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Explores the tension between Russia and Poland as they rebuild their societies and cities, all reflected in the architecture that rose from the rubble.
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00:00By the end of World War II, much of Poland was destroyed.
00:11While the Allies won the war, they couldn't prevent Poland from falling under the control of the Soviet Union, which would dominate the country for decades.
00:20But the Soviet Union itself paid a heavy price for its victory in Eastern Europe.
00:32Cities like Stalingrad, Moscow and Warsaw were decimated by battles with Nazi Germany.
00:39Poland and the wider Soviet Union faced the monumental task of rebuilding under post-war economic conditions.
00:54Success would demand enormous resources and the steadfast resolve of a war-torn population.
01:02All under the control of an oppressive Soviet state.
01:09The Second World War engulfed the globe.
01:16Unleashing superweapons that devastated cities and reduced magnificent historic and cultural landmarks to rubble.
01:25Essential infrastructure crumbled and the very fabric of society was torn apart.
01:31But from the devastation, nations were reborn.
01:35Vast recovery efforts focused on repairing the physical damage and restoring social and cultural icons.
01:42As these nations rose from the ashes of World War II.
01:47For nearly 200 years, Russia was a vast, multinational empire under czarist autocratic rule.
02:03But severe economic hardship and military failures during the First World War led to the 1917 revolution.
02:14The monarchy collapsed.
02:17Tsar Nicholas II was executed.
02:19And the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, established a new socialist state.
02:28After Lenin's death in the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin rose to power.
02:35Stalin was determined to spread his brand of authoritarian communism across the globe.
02:39But his domestic policies had severe consequences.
02:48His collectivization of agriculture led to widespread famine.
02:54While rapid industrialization forced millions into poverty.
02:59The dictator's paranoia led to the Great Purge in 1936.
03:06Targeting perceived enemies and resulting in mass arrests and executions.
03:13Civilians lived in fear.
03:19Meanwhile, Poland in the 1920s was experiencing independence for the first time since 1772.
03:29But life was tough.
03:32The nation faced the challenge of uniting diverse regions and ideologies.
03:38The economy, largely agricultural, struggled with industrialization.
03:44And was hit hard by the Great Depression.
03:47Poverty was widespread.
03:51Despite the challenges, a cultural renaissance flourished.
03:55Though ethnic tensions, particularly against the Jewish population, grew.
04:03And by the late 1930s, Poland's precarious geographical location was about to send it into a harrowing new era.
04:10In the summer of 1939 that Hitler's determined to provoke another war,
04:16he uses Danzig, now Gdansk, in Poland, then part of East Prussia,
04:20as a reason to build up armies on border with Poland and prepare to invade that country.
04:25On the 23rd of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
04:41A treaty which would allow both to invade Poland without having to contend with opposition from each other.
04:47They would divide Poland, with Hitler occupying the West, and Stalin occupying the East.
04:58Within a month, the Polish state had ceased to exist.
05:06Bound by a treaty with Poland, the attack meant Britain and France were obliged to declare war against Germany on the 3rd of September 1939.
05:14But the treaty only applied to a threat from Germany.
05:22So the Soviet Union was essentially free to pursue its military agenda unchecked.
05:32But the German-Soviet alliance would not last forever.
05:35On the 22nd of June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union across a broad front from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.
05:50Operation Barbarossa was the largest German military operation of the Second World War.
05:55Without access to reinforcements or supplies, the Soviet soldiers were forced to retreat from Poland, and the entire territory came under Nazi control.
06:09It was a turning point in the war on the Eastern Front, as Hitler pursued his ultimate plan.
06:19To establish living space for Germans in new territories by waging a war of annihilation.
06:25The Nazis continued pushing hundreds of kilometers east, deep into Soviet territory.
06:34And in the summer of 1942, Stalingrad would become the scene of one of the most ruthless battles the world has ever seen.
06:42There was massive strategic value for Germany in its attempt to win Stalingrad.
07:00If it had won Stalingrad, it would have won itself access to the Caucasus, to the really rich oil fields.
07:07Germany was relatively short of oil, which is a key driving force of modern war.
