Peoples Of The Soviet Union (1952)

who are these people some call them Russian yet if we were to travel through the Soviet Union we would meet many people of different races and languages who are not Russian at all for instance locks in the Caucasus a VARs in Dagestan turco Tatars in Azerbaijan cap sores in Georgia fury at Mongolians on the borders of China whose backs in Central Asia in oo greens in Karelia Tatars in the Crimea and Ukrainians living near the Black Sea greatest in number are the Russians themselves let's see where these people live the Soviet Union is the world's largest country it covers 1/6 of the Earth's land area part Europe part Asia and stretches all the way from the Baltic Sea to the Sea of Japan the Soviet Union is about 3 times larger than the United States and contains about a third again as many people now let's look for a moment at those people who live along the borders of the Soviet Union beginning with the cold regions of the Arctic Ocean the northernmost neighbors are the fin to the west of the various nations of Europe to the south the Turks the peoples of Iran and Afghanistan and the peoples of China but in the far northeast where Siberia juts outward to the Bering Strait we the people of the United States our neighbors here Alaskan the Soviet Union almost touched here only a few miles of icy salt water separate our frontiers now let's consider the varied peoples within the huge Soviet land mass itself between the Caspian and Black Seas live the complex races of the Caucasus Mongolians inhabit Siberia five separate national groups live in Central Asia white Russians and Ukrainians live along the ever-changing European border but most numerous of all are the Russians themselves whose Republic covers more than three-quarters of the Soviet Union [Music] Moscow the ancient seat of government for the czars is the capital of the 16 Federated Republic's within the USSR the Kremlin is the administrative center for the entire Soviet Union it is the home of the powerful Politburo almost 4 and 1/2 million people live in Moscow it is the country's largest city although government workers come here from all corners of the Soviet Union the population is predominantly Russian dear Russian is the official language the circulation of newspapers has been greatly increased but they are still so scarce that customers willingly line up to buy them even in the race like most other capital cities Moscow is a cultural center but under the communist system all schools and theaters churches and museums are closely supervised so as to meet with government approval students come from all parts of the Soviet Union to attend the Institute of mechanics and Technology these are rare pre-war pictures of an International Writers Conference held in Moscow today cultural and scientific exchange with the free world is virtually cut off the chief speaker was Sulaiman poet laureate of uzbekistan these are among the last pictures of the famous author Maxim Gorky they were taken shortly before his death the famous bolshoy theatre is in the center of Moscow opera and Ballet have always been very popular in Russia but today the theater is almost completely a sounding board of state-sponsored ideas even music conform to strict government censorship [Music] the state Jewish Theatre in Moscow was one of the best in the Soviet Union here its greatest artists McCoy now dead makes up for the role of Shakespeare's King Lear to be given in the Yiddish language the Jewish theatre has since been closed the habima players were another excellent theater group they were photographed performing their version of an ancient Hebrew dance [Music] one Moscow museum is dedicated to the memory of count Leo Tolstoy's author of war and peace in the early days of the revolution Tolstoy like Peter the Great was condemned as representative of the old regime with the rise of a new Russian nationalism the Soviets today honor them the Moscow zoo attracts visitors from all parts of the Soviet Union their faces are as different as the regions they come from this is a court of justice in Moscow here there is no trial by jury as we know it instead the judges are the sole arbiters of the case this happens to be a minor offense the most serious of all offenses are called crimes against the state and are handled by the secret police criticism of party leaders breakdowns in production and suspicious friendships with foreigners are sometimes punishable by exile or death a great many people living in Moscow are employed in industry even on jobs that require heavy manual labor it is not unusual to see men and women working side-by-side equipment produced in this factory will be sent out to the tractor and machine stations that served the large collective farm for over 20 years despite bitter peasant opposition the government has continued its drive for collectivization of all Russian land but even the Soviet leaders admit frequent failure only recently attempts to merge smaller collectives into larger ones were so unsuccessful that the program was dropped the peasants stubbornly cling to the ways of their forefathers vodka black bread and the desire to own their own land everywhere old and new waves exist side by side orphan in startling contrast this is especially true in the villages for many old customs remain unchanged Leningrad is the second largest city in the Soviet Union prior to the revolution it was the home of the czars and was called st. Petersburg leningrad outskirts were largely destroyed in the fierce fighting for the city in world war ii the population of Leningrad is mostly Russian but on the streets once these non Russians from the surrounding northern regions Estonians let's and Lithuanian whose countries have been conquered and absorbed by the expanding Soviet Union children play in spacious parks built by the czars there are some government operated nurseries for the children of working parent from its past Leningrad has inherited many