board

295
00:18:09,734 --> 00:18:11,694
and rejected theories like evolution

296
00:18:11,778 --> 00:18:15,990
that he and his party saw as incompatible
with their Christian beliefs.

297
00:18:16,491 --> 00:18:18,910
Hitler and the Third Reich
strictly controlled

298
00:18:18,993 --> 00:18:21,788
which areas of science could be pursued,

299
00:18:21,871 --> 00:18:24,999
at one point rejecting relativity
and quantum mechanics

300
00:18:25,083 --> 00:18:27,961
in favor of fields like Aryan physics.

301
00:18:28,044 --> 00:18:30,046
President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia

302
00:18:30,130 --> 00:18:33,174
reportedly forced
thousands of people with HIV

303
00:18:33,258 --> 00:18:37,512
to refuse traditional treatments
in favor of his own personal remedy

304
00:18:37,595 --> 00:18:41,307
that he claimed could eradicate the virus
within three days.

305
00:18:41,391 --> 00:18:43,393
Needless to say, it did not.

306
00:18:45,270 --> 00:18:48,148
Stalin's view of scientific disciplines

307
00:18:48,231 --> 00:18:52,527
was in many ways dictated
by his ideological dogma.

308
00:18:52,610 --> 00:18:56,948
If certain facts didn't fit that paradigm,
they could be ignored,

309
00:18:57,031 --> 00:19:00,577
and scientists were incentivized
to ignore those facts.

310
00:19:00,660 --> 00:19:05,331
[narrator] One guy who truly got this was
revolutionary biologist Trofim Lysenko.

311
00:19:05,999 --> 00:19:07,041
[machine gun fires]

312
00:19:08,585 --> 00:19:10,879
Lysenko was sure that the solution

313
00:19:10,962 --> 00:19:13,590
to the Soviet Union's
ongoing food shortages

314
00:19:13,673 --> 00:19:17,051
was to apply Marxist principles to plants.

315
00:19:17,135 --> 00:19:20,305
[Arturas] He did silly things.
For example, he would take grain,

316
00:19:20,388 --> 00:19:22,098
and he would expose grain to cold,

317
00:19:22,182 --> 00:19:25,977
thinking that future generations
of that grain will be cold-resistant.

318
00:19:26,561 --> 00:19:28,229
And of course, it's completely absurd,

319
00:19:28,938 --> 00:19:33,443
but he framed this idea
as being closer to the Marxist principles.

320
00:19:33,943 --> 00:19:35,653
And Stalin actually really liked it.

321
00:19:37,071 --> 00:19:39,866
[narrator] Stalin invites Lysenko
to speak at the Kremlin,

322
00:19:40,992 --> 00:19:43,703
where Lysenko assails modern genetics,

323
00:19:43,786 --> 00:19:46,789
questions the loyalty
of the nation's scientists,

324
00:19:46,873 --> 00:19:50,168
and promises
that his revolutionary theories

325
00:19:50,251 --> 00:19:53,004
will end hunger in the USSR forever.

326
00:19:53,087 --> 00:19:54,339
[scattered cheering]

327
00:19:54,422 --> 00:19:56,341
Stalin likes what he hears.

328
00:19:57,425 --> 00:20:01,930
Within just a few years,
all other theories of genetics are banned,

329
00:20:02,013 --> 00:20:04,432
professors removed from their positions,

330
00:20:04,515 --> 00:20:06,100
and labs are shut down.

331
00:20:06,184 --> 00:20:07,644
[bomb detonates]

332
00:20:07,727 --> 00:20:10,855
Anybody who protests gets rooted out.

333
00:20:11,648 --> 00:20:12,857
[gun blasts]

334
00:20:12,941 --> 00:20:16,486
[Jonathan] There was a war that
got started within Soviet science,

335
00:20:16,569 --> 00:20:21,241
Soviet biology in particular,
uh, as a consequence of this.

