00:00While the socialist leaders were exchanging passionate kisses on national television,
00:05The regime fiercely persecuted homosexual people in the streets and punished them with imprisonment.
00:10This is one of the most famous kisses in the world.
00:13It's on the Berlin Wall and it's not exactly a gay kiss.
00:16The people kissing are Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Union,
00:20and Erich Honecker, from East Germany.
00:23It happened on the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic in 1979.
00:27This was the socialist fraternal kiss, the highest diplomatic greeting of the communist bloc.
00:33It was a custom of the Russian Orthodox Church,
00:36where men would give each other three kisses on the lips as a sign of absolute trust.
00:40The Bolsheviks recycled it to seal loyalty between comrades.
00:44In fact, Brezhnev loved it.
00:45In the 70s his salute was famous as the triple Brezhnev,
00:49left cheek, right cheek, and straight to the mouth.
00:51After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989,
00:54The Russian artist Dmitry Bruehl painted this mural and titled it
00:58My God, help me to survive this deadly love.
01:02It was a satire of that suffocating love of the socialist dictatorship.
01:07And then popular culture did the rest.
01:09Taking that image out of context, what many people see is simply a homosexual kiss.
01:13What was often intended as a form of intimidation,
01:16This kiss was a gesture of power.
01:19For many, it's a satire.
