Museum Secrets (2011–…): Season 3, Episode 18 - Inside the State Historic Museum, Moscow - full transcript
(suspenseful music)
- [Colm] Red Square, a
place of power and piety,
and at its heart, a museum
with secrets dark and strange.
A terrible Ivan,
(weapon explodes)
a revolutionary Rolls Royce,
Napoleon's most shameful dishonor,
(cannons booming)
and the lost art of winning a lethal game.
(gun blasts)
Secrets hidden in plain sight
inside Moscow's State Historical Museum.
(suspenseful music)
(mysterious music)
From the Stone Age to the modern day,
the State Historical Museum of Moscow
tells the story of Russia and her people.
The 19th century gallery
is filled with artifacts
that speak of wealth,
nobility, and sudden death.
This is the museum's
collection of dueling pistols.
It's one of the largest
of its kind in the world
and is never seen by the public.
(speaks in foreign language)
The pistols are ornate,
almost works of art.
That's because they were
made only for a select few.
In 19th century Russia,
pistol duels were the preferred
method of settling disputes
among the noble class.
(gun cracks and man grunts
and thuds on the ground)
By 1715, dueling had become so popular,
it was killing off many
members of Russian aristocracy.
The tsar outlawed the
practice, declaring it foolish.
But not all duelists were fools.
The brilliant writer and
poet Alexander Pushkin
is considered to be the
father of Russian literature.
But in his own time, Pushkin
was notorious for fighting duels.
(people talking)
A nobleman with a sharp
tongue (glove slaps),
he was often challenged by other nobles
who claimed he had offended
their honor. (glove slaps)
(speaks in foreign language)
The offended nobles came
to the dueling field angry,
while Pushkin maintained his cool.
(gun cracks, man grunts)
28 times he faced a hotheaded opponent,
and 28 times he survived.
(gun cracks, man gasps)
But his 29th duel cost him his life.
What went wrong?
That is our museum secret.
Our investigation starts here,
on a gun range just outside Moscow.
Russian historian and
author Alexei Vostrokov
is eager to reenact Pushkin's last duel.
But before he can do that,
he'll need to learn to shoot.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Andrey] Okay, this is our pistol.
- [Colm] Military historian
Andrey Schildbach
has brought a replica of
the type of dueling pistol
that Pushkin would have used.
- [Andrey] Now we start loading it.
(powder rattles)
We make sure that the
powder is compact enough.
We are ready to shoot,
but first don't forget to put...
- [Colm] Of course, the best way
to survive a duel is not to fight one.
But in a society where honor was paramount,
that wasn't always an option.
(old-style Russian music)
A nobleman's honor was in the greatest
danger at social occasions.
Fancy dress balls were
rife with sexual tension,
often instigated by men,
but sometimes the flames
of jealousy were fanned by women.
Pushkin's wife Natalia
was a notorious flirt.
At a public function, he
caught her enjoying the attention
of a handsome French
officer, George D'Anthes.
Hurt and enraged, Pushkin
challenged D'Anthes to a duel.
(glove slaps and man gasps)
Back at the gun range,
Alexei is making slow progress.
- [Andrey] And the
recoil will be quite strong.
(drum roll)
(gun blasts)
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Colm] Determined to
channel Pushkin's cool,
Alexei collects his nerves
and steadies his hand.
(hammer clicks)
(speaks in foreign language)
(gun blasts)
(blows)
Andrey has brought along
an opponent for Alexei,
champion marksman Alexander Lebedev.
(speaking in foreign language)
Like the duelists of Pushkin's era,
Alexei and Alexander will face each other
in a secluded area.
(speaks in foreign language)
But for the purposes of our demonstration,
they will not fire lead
balls at each other.
Instead, they are each equipped
with a modern air gun that
shoots a single paintball.
(speaking in foreign language)
In accordance with 19th century rules,
the opponents will begin 20 paces apart.
At five paces, there is a line
that neither man is allowed to cross.
(speaks in foreign language)
Lowering a handkerchief will signal
the beginning of the duel.
The duelists then have a choice.
They can take their shot immediately
or wait until they move
closer to their opponent.
(suspenseful music)
When Pushkin dueled with
D'Anthes, he was filled with rage.
He charged the line,
hoping to score a kill shot
at close range. (gun cracks)
But his anger-fueled plan failed.
D'Anthes fired first, scoring a direct hit
to Pushkin's midsection. (man groans)
On the modern gun range,
Alexei and Alexander take their positions.
(speaking in foreign language)
(footsteps crunching)
(gun pops)
(suspenseful music)
- Are you wounded?
(speaking in foreign language)
(groaning)
As Pushkin lay wounded,
he struggled to take his shot.