07:14And it also would have given them access to Stalingrad's major industrial center.
07:22It would have been the key to opening up that front on the war.
07:27And the propaganda value, as the city bearing Stalin's name, only added to its appeal.
07:37For these same reasons, Stalin felt compelled to defend the city at all cost.
07:45The fighting raged for six months.
07:50And was marked by brutal warfare and shocking losses.
07:54And it was one of the few urban battles of the Second World War in the Soviet Union.
08:00So the destructions were caused not as much by bombing from the air,
08:05but by the fact that the two army literally clashed on the streets of the city.
08:13Surrounded, and having exhausted all supplies,
08:16the Germans surrendered in February 1943,
08:20the first of Hitler's field armies to do so.
08:25This shifted the balance of power on the Eastern Front,
08:29and put an end to a series of German victories.
08:36Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War.
08:39With both sides demonstrating a violent disregard for civilian life.
08:49850,000 German lives were lost.
08:53And Stalin considered the loss of 750,000 Soviets
08:57a necessary sacrifice to prevent an irreversible turning point in Hitler's favor.
09:02For the people of Stalingrad and for the soldiers fighting there
09:09and for their families, it's an utter disaster.
09:20Just 32,000 residents remained in Stalingrad,
09:25struggling to survive among corpses,
09:28unexploded munitions and military restrictions.
09:32In the aftermath, no truly livable space remained intact.
09:45The general rule about World War II in Europe
09:48is that the further east you go, the worse the destruction got.
09:53So Russia was incredibly badly destroyed.
09:58This was really the definition of scorched earth policy,
10:01both by the Soviets and by the Germans.
10:05Over 90% of the housing stock was destroyed.
10:08Nearly all schools, nearly all hospitals,
10:11cultural centers, museums, kindergartens,
10:13all of that was destroyed.
10:16The center of the city was gone nearly 100%.
10:19Stalingrad's central district
10:25was in such a state of ruin
10:27that it was proposed to leave the rubble in place as a memorial.
10:39But Stalin had ambitions for a new and improved metropolis.
10:45Stalingrad was to become one of the largest,
10:48most industrious and beautiful cities in the Soviet Union.
10:52So the reconstruction of Stalingrad started immediately
10:57after the end of the Battle of Stalingrad.
10:59The war effort needed the products of Stalingrad military factories.
11:08Like many jobs during wartime,
11:11the initial restoration work was carried out
11:13by women and teenagers in their spare time.
11:16Thousands of residents mobilized similar working groups
11:23and set about rebuilding key areas of Stalingrad
11:26in a volunteer capacity.
11:31By 1944, more than 20,000 registered volunteers
11:36worked in over 1,000 officially recognized work brigades.
11:40The central part of the city was destroyed
11:44and few remaining buildings were actually demolished
11:48during the reconstruction of the 1950s
11:50because they wanted to give space
11:52to a more monumental version of the Stalinist hero city.
12:01Stalingrad, on the western bank of the Volga River,
12:04covered an area of nearly 860 square kilometers.
12:07During the Battle of Stalingrad,
12:11over 2.9 million bombs were dropped on the city
12:14and all 126 of its factories were destroyed.
12:21The city had to be rebuilt from scratch.
12:25Irregular pre-war roads were straightened
12:28along the Volga River.
12:31The new monumental city would have a geometric grid of streets
12:35with wide boulevards.
12:39A series of visually connected squares
12:41cascade towards the waterfront.
12:45Where a memorial to the Battle of Stalingrad,
12:49the Propylia,
12:50frames a monumental staircase
12:52as the gate to the new city.
12:53The reconstructed city had the typical aesthetics
13:10of Stalinist architectural style
13:12and was developed as a type of hero city.
13:19The ensemble layout of the rebuilt center of Stalingrad
13:22serves as ideological testament to Soviet victory.
13:28Several formidable war monuments have been erected
13:31as powerful memorials to pass Soviet conflicts.
13:34The city's rise from the ashes played into the broader saga
13:41of Soviet struggle and Stoicism.
