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Set up as a 'temporary' measure by Lenin, millions of Soviet citizens would die at the hands of the secret services as internal dissent, real or imaginary, was crushed. Outside the Soviet Union, however, they were busy infiltrating German High Command, British Intelligence and America’s Manhattan Project, constructing the world’s first atomic bomb. Soon, Moscow had the means to build one of their own. The Cold War and the philosophy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) had begun in earnest. Part 1 of 3.
By August 1949, at least five years earlier than expected, the USSR became the world’s second superpower, thanks to its spies who had stolen America’s atomic secrets. But by March 1953, Stalin is dead and the KGB chief, Beria, is executed later the same year. Nikita Kruschev tries to reduce the power of the security service, splitting it into several sections... but it doesn’t last, and soon the KGB is back. Abroad, it has pulled off its greatest-ever recruitment coup – a mole at the very top of the CIA. Part 2 of 3.
Coup d’etats, assassinations, sex scandals, radioactive poisoning... it’s the stuff of a Bond movie. But in today’s Russia, it’s all very real. Under Vladimir Putin, the KGB (or FSB, as it’s now called) rules Russia with an iron rod directly from the Kremlin. To challenge its authority, even from apparent safety abroad, means risking your life. The KGB has even managed to outlive communism itself. Today, Russia is no longer a State with a Security Service: instead, the Security Service has a State. Part 3 of 3.
Following in the footsteps of one of the most prolific botanical artists of the Victorian age, we tell the story of Marianne North. Unbound by social convention, she embarked on a project to paint the world’s plants.
Discover defensive strategies that include the most powerful instinct, a mother’s love - the protection of the next generation. It is the act of self-sacrifice or risk of harm that typifies a mother’s defence of her offspring. Part 3 of 12.
Witness the day Custer's luck ran out and the fate of Native Americans changed forever.
Gareth Jones, a young Welsh journalist, smuggled into Ukraine in March 1933. The region then experienced a completely unprecedented famine, both in terms of its scale and its causes. This famine, kept secret and decided by Stalin, is political. On his return, the journalist alerts the world but lies and Soviet manipulation triumph. This is the story of the power of inquiry and speech against the state apparatus. This is the story of a mass lie and crime.