D'Anthes did the honorable thing
by standing still while Pushkin fired.
(gun cracks)
He received only a flesh wound.
Two days later, Pushkin
would die of his injuries.
The greatest writer in Russia,
killed because he lost
his cool in his 29th duel.
(speaks in foreign language)
Up next, the secret of a Stone Age grave.
(dramatic music)
(gentle, mysterious music)
In Moscow's State Historical Museum,
one can stroll back through time,
all the way to the Stone Age.
Here in a gallery dedicated
to Russia's earliest
inhabitants, there is
something haunting and strange.
The skeletons of a boy and a girl
that were buried
head-to-head in a single grave.
Their remains were
unearthed not far from Moscow,
where they had laid
undisturbed for over 20,000 years.
Both children were covered with beads
that numbered in the thousands.
Why they were buried this way,
and why they died so
young, is a museum secret.
Our investigation begins
the town of Zaraysk,
160 kilometers south of Moscow,
in the region where the
children lived their brief lives.
In the shadow of a 500-year-old castle,
there is a 23,000-year-old
Stone Age settlement.
Here, archeologist Sergey Lev leads a team
that has uncovered a wealth of evidence
about how early humans lived and died.
- In prehistoric times, they were hunting.
That was a perfect view on a valley,
and they can see animals walking there.
And the site is rich,
very much, in artifacts.
Very, very many.
Now the collection is
coming to one million pieces.
- [Colm] Along with flint tools and knives,
the team has discovered a fertility goddess
and a talisman of the natural world.
- We see the most
impressive object is here.
It is the bison figurine.
From the other side, there is traces
of red ochre, symbolizing blood.
And we think it is a real
magic ritual linked with hunting.
- [Colm] The bison is
carved from the same material
as the beads from the children's grave.
Ivory from the tusk of a wooly mammoth.
During the Stone Age, wooly mammoths
were by far the biggest
game, as heavy as a bus,
with tusks five meters long.
In the museum, above the children's bones,
a panorama depicts the long-held theory
that hunters killed mammoths
by driving them into giant pits.
(tribal music)
(people shouting)
(mammoth roaring)
Sergey believes the illustration
is out of step with recent discoveries.
- From modern point of
view, it looks a little bit fantastic
because first, if it is permafrost,
it is quite hard to dig in it.
And you can imagine the size of mammoth
and what size of pit it should be.
So maybe after one year of work (chuckles),
they will succeed, but how
they will put mammoth inside?
(laughs)
So summary, this theory doesn't work.
- [Colm] Sergey has found evidence
that the pits were actually dwellings,
roofed with mammoth bones and hides.
- It means that it was
very, very, very much
important in their life.
They used them for
constructions, they used them
for producing tools, and probably for food.
- [Colm] The latest research suggests
that mammoths were
brought down with spears.
In the treeless tundra,
some spears were made
from mammoth tusks that
were straightened over a flame.
Such spears were found
in the children's grave.
This could mean that the
children took part in a hunt
and were killed by misadventure,
(mammoth roars)
crushed or gored by a wounded beast.
If so, their bones may tell the story.
Recently at Moscow's
archeological forensic laboratory,
Dr. Maria Mednikova ran a battery of tests.
- Concerning these
remains, we haven't found
indications of trauma in this case.
- [Colm] But while none
of the children's bones
were broken, their teeth
show something unexpected.
- We can notice such transversal lines
on the anterior teeth.
Here and over here they are visible.
That means that growth of those children
was interrupted by some
strong hunger, starvation.
- [Colm] This suggests that in the region
where the children lived,
game was becoming scarce.
As hunger and desperation grew,
their tribe may have appealed
to a higher power for help.
That brings us back to the thousands
of beads in the children's grave.
Researchers have determined
that each bead took at
least an hour to make.
The enormous effort suggests
an extraordinary purpose.
- They were decorated
in special, rich manner
to send some message
to another world, to God.
- [Colm] Maria can't say
how the children died,
but she believes she knows why.
- Such young people,
they were very important
for their society because
they were just close to be adult,
and they were hope of society.
They could be a gift for some gods,
so they could be sacrificed.
- [Colm] Covered in beads of ivory,
a boy and girl were sent into the hereafter
so that their tribe could
continue to walk the earth.
(somber music)
Next on Museum Secrets, the
secret of a winged horseman.
(dramatic music)
(marching band music)
Today, just outside the
State Historical Museum
in Red Square, Russia and
Poland will meet in battle.
In this annual military band competition,
Poland and Russia vie for top honors.
Today their rivalry is all good fun,
but in the 17th century, Poland and Russia
were at each other's throats (cannon booms)
in a bloody struggle for
supremacy in Eastern Europe.
(soldiers shouting)
And at the forefront of this conflict,
a warrior both dark and strange.