13:45The reconstruction of Stalingrad became a symbol
13:48of Soviet resilience largely because of the scale
13:51of the destruction of the city that happened during the battle.
13:55By 1944, the tide had turned against Germany in the war.
14:06They had suffered major defeats in Russia,
14:09North Africa, and in the Atlantic.
14:13The Allies were gaining the advantage
14:15and forces in occupied countries were emboldened to rise up.
14:21But this led to vicious retribution from the Nazis.
14:27Poland's capital, Warsaw, on the banks of the Vistula River,
14:32has endured countless conflicts over the last eight centuries.
14:38One of the most devastating episodes in Warsaw's history
14:41occurred during the Nazi German occupation.
14:44On the 1st of August, 1944, the Polish Home Army mounted a campaign
14:54to liberate the city from German control.
15:06It was ultimately unsuccessful.
15:09And in retaliation, Hitler ordered complete and deliberate annihilation.
15:19They comprehensively destroyed the city.
15:25Street by street and house by house, they blew up everything.
15:31From the housing to the palaces to the government buildings
15:34until 90% of the city was completely devastated.
15:38In 1945, the Soviet Union took control of a beaten and broken Poland.
15:47The population of Warsaw was very badly affected by the war.
15:50Hundreds of thousands of people died.
15:52The Jewish population, which constituted 40% of the population of the city before,
15:57was almost all killed.
15:59And many other citizens were killed too.
16:01So the city was depopulated.
16:04The situation was considered fairly hopeless by many people in the government.
16:07And so there was a kind of dilemma about whether to perform this kind of heroic task
16:12of building the city anew,
16:15or whether it might be easier to go to another city that was relatively undestroyed.
16:22But the people of Warsaw had other ideas.
16:25There was a kind of demonstrative attempt made by people themselves,
16:31but also this was emphasised by the state,
16:33that people were desperate to come back and to lead their lives anew.
16:37Even amidst the utter devastation that surrounded them,
16:40the stench of death and the presence of rubble.
16:42The returning residents of Warsaw were clearly intent on rebuilding the city where it stood.
16:54Taking it upon themselves to begin the reconstruction process out of necessity.
16:59But it also suited Stalin to keep the capital in place.
17:07The decision was made that the capital should stay in Warsaw,
17:11that actually there needs to be continuity between the historical existence of Poland
17:17and the new socialist state,
17:19that the state would be illegitimate if it wasn't in continuity with its history.
17:22As the modern metropolis of Warsaw was being rebuilt,
17:29the monumentalists turned their attention to the Old Town,
17:34Warsaw's most historic area.
17:40Known as Stare Miasto in Polish,
17:43Warsaw's Old Town is a historic district on the west bank of the Vistula River.
17:48Bounded by the new town to the north
17:53and Shroodmiestje to the south.
17:57Visitors soak up the historic atmosphere of the Old Town.
18:02It's an idyllic picture of the Enlightenment era.
18:07But perhaps most impressive
18:09is the fact that this is a meticulous and somewhat romantic replica
18:14of a town completely rebuilt.
18:18During the war, the Old Town was almost completely destroyed
18:23like the rest of the city
18:24because it was the oldest part of the city.
18:27It was targeted by Germans with a particular fury.
18:33From complete destruction,
18:35the new Old Town would be a romantic reconstruction
18:39of the Enlightenment era
18:41under the direction of Soviet architects.
18:44They turned to any available documentation,
18:49including the detailed paintings of Bernardo Bellotto
18:52from the 18th century.
18:55The reconstruction of the historical buildings of the city
18:57was done in a way that they looked at first sight
19:00just like they did before.
19:01But if you look more closely,
19:03you realize actually that there are all sorts of ideological details there.
19:09He was a perfect example of somebody
19:11who was both meticulous and careful,
19:13but also just made a lot of stuff up.
19:17Sometimes he would add an extra story to a building,
19:20probably because he thought it was more geometrically
19:22or aesthetically pleasing
19:23for the building to have an additional story.
19:27So details that Bellotto invented in his paintings
19:30were actually built into existence
19:33by the people who were rebuilding Warsaw.