handsome public buildings like this ornate russian orthodox church today all religious activities are closely supervised by the state to serve its own in a Muslim mosque bears the traditional Arabic inscription [Music] these are pictures of an international physiological congress that was held in leningrad before the war to an increasing degree Soviet scientists are required to conduct their investigations along prescribed line they are seldom allowed to meet and freely exchange ideas with scientists in the outside world the great Russian physiologist the late Professor Pavlov speaks he experimented with doors training them to expect their meals whenever a bell was rung on these findings he based his theory of conditioned reflex just north of Leningrad lies the carrillo Finnish Republic a land of forests lakes and long summer Twilight the karelians are a mixture of Baltic and Slav races their language is distantly related to hungaria the white sea Baltic canal was completed in 1933 over 200,000 political prisoners did the work on this project Karelian churches are built of wood and bear a strong influence of Byzantine architecture on a canal steamer an old saga singer chants the Kalevala a Finnish epic whose rhythm was borrowed by Longfellow or Hiawatha lumbers the chief product of this region Woodsman returned to their village after a long day's work elementary education is compulsory throughout the Soviet Union but educational methods very experimental in the early days of the revolution are now extremely old-fashioned with much stress on learning by rote children are indoctrinated to be firm believers in communism Ukraine lies in European Russia north of the Black Sea it is a flat fertile farmland producing much of the Queen that feeds the Russian people it is similar to our own wheat raising states in size climate and productivity the inhabitants are largely Ukrainians a Slavic race who have long desired independent in the early days of the German invasion many Ukrainians fought against the Soviets Kiev is the capital of the Ukraine it is located on a picturesque ill sloping down to the Dnieper River much of what we see here was destroyed by the Germans in the war the ancient labra monastery rises high above the city sightseers are told the history of the old churches some of which were founded 900 years ago some open market still exists where peasants can sell the excess produce grown in their private garden plots children's books reads this side in Ukrainian Ukrainian textbook for learning English at the next window children watch moving illustrations of fairy tale this is the favorite old story about a stubborn tournament a Ukrainian country woman sells water lilies to schoolchildren among the collective farms in the Ukraine there are some run by gypsies contrary to their nomadic traditions they have been settled on the land and made to learn farming but on the whole gypsy collectives have not been successful you surrounding the doníts basin is a huge industrial center American engineers help to build a great dam at nearest Roy 20 odd years ago it was blown up by workers during the war to keep it from falling into the hands of the advancing German today the dam is once more back in operation [Music] the Donbass region contains rich deposits of iron and coal Ukrainians are good miners all industry is owned by huge Soviet trust workers are not permitted to go on strike where the unions are run by the government not by the workers themself rostoff on the river Don is in the center of the Cossack country it is an excellent example of a modern southern city of the soviet junior population here is Russian rather than Ukraine this photographers painted cutout is the only Cossack costume seen on the streets of Rostov today and here is a rust off interpretation of a refreshing pause a glass of cool beer [Music] from european russia let's move across the vast expanse of land called siberia tige tundra fertile land and desert are inhabited by a wide variety of tribes and people Siberia was first settled by Russians in the 16th century since then both Czarist and Soviet regimes have maintain large penal colonies there a Russian settlers wife cuts giant mushrooms on her porch her little daughter reads a textbook on american geography today such books are slanted strongly against the united states this russian girl's grandfather was exiled to Siberia by the Tsar she is an apprentice cook at a work camp herb URI at Mongolian teacher instructor on how to make cabbage soup on the shores of Lake Baikal near the borders of China live the burette Mongolia they are believed to be of the same ethnic strain as the American Indian one theory holds that in the distant past tribes from Siberia migrated to North America by way of the Bering Strait at a tribal meeting a medicine man called a shaman performs a primitive ritual ceremony seldom seen in Siberia today Buddhism is another religion of the Burien Mongolia these are llamas observing ancient religious right [Music] [Applause] four llamas turned the prayer wheel for almost the last time their monastery was later closed [Music] a period woman men's clothing on a sewing machine produced in the United States there are simple people delighted with any modern mechanical device such as an American cream separator but even a child can operate a sanitarium was established by the burette government for tubercular children malnutrition has often been a problem in the Soviet Union the food rations have increased to some extent in recent years however by our standards they are still austere period Mongolians not long ago a nomadic people nari Thuy denotes especially developed for the short Siberian summers despite the government's long efforts to modernize farming there are still some regions where machinery and methods remain quite primitive [Music] the chief Soviet industrial centers lie in European Russia but as we cross Siberia by the trans-siberian railway we discover that in recent