(speaks in foreign language)
For nearly two centuries,
Poland's Winged Hussars
were undefeated across
the battlefields of Europe
and the most feared army in the land.
The reason why is our museum secret.
(ominous music)
(buckles clicking)
To investigate, we've come to the ranch
of Hussar enthusiast and
proud Polish-American Rik Fox.
The purpose of the wings has baffled
and divided historians for centuries.
Some believe that the
wings made a hissing sound
and that the hissing of a thousand wings
would've terrified the enemy.
Did a frightening sound
give Polish Hussars the edge?
- There's lots of legends about the wings.
Some say that they made noise.
Some say they vibrated.
My wings have, on rare occasions,
have made a buzzing sound.
They've scared horses that were nearby,
so we know that to be true.
I've never actually had myself mic'ed.
We've never done a setup like this before
to try and see if we can replicate it.
(reverberation distorts speech)
- [Colm] With the aid of a
sensitive sound recorder,
- [Man] Recording now.
- [Colm] Rik hopes to capture any sound
the wings might make and
put the age-old debate to rest.
(horse whinnies)
(quiet, suspenseful music)
(horse's hooves crunch)
- [Rik] Okay, so, we
got the recording here.
I'm gonna take a listen
and see what we got.
- Couldn't really hear anything.
Why don't you take... Do you hear anything?
- I hear a lot of wind, just ambient noise,
wind, flags, horse, and armor.
- Yeah.
- I can't hear the wings.
And of course I'm sitting
in front of the feathers,
and I didn't hear anything today, so.
- No.
It's unfortunate.
Would've liked to hear it.
- Hate to put a pin in the
romantic balloon of the legend,
but there's more going
on on the battlefield
by real sounds of war
that are gonna overshadow
any sounds that the wings may have made.
- [Colm] If it wasn't sound
that terrified their enemies,
then what could it have been?
Rik thinks the answer lies in something
that every Hussar carried into battle.
- The signature weapon of
the Hussars was the lance,
in Polish called (speaks
in foreign language).
They were hollowed out for lightness.
They were designed to
impale and shatter on impact.
And it was, it's a terrifying weapon.
- [Colm] While Russian
infantrymen had pikes
that were 15 feet long, the
Hussars' lances measured 20.
So in a battle with a Russian adversary,
a Polish Hussar could impale his target
five feet before his enemy could reach him.
(suspenseful music)
(lance crashing into target)
As lances go, the Hussars'
weapon was highly effective.
But by the 17th century,
both Russia and Poland
were fielding regiments
of armored musketeers.
(guns blasting)
You might think that muskets
would've stopped the
Hussars in their tracks.
But they didn't.
- Those weapons were not rifled.
They weren't accurate.
It was a ball, didn't always fit perfectly.
Powder consistency wasn't always right on.
It was hit and miss.
- [Colm] Unlike the
plodding Russian infantry,
the Winged Hussars were lightning fast.
- The Hussars would start at a walk,
then they would work their way to a trot,
the enemy would fire a salvo,
and within that moment
of going from trot to canter
to gallop, Hussars would
pretty much cross the field
in moments before the
muskets could actually hit them.
- [Colm] With speed,
precision, and sheer force,
the Hussars easily smashed
through Russian infantry columns.
And there was one more thing
that assured their victory in battle.
- To see a charge coming at you,
several hundred or several thousand,
the ground shook like an earthquake,
and through the smoke and musket,
the powder burning and clouds
of gunsmoke in front of you,
and you would start to see
the tops of the lance pennants
coming towards you, and the
wings, those spectacular wings,
you knew there was not gonna
be too many guys with dry pants
because to receive a charge
from the Hussars is death.
- [Colm] And that's why
every Russian soldier
feared the angels of
death of the battlefield,
the Polish Winged Hussars.
It would take several
centuries for conflict
between Russia and Poland to be reduced
from violence on the battlefield
to a battle of the bands.
(marching band music)
Up next, the secrets of Ivan the Terrible.
(dramatic music)
(lighthearted Russian music)
Just outside Moscow's
State Historical Museum,
tourists pose with
lookalikes from Russia's past.
Tsar Nicholas II,
Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin.
This woman looks unafraid.
Perhaps that's because she doesn't know
that she's posing with Ivan the Terrible.
Inside the museum,
Ivan has an entire gallery
all to himself.
(ominous music)
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Colm] The case contains several books
in Ivan's own handwriting,
and above them is this.
(speaks in foreign language)
Hair shirts were often worn by monks
who hoped to show remorse for their sins
by suffering extreme pain.
(speaks in foreign language)
(firebomb wooshing)
(people shouting)
Why would Ivan the
Terrible, powerful leader
and notorious tyrant, want to wear this?