19:37And his paintings were considered
19:39by the government of the time
19:41to capture the atmosphere of Warsaw
19:44in the age of the Enlightenment.
19:46And this was a historical comparison
19:50that the new government of Communist Poland
19:52wanted to plug into.
19:55The fact that the old town
19:58is such a meticulous reconstruction,
20:00but also that it has ordered
20:02these really interesting extra stories,
20:05weird geometrical modernist facades built into it
20:09makes it much more interesting.
20:16The most significant part of the old town
20:19is, of course, its market square.
20:21The market square is the centre,
20:23the heart of the city.
20:25And as such, it was encircled
20:27by the most valuable housing.
20:31Those houses have been very important
20:34as the image of the city.
20:37The old town market square in Warsaw
20:40dates back to the 13th century.
20:42Today, it's a major tourist attraction.
20:52Warsaw's Renex Starego Miasta,
20:54or Old Town Market Square,
20:57sits on its original site
20:58of 6,500 square meters.
21:04New concrete footings
21:06were laid as a stable foundation
21:08for the replica marketplace.
21:09Bricks, either recycled from the original buildings
21:15or reproduced from debris,
21:17were used to build the new structures,
21:19maintaining the connection to its history.
21:24Some buildings were reconstructed with timber
21:26and steel reinforcements were incorporated
21:29to enhance stability
21:31and meet modern building codes.
21:33Using historical records
21:37and Bolotto's paintings as inspiration,
21:41facades were meticulously reconstructed,
21:44including intricate details and decorations,
21:47some of which were originals rescued from the rubble.
21:50The statue of Sarenka Varschavska,
21:55the mermaid of Warsaw damaged in the destruction,
21:59was restored and returned to pride of place
22:01in the square in 1951.
22:06To this day,
22:08the mermaid is considered a symbol
22:09of Warsaw's strength and resilience.
22:11Warsaw's remarkable revitalization
22:21was recognized internationally in 1980,
22:25when the old town was placed
22:27on the UNESCO list of world heritage.
22:29We need to remember
22:32that it was inscribed on this list
22:34because of the reconstruction.
22:36We are not thinking about the old town,
22:39which were existing before war.
22:41We are thinking about an act of reconstruction.
22:45This reconstruction is, in fact, the heritage.
22:49It was wiped from the face of the earth
22:51and then rebuilt again.
22:53So the fact that it's fake
22:55makes it much more real,
22:57much more fascinating,
22:58and much more moving as a space.
23:02Today, Warsaw stands as a European capital with soul,
23:07bearing the scars of war,
23:09but not allowing its skyline to be defined by them.
23:15With a rich history of resilience and rebirth,
23:18the town's motto is fittingly
23:20Contemnate Procellus,
23:22meaning it defies the storms.
23:28Recovery after World War II and Soviet satellite states
23:33was focused on political and cultural influence.
23:40In Russia, the focus was on rebuilding industry,
23:44often at the expense of agriculture,
23:46food, and consumer goods,
23:48plunging the people into extreme poverty.
23:51But in 1947, construction started on a new scheme
23:57that would eventually deliver water for agriculture
23:59and electricity for industry.
24:06The almost complete destruction of Stalingrad
24:09was an opportunity to revive pre-war plans
24:12to connect the Volga and Don rivers via an overland canal.
24:19First ideas about building a canal
24:21that would connect the Volga and the Don
24:23date back to as early as the 17th century.
24:27But as soon as the war was over, 1947,
24:30they finally started building their canal.
24:36The ambitious project would allow industrial
24:39and military vessels to travel between the Caspian and Black Seas.
24:45The Volga-Don shipping canal
24:47would connect the Volga and the Don rivers
24:50at their closest points.
24:52The 101-kilometer canal
24:55includes a series of 13 logs.
24:58Vessels rise 88 metres from the Volga river,
25:03over the Volga hills,
25:06and back down 44 metres
25:07to the level of the Don river to the west.
25:12The canal can accommodate vessels
25:14up to 141 metres in length.
25:19Its smallest lock is 145 metres long,
25:2317 metres wide,
25:26and 3.6 metres deep.