336
00:20:22,075 --> 00:20:24,827
[narrator] In propaganda,
Stalin portrays Lysenko

337
00:20:24,911 --> 00:20:27,330
as a scientific genius and revolutionary.

338
00:20:28,081 --> 00:20:32,335
But in practice,
Lysenko's theories fail completely,

339
00:20:32,418 --> 00:20:36,172
leading to even more death
and hardship among the Soviet people.

340
00:20:36,965 --> 00:20:41,469
So naturally,
Lysenko remains in his post until 1964.

341
00:20:42,011 --> 00:20:48,643
Stalin saw Lysenko's ability
to mend facts in a particular discipline

342
00:20:48,726 --> 00:20:51,020
as an important expression of loyalty.

343
00:20:52,647 --> 00:20:55,525
And for Stalin, this expression of loyalty

344
00:20:55,608 --> 00:20:58,611
was more important
than the scientific fact itself.

345
00:21:00,113 --> 00:21:01,531
[narrator] Let's check in.

346
00:21:02,156 --> 00:21:05,994
After discrediting science,
destroying religion, rewriting history,

347
00:21:06,077 --> 00:21:09,580
and replacing troublesome facts
with propaganda,

348
00:21:09,664 --> 00:21:12,250
your war on truth should be bearing fruit.

349
00:21:12,959 --> 00:21:16,838
But there's one more obstacle
in your path to absolute control

350
00:21:16,921 --> 00:21:20,341
of your people's minds and lives:

351
00:21:20,425 --> 00:21:23,052
their faith in each other.

352
00:21:23,136 --> 00:21:25,680
[Asha] Connections among citizens.

353
00:21:25,763 --> 00:21:28,683
This is a threat
in an authoritarian system.

354
00:21:28,766 --> 00:21:31,019
There can be no principles or values

355
00:21:31,102 --> 00:21:36,733
that are higher than loyalty
and obedience to the person in charge.

356
00:21:37,317 --> 00:21:42,113
[narrator] Crushing this threat is going
to take a strong stomach. So buckle up.

357
00:21:46,701 --> 00:21:48,911
[Stalin speaking Russian]

358
00:21:48,995 --> 00:21:54,625
The phenomenon of distrust is
an exceptionally powerful tool.

359
00:21:55,585 --> 00:21:58,379
If you no longer trust anyone,

360
00:21:58,463 --> 00:22:02,717
you willingly give yourself
to the power of the state,

361
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:04,969
because everything else is suspect.

362
00:22:06,846 --> 00:22:10,767
[narrator]You'd think after all
of Stalin's hard work fighting truth,

363
00:22:10,850 --> 00:22:14,854
he'd have this in the bag,
but a tyrant's job is never done.

364
00:22:16,481 --> 00:22:19,275
[Jonathan]
In 1934, the truth of the matter is

365
00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:23,529
that there were still problems
for Stalin's grip on power.

366
00:22:23,613 --> 00:22:26,366
All of the enemies
had not been vanquished.

367
00:22:26,949 --> 00:22:29,869
[Arturas] The beginning of the process
were the show trials in Moscow

368
00:22:29,952 --> 00:22:33,539
where leading figures
of the Communist Party apparatus

369
00:22:33,623 --> 00:22:36,667
were put on public trial
on charges of being members

370
00:22:36,751 --> 00:22:39,087
of an anti-Soviet conspiracy.

371
00:22:40,213 --> 00:22:43,132
[narrator] But when it came to turning
his people against each other,

372
00:22:43,216 --> 00:22:46,719
the government purges
were just the appetizer.

373
00:22:46,803 --> 00:22:51,891
[Jonathan] If these heroes
of the Revolution can be traitors,

374
00:22:52,558 --> 00:22:54,519
who else can be a traitor?

375
00:22:55,228 --> 00:22:58,231
The conclusion is obvious: anybody.