How did Ivan the Terrible
become Ivan the Remorseful?
That is our museum secret.
The story begins in 1547, as a young Ivan
is crowned the first tsar of Russia.
(coins clinking)
He came to power at a time
when Russia's noble class,
the boyars, were agitating
for a larger share of power.
(speaks in foreign language)
Some may have believed
that Ivan would be a pushover.
They were wrong.
The new tsar sought to unify
and modernize his nation,
protecting the borders by creating
a people's army, known as the streltsy.
Ivan was a complicated man.
He was an avid chess player who brought
careful calculation into everything he did.
He was also deeply religious.
Like his subjects, he believed
that even the smallest sin
could lead to eternal damnation.
He felt that his subjects would
be more likely to follow him
if they understood the
depth of his religious devotion.
To prove his piety, he built the church
that has become an icon of Russia itself,
St Basil's Cathedral.
(singing in foreign language)
- Ivan the Terrible believed that God was
on his side because he God, as he believed,
gives him a power to rule the country.
That was his mission.
(singing in foreign language)
- [Colm] Believing he
should answer to God alone,
Ivan proposed laws that
would give him absolute power.
The boyars resisted, insisting
that Ivan rule by consensus.
Instead of leading an
army against the boyars,
Ivan made an unexpected move.
He left his palace in
Moscow to take up residence
in the village of Aleksandrova Sloboda.
Historian Larissa Zaraskaya
believes this was a brilliant tactic.
(speaks in foreign language)
Ivan knew that the boyars would realize
that they couldn't rule Russia without him,
and soon they begged him to come back.
Ivan agreed to return on condition
that the boyars accede to
his demand to absolute power
and that he be allowed to
command his own secret police.
Ivan ordered them to
identify and arrest anyone
who might pose a threat to his rule.
His methods were ruthless and terrifying.
(door clangs and creaks)
And when suspected traitors wouldn't talk,
Ivan had them brought here.
(speaks in foreign language)
Under Ivan's direction, his secret police
extracted information and confessions
through brutality and torture.
(screaming)
Victims were flayed
alive and boiled in oil.
(screaming)
Often their agony lasted for days.
Ivan's methods cemented his power,
(cannons boom)
giving him the authority to launch wars
that would expand and
unify the Russian state.
He would continue to use torture
to pursue his goals until,
in the 37th year of his reign,
he began to reflect on his sins.
He feared no man, but he did fear God.
- He was very religious.
He knew that he would like
to enter paradise someday,
and he knew that he was very severe,
and a lot of people
were brought into prison
and were killed according to his order,
and as a religious man, he started
to be prepared for this new afterlife.
- [Colm] In an attempt to appease God,
Ivan ordered the creation of this,
a synodic, a Russian book of the dead.
(speaks in foreign language)
For each name, a prayer was to be given
to soothe the souls of those
who perished under Ivan.
(speaks in foreign language)
But Ivan worried that it wasn't enough.
He'd forgotten many of his victims' names.
(speaks in foreign language)
And so, tormented still,
Ivan turned to the garment
that would make him
penitent in the eyes of God.
And legend has it that for
the remainder of his days,
Ivan wore only the hair shirt.
And that's because Ivan the Terrible
had become Ivan the Remorseful.
Up next, (cannons boom)
the secret of Napoleon's eagle.
(dramatic music)
(military-style drum music)
The newest wing of the
State Historical Museum
is dedicated to Napoleon's
invasion of Russia.
Or, as it's known to Russians,
the Patriotic War of 1812.
The collection celebrates one
of Russia's greatest victories
and one of Napoleon's worst defeats.
(cannons and guns blasting)
Every year, thousands of
reenactors come to Russia
to commemorate the Battle of Borodino,
Napoleon's army's bloodiest day.
The reenactors pride
themselves on authenticity,
from their uniforms to their weapons
to this, the French Imperial Eagle.
The eagle was a sacred emblem
that every French
regiment carried into battle.
(soldiers shouting)
French soldiers swore
to defend it to the death.
Inside the State Historical Museum
is an Imperial Eagle of
the Third French Regiment,
one of the few surviving
examples in the world.
But this eagle should not be here.
The reason why is a museum secret.
The secret has brought Victor Eiser
to Russia from his home in Canada.
Victor is the president of a Montreal-based
reenactment group called
(gun cracks) Brigade Napoleon.
He's here as a member
of the Imperial Guard,
but he's also a soldier
of the Third Regiment.
That gives him a special
interest in the museum's eagle.
- The eagle represents our regiment
and has our number on it.
We follow it, and even in a reenactment
when we have a mock
battle, the eagle is protected.
If you lost your eagle, it
was a terrible disgrace.