25:28Today, the Volga-Don canal
25:34forms part of the unified deep water system
25:37of European Russia.
25:41But immediately after the war,
25:43it was crucial to the Soviet infrastructure campaign.
25:48Soviet ambitions would require a massive amount of arable land
25:52to grow food for export,
25:53and enormous amounts of electricity to feed industry.
26:00So, this multifunctional scheme
26:03would integrate the needs of irrigation,
26:05transportation,
26:07and hydroelectric power.
26:08multiple hydroelectric power stations
26:13were constructed in post-war Russia.
26:17The largest of these
26:19was the Stalingrad Hydroelectric Station,
26:23located near Volgograd.
26:25Construction began on the 6th of August, 1950.
26:28A 3.3-kilometre earth-filled dam across the Volga River
26:35supported a 725-metre concrete gravity dam,
26:4044 metres high
26:42and 80 metres thick at its base.
26:44Inside the structure,
26:48a massive power station
26:49with 22 of the world's biggest turbines.
26:5325,000 cubic metres of water per second
26:57spin the generators
26:58to produce around 11,000 gigawatt-hours of power each year.
27:03It's fed by the Volgograd Reservoir,
27:09with a capacity of over 31,000 gigalitres.
27:15When the plant opened on the 10th of September, 1961,
27:19it was the largest hydroelectric station in the world,
27:23with a capacity of more than 2,500 megawatts.
27:27The hydroelectric scheme
27:43has played a significant role
27:44in powering Russia's post-war industrialisation.
27:48And the Volgodon canal system
27:50has been vital in reducing transportation costs
27:53for coal, timber and grain.
27:57But this ageing infrastructure
28:00also reflects a time in Soviet history
28:03when Stalin was determined to be self-sufficient
28:05and sever ties with the capitalist West.
28:13Stalin engineered a buffer zone
28:16of subservient countries around the Soviet Union,
28:19like Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland.
28:24and this drawing of the Iron Curtain
28:29provoked strong reaction from the West.
28:34In 1947, the US provided post-war economic aid
28:39to Western European countries
28:41under the Marshall Plan,
28:43effectively containing the expansion
28:45of Soviet influence in the area.
28:47The following years were engulfed
28:54in an ideological and political conflict
28:56between the West and the Soviet Union
28:58that became known as the Cold War.
29:02Two years after World War II,
29:10more than 25 million Soviet citizens
29:12were still homeless.
29:1440% of housing was damaged or destroyed.
29:19Stalin's initial reconstruction plans
29:22were focused on industry
29:23rather than residential projects.
29:25building resources were in short supply,
29:29so temporary dwellings were erected
29:31out of necessity.
29:35There were experiments
29:37with mass-produced, prefabricated housing,
29:40but these were not prioritized.
29:43When Nikita Khrushchev came to power
29:45shortly after Stalin's death in 1953,
29:48he initiated widespread political,
29:52economic, and social reform,
29:54setting in motion de-Stalinization.
29:59One of the first things he did
30:00was to give a speech at the meeting
30:02of construction workers at the end of 1954,
30:05where he criticized Stalin's architecture
30:08with its exuberance
30:10and its preference for monumentality,
30:12and he declared that from now on,
30:14architects should focus actually on construction.
30:17So, producing living space was the priority.
30:23It was for the first time
30:24when residential housing was declared
30:26by the head of the state as the priority.
30:32A style of housing never seen before
30:34in the Soviet Union started to appear.
30:40Just 20 separate elements
30:41would make up these designs,
30:43including concrete panels
30:45with pre-cut holes for windows and doors,
30:48bolted together to give each apartment
30:52around 30 square meters of living space.
30:58The panel and block design allowed
31:00for efficient and uniform construction,
31:05which was repeated over five floors
31:07to make up to 80 apartments,
31:09each consisting of one to three rooms.
31:15Pre-fabricated staircases,
31:16landings and roofs were assembled on site.
31:20As a cost-saving measure,
31:22elevators were not included.
