Changing World; The Face of Russia

Item Information

Title:
Changing World; The Face of Russia
Description:
Changing World: The Face of Russia presents the first exclusive films taken inside Siberia by a western television company. In on-location footage produced by Studio Hamburg of West Germany, and adapted by N.E.T., Changing World; The Face of Russia examines the living conditions of Russians inhabiting Siberia and other sections of the Soviet Union including Yalta, Moscow, and Volgagrad (formerly Stalingrad). Changing World cameras start the trip to Siberia from Moscow via the trans-Siberian railway the longest railroad in the world with its 6,000 miles of tracks. The program shows the first pictures to be broadcast in this country of this extraordinary railway system. Passengers have choices of first and second class accommodations. Food is served day and night. Many compartments provide sleeping quarters for four people. The contrasts between the frontier towns and the more cosmopolitan hubs of Siberia are observed in Shelekhov, Bratsk , and Irkutsk. As Changing World roams Shelekhov, little wooden houses are seen giving way to modern, functional apartment buildings for workers. Here workers are paid higher wages than in Moscow as an inducement to come to Shelekhov and industrialize it. Not far from Shelekhov, located in the wilderness, is the Siberian town of Bratsk. Another pioneering town, Bratsk is the site of the greatest power plant in the world. However, it is estimated that it will take ten years before the plant is used to capacity. Presently, only an aluminum plant uses the Bratsk power. A city of 110,000, Bratsk is older than Shelekhov but faces similar problems in industrialization, Changing World visits with young Komsomols who work and live in dormitory-style buildings in Bratsk; goes to the cabbage fields where women provide the bulk of the labor; and documents a local agricultural committee meeting where leaders discuss the harvest yield. About eighty miles from Bratsk, Changing World turns to the dynamic intellectual and technological center of Irkutsk. Unlike Shelekhov and Bratsk, this city, located about 100 miles from the Chinese border, bustles with liveliness and activity. About 30,000 students live in Irkutsk. The program documents the spirit that permeates Irkutsk; at bookstores crowded with voracious readers; in an enthusiastically attended theater presentation of The Bridge and the Violin a story about a workman engineer who is jealous of his wife; and in college classrooms where students are taught French, German, and English. As narrator Richard McGutcheon notes, Lenin is ever-present throughout Russia. Lenin as the symbol of unity prevails in all regions that Changing World visits. Tributes to him are seen in Moscow, where pilgrims line up at his tomb in Red Square to pay homage and in Volgagrad, where the program focuses on factory worker Nikolai Zakarov and his families, many of Lenins ideals are in evidence. While consumer goods are expensive for them and most Russians, the Zakarovs live in an inexpensive new apartment building that is neat and simple. Medical care is free. The free education of their two children includes the learning of at least one foreign language in elementary school. Even along the promenades of Yalta, where hundreds of Russians swarm to the beaches at this holiday resort, statues of Lenin loom above vacationers. At Yalta Changing World finds the Russians far behind the western world in fashion. The crowd of men wearing baggy pants, high boots, out of date western-styled suits along the boardwalk poses a sharp contrast to the swimmers and sunbathers many of them dressed in underwear (customary Russian beach attire) and skimpy bathing suits. Changing World: The Face of Russia is a 1965 National Educational Television presentation, adapted from a production by Nevin DuMont for Studio Hamburg, West Germany. Producer Adapter: Herb Krosney, Editor: David Tucker. Narrator: Richard McCutcheon. Consultant: Peter Javiler, associate of the Russian Institute at Columbia University. This program was originally shot on videotape. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) To give American television viewers a clearer understanding of how the rapid and radical changes now underway in other lands will influence their own lives, National Educational Television launched an incisive bi-monthly series of one-hour documentaries filmed around the globe. Entitled "Changing World," the series premiered in October 1964 on NET's nationwide network of 82 affiliated non-commercial stations. "We believe the scope and design of this series should place it among the season's most important ventures in public affairs television," said William Kobin, director of public affairs programs at NET. "Changing World" will look at the peaceful and not so peaceful revolutions of the mid-twentieth century from the vantage point of the people most deeply and painfully involved in transition. In a systematic way, it will attempt to relate the problems of the various nations and continents to one another, and to the lives of all of us in the United States. "In 'Changing World,'"says Mr. Kobin, "NET has deliberately turned away form a shotgun approach where we would examine only headline-making events. Instead, our producers and their units will be developing, in each instance an organized approach which will afford not only a solid introduction to other peoples and their problems, but a reliable basis on which viewers can judge United States policy, involvement and goals on other continents." (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) Changing World consists of 13 hour-long episodes produced in 1964-1966 by various producers, which were originally shot on film and videotape.
Production company:
Studio Hamburg Film Produktion
Producer:
Krosney, Herbert
Producer:
DuMont, Nevin
Narrator:
McCutcheon, Richard
Consultant:
Javiler, Peter
Editor:
Tucker, David
Date:
September 22, 1965
Format:
Film/Video
Genre:
Documentary
Location:
Library of Congress
Collection (local):
American Archive of Public Broadcasting Collection
Series:
Library of Congress > Changing World
Subjects:
Economics
Global Affairs
Public Affairs
Transportation
Extent:
00:59:59
Link to Item:
https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-t727941z2f
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Notes:
Episode Number: 9