(guns blasting)
The interesting thing about reenactors,
when we don the uniforms, we feel younger,
and we feel passionate.
We're proud of our
regiment, so just as the eagle
was life and death to the
regiments 200 years ago,
we feel very much the same way.
So when I heard that there was an eagle
in Moscow, I was interested,
but when it was described
as Third of the Line,
I suddenly questioned how that could be.
As far as we know, we
never lost an eagle in battle.
- [Colm] The Third French Infantry was one
of the most illustrious
regiments in Napoleon's army.
Its soldiers were often
bloodied but never defeated,
and according to the regiment's records,
they never left an eagle behind.
(guns blasting)
- The possibility to go and
see the eagle with my own eyes
and try and resolve the discrepancy
between the history I know
and whatever background history
they have on their eagle is essential.
I can't go home without that.
(people talking)
- [Colm] Victor's next
stop, the 1812 gallery.
He's going to examine the museum's eagle
with the help of curator Dmitry Ozerkov.
- So here is the famous eagle.
- Ah.
- [Dmitry] That's definitely eagle
of the Third Regiment of the Line.
- This is what I've come so far to see.
- I've noticed this
button with number three,
so it makes that eagle of your regiment.
- Oh certainly my heart is pounding,
and that's why for me it's of course,
emotionally, looking at it and saying,
"I know my regimental
history says we didn't lose it,"
and then when you see it,
then you go, (Dmitry laughs)
(sucks in air) "I don't know."
Some mystery is there.
- [Colm] Victor needs
to take a closer look.
Because the eagle is too
precious to be removed
from its case, Victor and Dmitry decide
to take some high-definition photographs.
They hope to capture details
that are invisible to the naked eye.
On a computer monitor they examine
the image in a magnified view.
- Maybe on the closeups we can,
there we go.
- [Dmitry] Yeah.
- [Colm] At this point,
the two men make a surprising discovery.
- There was something
that was then scratched off.
- With the lighting... - I really see
that there's... - Oh, that's five.
- And I think that's definitely a
one. - One.
- [Victor] That's nice.
- [Dmitry] Definitely a
not-authentic number.
- [Colm] The men are stunned.
The original number was not three, but 15.
Dmitry suspects that
someone assembled the eagle
and its number from available parts.
- And my guess would
be that they had an eagle
with a damaged number for it, 15.
And they had an authentic number three
and put it on the base of the eagle
to make it look more authentic
than with a broken numbers.
- Yeah.
- [Colm] Victor knows
that there were several
Napoleonic regiments with the number 15.
One 15th Regiment served in Russia
(gun cracks)
and was decimated during Napoleon's
final defeat at Waterloo.
But when the regiment was disbanded,
its eagle was destroyed.
There is no record that any 15th Regiment
ever lost its eagle.
Victor and Dmitry have solved one mystery,
only to reveal another.
- I'm much relieved
that it's not my regiment
that lost its eagle, but
still, to be able to see
200 years of history there
is very moving.
If I was someone from the 15th
who happened to be touring through,
I'd like to know where it
came from, how it got there,
but with the few eagles
still existing in the world,
they now represent all the French armies
that fought during that period.
So today it really doesn't matter
whether it's the Third
or the 15th, whatever.
The respect that the men held for it,
that the men died for it,
followed it, is still there.
So it's no less valuable,
and anyone seeing the eagle
should be proud of that
type of heroic determination.
- [Colm] Next on Museum Secrets,
a revolutionary Rolls Royce.
(dramatic music)
Moscow's State Historical
Museum makes no secret
of the opulent lifestyle of the tsars.
Over the centuries that they ruled,
the tsars acquired enormous wealth.
But all this ended with the
Communist Revolution of 1917.
After the execution of Tsar Nicholas,
the culture of excess was replaced
by the classless equality
of the Soviet state.
And that makes one of
the museum's acquisitions
a little strange.
It's the only artifact with fog lamps
and an all-leather interior.
- It's a Rolls Royce
car, Silver Ghost model.
- [Colm] This luxury vehicle
was owned by communist
leader Vladimir Lenin.
- Lenin used this car for
traveling around Moscow,
to the suburbs of Moscow
and the surroundings.
Of course it was very
convenient for Lenin, I think,
to make speeches and
to have some discussions,
maybe with people who
gathered around the cars
in the Red Square or
in the streets of Moscow.
(male operatic singing in foreign language)
- [Colm] Lenin declared
that revolutionaries must guard
against bourgeois tendencies.
(male operatic singing in foreign language)
So why did Lenin own a Rolls?
That's our museum secret.
The investigation begins at Moscow's
premier Rolls Royce showroom.