31:24These box-shaped buildings,
31:27unadorned with superfluous decoration,
31:28became known as Khrushchevkas
31:29in honour of the new Soviet leader.
31:3060 million apartments were built during the time
31:32of Khrushchev's rule,
31:33housing well over 100 million people.
31:36The buildings,
31:37unadorned with superfluous decoration,
31:38became known as Khrushchevkas
31:39in honour of the new Soviet leader.
31:4160 million apartments were built
31:43during the time of Khrushchev's rule,
31:44housing well over 100 million people.
31:46The Khrushchevkas were cheap and fast to build,
31:49some in as few as 11 days.
31:51The compromise was in the homogenous design.
31:54The Khrushchevkas were cheap and fast to build,
31:56some in as few as 11 days.
31:59The compromise was in the homogenous design.
32:01which meant all the housing of that time tended to look very similar.
32:20It was a success in a way that it allowed to solve
32:33the most urgent housing crisis.
32:35Many people received access to individual apartments
32:38for the first time in their lives.
32:41It's calculated that today up to 10% of people in Russia
32:45are still living in Khrushchevkas,
32:47even though their living span was to be about 25 years.
32:51But they proved to be much more durable and stable
32:54than they were designed to be.
33:00In theory, the apartments were designed to suit a small family.
33:04But in practice,
33:05it was common for several generations to share the space.
33:11For many,
33:12it was the first time they had access to electricity,
33:15running water and sewerage systems,
33:19improving the quality of life for millions of Soviet people.
33:27Embracing new ideas around construction methods,
33:30residential layouts and communal green space,
33:33Khrushchevkas would become a blueprint for the rest of the Soviet Union.
33:37It changed the way Soviet cities looked and still look today.
33:44It created a new standard for the Soviet city,
33:48for the way people live in it.
33:50Stalin used architecture as a method of propaganda,
33:55constructing colossal buildings to reinforce the power and strength of the state.
34:00In contrast,
34:03the political messaging behind the kind of simple,
34:06utilitarian architecture of the Khrushchevkas
34:08was designed to show a connection to the new order.
34:13Simple, functional buildings,
34:15subsidized by the state
34:17and influenced by the political, social and economic context
34:20of the post-war period.
34:30Moscow had been the heart of Russian power since 1480,
34:34until Peter the Great moved the capital to St. Petersburg in 1712,
34:39aiming to orient it towards Europe,
34:42only to be strategically moved back to Moscow by Lenin during the First World War.
34:52Moscow was the second biggest city,
34:54but it never had the imperial grandeur of St. Petersburg.
34:59And for Stalin that was a problem.
35:03He was reportedly saying that we have to rebuild Moscow
35:06in a way that would impress the visitors.
35:12And so Stalin announced an ambitious project
35:15that would rival the skyscrapers of capitalist cities in the West.
35:20The foundations of seven ostentatious buildings
35:23were laid on the 7th of September 1947,
35:27to coincide with the 800th anniversary of Moscow.
35:36The resulting skyscrapers looking down on the city
35:39became known in the West as the Seven Sisters.
35:44The project was not only an exercise and ego for Stalin,
35:47but also an extravagant publicity grab for communism in general.
35:53A display of success, wealth, innovation and technology
35:57designed to rival foreign powers.
36:00Moscow had to look like New York,
36:06but it also had to look specifically Russian.
36:11The shape of these buildings is a conscious referral
36:15to the shape of the towers of the Moscow Kremlin.
36:19And they were separated in space.
36:21They were located in different parts of the city,
36:24also on purpose because they wanted to avoid the density
36:28and the darkness of an American downtown.
36:35The Moscow State University building
36:37is the largest of the Seven Sisters.
36:42Located on the banks of the Moscow River,
36:44its 20,000 flexible columns, driven deep into the ground,
36:48were designed to withstand seismic activity.
36:51Three underground levels doubled as a bomb shelter,
36:57featuring radiation shielding in case of nuclear attack.
37:02A 40,000-ton still frame forms the skeleton
37:08of this enormous Stalin Empire-style building.
37:11Thirty-six floors rise to a height of 240 meters.