years an increasing number of factories have sprung up in this remote land during the war many plants were transferred across the Urals two Asiatic Russia this is especially true of critical war industry Soviet atomic energy plants are believed to be located in this area now let's turn to the central Asiatic republics in the southernmost part of the Soviet Union this area is over half the size of the United States it is an exotic plant containing Russia's lowest sits and highest mountain looking more closely we find to Desert Lakes Lake are raw and lake ball Kosh near the Pamir mountains stand the ancient cities of Tashkent and Samarkand this area is the home of five major national groups the use Beck the kheer jeez the K Zack Turk minions and the tachi on the caspian shore a mix group is boarding a crowded ship [Music] what a wide variety of racial types Turk mean Ian K Zack cow Moos a group of Uzbek artists in an old Uzbek poktan [Music] on the strip of land between the Caspian and Black Seas live the many peoples of the trans Caucasus the Georgian Republic is the home of many mountain people the capital is tipless or tube Liese in georgian its streets reflect the influence of both the orient and oxidant the majority of people are Georgian and speak their own ancient Georgian language the modern post office building has a sign in Georgia notice the unique Georgian alphabet Symes our stores are in two languages Georgian on the Left Russian on the right newspapers are printed in many different languages another proof of tably these mixed population [Music] bookstores sell more books in Georgian that in Russian Joseph Stalin was born into bleezin his real name was Vissarionovich do gush bina but he was later renamed Stalin meaning Man of Steel by Lenin this is a children's book section all books today are published by the government and a large portion of them are written to extol Soviet leaders and Soviet policy even the classics are carefully chosen so their views do not run counter to Communist doctrine posters in the two languages advertise a dance festival of different Caucasian groups [Music] in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia live the heft source there is a legend that they are direct descendants of the Crusaders and today they still observe many old christian custom they bear a striking resemblance to northern European people the costumes they wear have many elements of the medieval Crusaders dress a larger group living in the high Caucasus are the exceptions many of whom are shepherds they can be recognized by their unusual hats and tent-like capes the most inaccessible valleys of the Caucasus lived the Swans or swan EQ their stone towers of blood revenge date back to the days of fierce inter-village war [Music] you parts of the mountain districts are so backward that even today sledges are used instead of wheeled cart [Music] the armenian republic borders on turkey the armenians have been one of the most persecuted peoples in the world the capital is Yerevan Mount Ararat is in the distance ma still remain from the time when the [ __ ] Turks ruled here [Music] Armenia was the first nation in history to adopt Christianity the Catholicos is the head of the Armenian Christian Church [Music] Architects plan a new government building although Soviet leaders claim that a rich new life has come to Armenia Armenians in the outside world strongly refute this it is very difficult to learn the truth [Music] the Azerbaijan Republic is on the Caspian Sea the people are Terkel tatars baku the capital is the center the most important oil fields within the USSR [Music] Kaku is a fast-growing City for more and more that Soviets industrial and military planners are requiring a greater flow of oil [Music] Terkel Tatar still observed their afternoon Fiesta in sidewalk cafes [Music] a Day Nursery was established for children whose parents work in the oil industry [Music] north of Azerbaijan lies the district of Dagestan villages are built on impregnable peaks like this one [Music] Muslim women have only recently given up the veil in the past according to Muslim tradition women did not appear in public with their faces uncovered men of the ancient a VAR race reminisce of days gone by as they Sun themselves under a wall the making of fine copper utensils is an art passed down through family as in the weaving of these world-famous dagestan rugs at the government supervised reading room newspapers books and political pamphlets are available in the abar language for which a special Latin alphabet was devised in public places the Soviet Constitution is displayed for all to read nurseries have been established to improve children's health in this nursery babies play on a priceless dagestan rug some Dagestan boys still dressed in the national custom and are brought up in the old way in an obscure village boys play volleyball a game introduced many years ago by the American YMCA slowly electricity is being carried to the more remote villages the mountains are full of Swiss trees ideal for power station but the shortage of machinery and trained personnel has kept the electrification program limited there are still villages that have never seen an electric life Soviet school boys are just as eager as American youngsters to learn about modern science they look forward to the time when every village will have electricity throughout the entire nation the military plays an important role in the life of the people each year hundreds of thousands of young men are taken into the huge standing army or even with the end of the war Soviet leaders continue to increase their armed might and extend their influence over great areas of the world in their moment of victory the peoples of the Soviet Union had reason to hope for a peaceful more prosperous future but today isolated by a curtain of secrecy they remain completely dominated by the men and the Kremlin where these rulers will lead them only the future can tell [Music]