Until the fall of the Soviet Union,
there were no dealerships in Russia,
but perhaps a visiting
salesperson convinced Lenin
that the Rolls was his kind of car.
- People who buy Rolls Royces
are definitely very successful people.
- [Colm] So far, so good.
Lenin was definitely a
successful revolutionary.
- And they don't want any compromises.
- [Colm] That sounds like Lenin too.
When counter-revolutionaries
challenged him,
he started a bloody civil war.
Definitely not a compromiser.
(guns fire)
- Of course, these people
can afford to buy the best.
- [Colm] That part
doesn't sound like Lenin.
He wasn't a rich man.
But early on in the revolution,
his Bolsheviks had
liberated the tsar's gold
and the tsar's collection
of fine automobiles.
- There were about 40
motorcars in the tsarist garage,
and it seems that even
the communist leaders
were not against such cars.
- [Colm] So perhaps Lenin owned this Rolls
because he got it for free.
To be certain, we'll need to prove
that Tsar Nicholas was the original owner.
- Unfortunately, we haven't
got the original documents.
But if we speak about our
car and about its identity,
we have got the chassis number,
and the chassis number is fixed
to the front of the
dashboard, under the bonnet.
- [Colm] 17KG is clearly visible.
But with a car this old,
it would be surprising
if the chassis number could be traced.
Or maybe not.
- Rolls Royce keeps records on all the cars
of previous years to track those cars
that have wonderful history behind them.
- [Colm] Incredibly, a request
to head office elicits
the original bill of sale.
The purchaser was not Tsar Nicholas,
but an emissary of Vladimir Lenin.
The date is 1922.
(bell crashes)
In the years following
the bloody revolution,
all industrial nations imposed an embargo,
forbidding trade with the
Russian communist state.
So how did Lenin manage to do business
with a British car maker?
A clue lies not in cars, but planes.
Rolls Royce made the best
engines for bomber planes,
and Lenin needed them for his war machine.
Lenin asked the British
to break the embargo.
He knew that Britain
was mired in depression,
with idle factories and hungry workers.
British leaders held their noses
and allowed Lenin to buy several
of their most advanced airplane engines.
To sweeten the deal, Lenin was given
a 15% discount on something else.
A Rolls Royce automobile.
The Rolls Royce plane engines helped Lenin
and his Bolsheviks win the civil war
and impose a brutal totalitarian state.
But the question remains,
should he have kept the car?
- Of course not.
Lenin was our leader of communist party,
and the motto of that party was
that all people have to be equal.
He should've done something
that the whole country
is driving Rolls Royces. (laughs)
(male operatic singing in foreign language)
- [Colm] In this place
where power and piety meet,
for every mystery we reveal,
far more must remain unspoken.
Secrets of sacrifice and strategy
hidden in plain sight
inside Moscow's State Historical Museum.
(doors bang)
(mysterious instrumental music)
- [Colm] Red Square, a
place of power and piety,
and at its heart, a museum
with secrets dark and strange.
A terrible Ivan,
(weapon explodes)
a revolutionary Rolls Royce,
Napoleon's most shameful dishonor,
(cannons booming)
and the lost art of winning a lethal game.
(gun blasts)
Secrets hidden in plain sight
inside Moscow's State Historical Museum.
(suspenseful music)
(mysterious music)
From the Stone Age to the modern day,
the State Historical Museum of Moscow
tells the story of Russia and her people.
The 19th century gallery
is filled with artifacts
that speak of wealth,
nobility, and sudden death.
This is the museum's
collection of dueling pistols.
It's one of the largest
of its kind in the world
and is never seen by the public.
(speaks in foreign language)
The pistols are ornate,
almost works of art.
That's because they were
made only for a select few.
In 19th century Russia,
pistol duels were the preferred
method of settling disputes
among the noble class.
(gun cracks and man grunts
and thuds on the ground)
By 1715, dueling had become so popular,
it was killing off many
members of Russian aristocracy.
The tsar outlawed the
practice, declaring it foolish.
But not all duelists were fools.
The brilliant writer and
poet Alexander Pushkin
is considered to be the
father of Russian literature.
But in his own time, Pushkin
was notorious for fighting duels.
(people talking)
A nobleman with a sharp
tongue (glove slaps),
he was often challenged by other nobles
who claimed he had offended
their honor. (glove slaps)
(speaks in foreign language)
The offended nobles came
to the dueling field angry,
while Pushkin maintained his cool.
(gun cracks, man grunts)
28 times he faced a hotheaded opponent,
and 28 times he survived.
(gun cracks, man gasps)
But his 29th duel cost him his life.
What went wrong?
That is our museum secret.
Our investigation starts here,
on a gun range just outside Moscow.
Russian historian and
author Alexei Vostrokov
is eager to reenact Pushkin's last duel.