37:18The monumental structure is clad with limestone and Ukrainian granite.
37:28A spire crowns the central tower, from which four wings extend,
37:32each topped with smaller towers adorned with clocks.
37:37The building has a total of 33,000 rooms.
37:42The Moscow State University building's aesthetic
37:45is consistent with its six siblings,
37:47featuring a tiered wedding cake profile
37:50with ornate architectural elements.
37:52The layout was designed to evenly distribute the weight of the building
38:00and reinforce it against the wind.
38:09The largest of Stalin's Seven Sisters
38:12held the honor of the tallest building in Europe until 1990.
38:16Many of the original luxurious interior features remain,
38:21including high ceilings, stained glass, wood paneling,
38:27and marble flooring from Georgia and Uzbekistan.
38:33The skyscrapers became notorious for their opulent decorations.
38:36The best-known example is the Leningrad Hotel by architect Polyakov
38:45that featured walnut paneling, gilded chandeliers,
38:50a marble staircase.
38:56And when Khrushchev came to power,
38:58the Leningrad Hotel was singled out
39:01as the showcase of excesses in architecture
39:05and its architect Polyakov,
39:07who was also the architect of the Volgadon Canal.
39:10He was deprived of the Stalin Prize for architecture,
39:13the highest honor for an architect
39:15that he was awarded for that building.
39:25Moscow's Seven Sisters created a new skyline for the city,
39:30and the citizens approved.
39:32Yes, it was a matter of pride,
39:37not only for the residents of the city,
39:39but also for the population of the entire country.
39:44It was something to look forward to.
39:50It was like the horizon, yeah,
39:52the promise of a socialist modernity.
39:55But Stalin wanted to expand Soviet influence.
40:07The Soviet Union had big plans for Eastern Europe after the war.
40:11They didn't only want to reproduce the societies that had already been there,
40:15they wanted to recreate a brand-new society.
40:21And importantly, a society that was going to be communist,
40:24and therefore sympathetic to Soviet Russia.
40:31Skyscrapers, similar to those in Moscow,
40:34were constructed throughout the Soviet sphere of influence.
40:37They included the Hotel Ukraine in Kyiv,
40:40the Latvian Academy of Sciences in Riga,
40:44and the House of the Free Press in Bucharest.
40:49But the largest of these, at 237 meters tall,
40:53was bestowed upon Poland.
40:55After World War II, Poland and its capital Warsaw came under Soviet control.
41:09Devastated by the war,
41:10the city was rebuilt under Stalin's communist regime.
41:18The Palace of Culture and Science
41:20is the largest and most controversial building in Poland.
41:25This gift from Stalin to the Polish people
41:28was erected as a symbol of Poland's strategic importance to Moscow,
41:33and a reflection of Soviet political influence.
41:39Most of us know experientially,
41:41when somebody tries to give you lots and lots of gifts,
41:44and you don't know whether you're going to be able to afford,
41:48or to feasibly give a counter-gift in return,
41:51that means that they're trying to control you in some way,
41:55that they're trying to exert their domination over you.
41:59Entirely funded and supervised by the Soviet Union,
42:02construction began on the 1st of May, 1952.
42:07However, the project was a misguided show of opulence,
42:11designed to contrive Poland's alignment with communism.
42:14Architect Lev Rudnev, who had also worked on the Moscow State University building,
42:21was assigned the project.
42:24And they bore striking similarities.
42:28Because just like in Moscow,
42:30Warsaw's homeless was struggling to survive amongst the ashes and the rubble
42:35around the emerging monolith.
42:37And then a skyscraper, a skyscraper which was a gift from Stalin,
42:44a skyscraper which is seen from every part of the city.
42:52This is like the monumental way to inform everything,
42:57who is a leader, who is in charge here.
43:00And at the same time, it was built on a number of urban blocks,
43:08which has been demolished to create this space.
43:13So it is not only about the height,
43:15but it is also about the space around it.
43:19And this is really creating this object like the centre of the city.
43:25Built on a footprint of 35,000 square metres,
43:32the steel-framed palace rises 46 levels over 237 metres.