376
00:22:58,314 --> 00:23:00,566
[Arturas]
It was the general line that said,

377
00:23:00,650 --> 00:23:03,611
"Look, we have mass conspiracy
against our new state."

378
00:23:03,694 --> 00:23:06,906
"Now your job is to go out
and find those conspirators."

379
00:23:07,657 --> 00:23:09,659
[narrator] What's a loyal citizen to do?

380
00:23:09,742 --> 00:23:11,869
[Arturas]
Neighbors started denouncing neighbors.

381
00:23:11,953 --> 00:23:14,747
Some children started
denouncing their parents.

382
00:23:14,831 --> 00:23:18,584
[Ronald] It all swirled into
a kind of snowball of bloodletting.

383
00:23:18,668 --> 00:23:19,877
[gun fires]

384
00:23:19,961 --> 00:23:20,962
The Great Terror.

385
00:23:22,588 --> 00:23:26,926
[narrator] During the Great Terror,
over 750,000 people were killed.

386
00:23:27,009 --> 00:23:30,555
And for Stalin,
it was all part of his master plan.

387
00:23:31,139 --> 00:23:32,140
He wrote a memo.

388
00:23:33,057 --> 00:23:34,809
If you kill 100 people,

389
00:23:34,892 --> 00:23:37,228
and five of them
were enemies of the people,

390
00:23:38,438 --> 00:23:39,814
that's not a bad ratio.

391
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,943
That was Stalin's model.
Doesn't matter you kill too many…

392
00:23:47,071 --> 00:23:48,656
it matters if you kill too few.

393
00:23:48,739 --> 00:23:51,242
[narrator] As for anyone
who might think of saying

394
00:23:51,325 --> 00:23:55,163
no, the accusations
against their fellow citizens aren't true,

395
00:23:55,246 --> 00:23:56,873
there's a simple answer.

396
00:23:58,583 --> 00:24:01,127
True? The party decides what is true.

397
00:24:01,836 --> 00:24:05,506
There is a higher truth
in these dictatorships,

398
00:24:05,590 --> 00:24:08,092
and that is the truth of power.

399
00:24:09,010 --> 00:24:13,055
[narrator] By redefining truth
for millions of his citizens,

400
00:24:13,139 --> 00:24:16,309
Stalin maintained
a stranglehold over the Soviet Union

401
00:24:16,392 --> 00:24:18,394
for another 15 years.

402
00:24:18,478 --> 00:24:23,399
You'd assume after all that,
he would be remembered as a villain,

403
00:24:23,483 --> 00:24:26,777
but the truth is more… complicated.

404
00:24:26,861 --> 00:24:28,696
[Russian choral music plays]

405
00:24:28,779 --> 00:24:31,741
[Arturas] A lot of people
do revere Stalin as a great leader.

406
00:24:32,241 --> 00:24:36,621
But the massive, massive human cost
was able to transform the Soviet society

407
00:24:36,704 --> 00:24:38,831
from agricultural to industrial.

408
00:24:39,665 --> 00:24:43,920
If you define success
as achieving the goals,

409
00:24:44,962 --> 00:24:46,464
he was very successful.

410
00:24:51,010 --> 00:24:54,514
[narrator] So now you know
the secret to Stalin's epic reign.

411
00:24:54,597 --> 00:24:57,642
But tyranny isn't
just about controlling minds.

412
00:24:58,476 --> 00:25:02,396
It's about the power
to rebuild society in your own image.

413
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:05,274
Take it from this man, Muammar Gaddafi,

414
00:25:05,358 --> 00:25:08,027
who used his singular vision
and billions in oil wealth

415
00:25:08,110 --> 00:25:11,822
to turn the desert nation of Libya
into his own personal shrine.

416
00:25:11,906 --> 00:25:13,658
All my people, they love me all!

417
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:16,702
[narrator] What could possibly go wrong?

418
00:25:17,662 --> 00:25:19,330
[theme music plays]