But before he can do that,
he'll need to learn to shoot.
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Andrey] Okay, this is our pistol.
- [Colm] Military historian
Andrey Schildbach
has brought a replica of
the type of dueling pistol
that Pushkin would have used.
- [Andrey] Now we start loading it.
(powder rattles)
We make sure that the
powder is compact enough.
We are ready to shoot,
but first don't forget to put...
- [Colm] Of course, the best way
to survive a duel is not to fight one.
But in a society where honor was paramount,
that wasn't always an option.
(old-style Russian music)
A nobleman's honor was in the greatest
danger at social occasions.
Fancy dress balls were
rife with sexual tension,
often instigated by men,
but sometimes the flames
of jealousy were fanned by women.
Pushkin's wife Natalia
was a notorious flirt.
At a public function, he
caught her enjoying the attention
of a handsome French
officer, George D'Anthes.
Hurt and enraged, Pushkin
challenged D'Anthes to a duel.
(glove slaps and man gasps)
Back at the gun range,
Alexei is making slow progress.
- [Andrey] And the
recoil will be quite strong.
(drum roll)
(gun blasts)
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Colm] Determined to
channel Pushkin's cool,
Alexei collects his nerves
and steadies his hand.
(hammer clicks)
(speaks in foreign language)
(gun blasts)
(blows)
Andrey has brought along
an opponent for Alexei,
champion marksman Alexander Lebedev.
(speaking in foreign language)
Like the duelists of Pushkin's era,
Alexei and Alexander will face each other
in a secluded area.
(speaks in foreign language)
But for the purposes of our demonstration,
they will not fire lead
balls at each other.
Instead, they are each equipped
with a modern air gun that
shoots a single paintball.
(speaking in foreign language)
In accordance with 19th century rules,
the opponents will begin 20 paces apart.
At five paces, there is a line
that neither man is allowed to cross.
(speaks in foreign language)
Lowering a handkerchief will signal
the beginning of the duel.
The duelists then have a choice.
They can take their shot immediately
or wait until they move
closer to their opponent.
(suspenseful music)
When Pushkin dueled with
D'Anthes, he was filled with rage.
He charged the line,
hoping to score a kill shot
at close range. (gun cracks)
But his anger-fueled plan failed.
D'Anthes fired first, scoring a direct hit
to Pushkin's midsection. (man groans)
On the modern gun range,
Alexei and Alexander take their positions.
(speaking in foreign language)
(footsteps crunching)
(gun pops)
(suspenseful music)
- Are you wounded?
(speaking in foreign language)
(groaning)
As Pushkin lay wounded,
he struggled to take his shot.
D'Anthes did the honorable thing
by standing still while Pushkin fired.
(gun cracks)
He received only a flesh wound.
Two days later, Pushkin
would die of his injuries.
The greatest writer in Russia,
killed because he lost
his cool in his 29th duel.
(speaks in foreign language)
Up next, the secret of a Stone Age grave.
(dramatic music)
(gentle, mysterious music)
In Moscow's State Historical Museum,
one can stroll back through time,
all the way to the Stone Age.
Here in a gallery dedicated
to Russia's earliest
inhabitants, there is
something haunting and strange.
The skeletons of a boy and a girl
that were buried
head-to-head in a single grave.
Their remains were
unearthed not far from Moscow,
where they had laid
undisturbed for over 20,000 years.
Both children were covered with beads
that numbered in the thousands.
Why they were buried this way,
and why they died so
young, is a museum secret.
Our investigation begins
the town of Zaraysk,
160 kilometers south of Moscow,
in the region where the
children lived their brief lives.
In the shadow of a 500-year-old castle,
there is a 23,000-year-old
Stone Age settlement.
Here, archeologist Sergey Lev leads a team
that has uncovered a wealth of evidence
about how early humans lived and died.
- In prehistoric times, they were hunting.
That was a perfect view on a valley,
and they can see animals walking there.
And the site is rich,
very much, in artifacts.
Very, very many.
Now the collection is
coming to one million pieces.
- [Colm] Along with flint tools and knives,
the team has discovered a fertility goddess
and a talisman of the natural world.
- We see the most
impressive object is here.
It is the bison figurine.
From the other side, there is traces
of red ochre, symbolizing blood.
And we think it is a real
magic ritual linked with hunting.
- [Colm] The bison is
carved from the same material
as the beads from the children's grave.
Ivory from the tusk of a wooly mammoth.
During the Stone Age, wooly mammoths
were by far the biggest
game, as heavy as a bus,
with tusks five meters long.
In the museum, above the children's bones,
a panorama depicts the long-held theory
that hunters killed mammoths
by driving them into giant pits.