43:40Bricks form a sturdy core, 25% lighter than masonry.
43:46The building is clad with a combination of limestone and ceramic tiles,
43:50manufactured in the Ural Mountains.
43:52architect Lev Rudenev's design reflects a combination of socialist realism
43:57and Polish historicism, incorporating Baroque and Gothic decorative details.
44:05The palace boasts 3,288 rooms, over 110,000 square metres of floor space.
44:15It was officially open on the 22nd of July, 1955.
44:22And for the turn of the millennium, a massive clock was added to the tower,
44:28with four 6.3 metre faces.
44:31It's the world's highest tower clock, overlooking the city of Warsaw.
44:36In a nod to local culture, Rudenev collaborated with Polish architects on the project,
44:49and also visited Krakow and Zemuszt to familiarise himself with historical Polish architecture.
44:58The final design incorporated elements inspired by the town hall clock tower in Krakow,
45:04and traditional Polish roof parapets.
45:07But these clumsy attempts at authenticity were ill-considered and transparent.
45:16The palace is covered in these Polish features, for example, these Renaissance crenellations,
45:22which were supposedly taken by the architects from buildings in Warsaw's and Krakow's old towns.
45:28But they were made so huge when they were plastered onto the side of the palace,
45:33and then it began to look extremely Soviet, Russian, Byzantine or whatever.
45:37So that's the national style. The national style was a bit of a fail.
45:40So it was taking a piece of Moscow and putting it in the centre of Warsaw.
45:45This is really an exercise in cultural imperialism.
45:49Most Poles hated the Palace of Culture and Science from the start.
45:53They knew that it was a symbol of Stalinism.
45:58The people of Warsaw would have gladly exchanged Stalin's gift
46:02for investment in much-needed practical housing.
46:05In 1989, as the Soviet Union was teetering on collapse,
46:12Poland transitioned towards democracy
46:14with the appointment of the country's first non-communist prime minister,
46:18Tadeusz Mazowiecki.
46:22And the country's first free parliamentary elections were held in October 1991.
46:28So by the time the Soviet Union was dissolved in December,
46:32Poland was already an independent democratic state free from Soviet control.
46:39And so a debate that had been simmering since the first signs of Soviet collapse
46:44was reignited about what to do with Poland's most visible and imposing symbol of an old regime.
46:51There was a lot of politicians, there were activists, writers,
46:58who were interested in the idea of getting rid of the Palace of Culture
47:02because it was this absurdly, like, phallic, excessive symbol of Soviet domination.
47:07So what the hell is it doing in independent Poland?
47:12But demolishing the palace would have been an engineering feat
47:15beyond the capacity of a city that was quite short of cash.
47:19It is an important reminder that our history is quite complex and quite complicated,
47:27and that we have these 44 years of Soviet occupancy
47:32and erasing this kind of the monument is wrong, is wrong.
47:37We need to also remember about that.
47:42In 2007, the palace was listed in the Polish Cultural Heritage Register,
47:48cementing its future as a reminder of Warsaw's tumultuous past.
48:05Despite suffering greater losses than any other country,
48:08the Soviet Union set about the work of post-war reconstruction with great purpose.
48:15Architecture was a part and parcel of the program of centralized economic planning,
48:24and hence its unprecedented scale of unification of construction.
48:29The sheer sameness is maybe what is unique about the Soviet Union.
48:38Stalin's architecture served as a symbol of so much more than practical space or fashionable design aesthetics.
48:46It was a method of propaganda, a demonstration of power.
48:53And under the shadow of Soviet control, Poland managed to rise from the ashes.
48:59The history, identity, and hope of the nation wrapped up in carefully reconstructed landmarks.
49:09The turbulent relationship between Poland and Russia has a long and complicated history.
49:18Against considerable odds, both met the challenge of rebuilding their nations.
49:23For mothers and citizens are a long.
49:25They do not belong in one way.
49:26The world will be an important part and parcel of freedom.
49:28After the war, the sufferings happened after world- above- above- above- above- above- above- above- above- above- above- above- above- above.
49:30Transcription by CastingWords
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