(tribal music)
(people shouting)
(mammoth roaring)
Sergey believes the illustration
is out of step with recent discoveries.
- From modern point of
view, it looks a little bit fantastic
because first, if it is permafrost,
it is quite hard to dig in it.
And you can imagine the size of mammoth
and what size of pit it should be.
So maybe after one year of work (chuckles),
they will succeed, but how
they will put mammoth inside?
(laughs)
So summary, this theory doesn't work.
- [Colm] Sergey has found evidence
that the pits were actually dwellings,
roofed with mammoth bones and hides.
- It means that it was
very, very, very much
important in their life.
They used them for
constructions, they used them
for producing tools, and probably for food.
- [Colm] The latest research suggests
that mammoths were
brought down with spears.
In the treeless tundra,
some spears were made
from mammoth tusks that
were straightened over a flame.
Such spears were found
in the children's grave.
This could mean that the
children took part in a hunt
and were killed by misadventure,
(mammoth roars)
crushed or gored by a wounded beast.
If so, their bones may tell the story.
Recently at Moscow's
archeological forensic laboratory,
Dr. Maria Mednikova ran a battery of tests.
- Concerning these
remains, we haven't found
indications of trauma in this case.
- [Colm] But while none
of the children's bones
were broken, their teeth
show something unexpected.
- We can notice such transversal lines
on the anterior teeth.
Here and over here they are visible.
That means that growth of those children
was interrupted by some
strong hunger, starvation.
- [Colm] This suggests that in the region
where the children lived,
game was becoming scarce.
As hunger and desperation grew,
their tribe may have appealed
to a higher power for help.
That brings us back to the thousands
of beads in the children's grave.
Researchers have determined
that each bead took at
least an hour to make.
The enormous effort suggests
an extraordinary purpose.
- They were decorated
in special, rich manner
to send some message
to another world, to God.
- [Colm] Maria can't say
how the children died,
but she believes she knows why.
- Such young people,
they were very important
for their society because
they were just close to be adult,
and they were hope of society.
They could be a gift for some gods,
so they could be sacrificed.
- [Colm] Covered in beads of ivory,
a boy and girl were sent into the hereafter
so that their tribe could
continue to walk the earth.
(somber music)
Next on Museum Secrets, the
secret of a winged horseman.
(dramatic music)
(marching band music)
Today, just outside the
State Historical Museum
in Red Square, Russia and
Poland will meet in battle.
In this annual military band competition,
Poland and Russia vie for top honors.
Today their rivalry is all good fun,
but in the 17th century, Poland and Russia
were at each other's throats (cannon booms)
in a bloody struggle for
supremacy in Eastern Europe.
(soldiers shouting)
And at the forefront of this conflict,
a warrior both dark and strange.
(speaks in foreign language)
For nearly two centuries,
Poland's Winged Hussars
were undefeated across
the battlefields of Europe
and the most feared army in the land.
The reason why is our museum secret.
(ominous music)
(buckles clicking)
To investigate, we've come to the ranch
of Hussar enthusiast and
proud Polish-American Rik Fox.
The purpose of the wings has baffled
and divided historians for centuries.
Some believe that the
wings made a hissing sound
and that the hissing of a thousand wings
would've terrified the enemy.
Did a frightening sound
give Polish Hussars the edge?
- There's lots of legends about the wings.
Some say that they made noise.
Some say they vibrated.
My wings have, on rare occasions,
have made a buzzing sound.
They've scared horses that were nearby,
so we know that to be true.
I've never actually had myself mic'ed.
We've never done a setup like this before
to try and see if we can replicate it.
(reverberation distorts speech)
- [Colm] With the aid of a
sensitive sound recorder,
- [Man] Recording now.
- [Colm] Rik hopes to capture any sound
the wings might make and
put the age-old debate to rest.
(horse whinnies)
(quiet, suspenseful music)
(horse's hooves crunch)
- [Rik] Okay, so, we
got the recording here.
I'm gonna take a listen
and see what we got.
- Couldn't really hear anything.
Why don't you take... Do you hear anything?
- I hear a lot of wind, just ambient noise,
wind, flags, horse, and armor.
- Yeah.
- I can't hear the wings.
And of course I'm sitting
in front of the feathers,
and I didn't hear anything today, so.
- No.
It's unfortunate.
Would've liked to hear it.
- Hate to put a pin in the
romantic balloon of the legend,
but there's more going
on on the battlefield
by real sounds of war
that are gonna overshadow
any sounds that the wings may have made.
- [Colm] If it wasn't sound
that terrified their enemies,
then what could it have been?
Rik thinks the answer lies in something
that every Hussar carried into battle.
- The signature weapon of
the Hussars was the lance,
in Polish called (speaks
in foreign language).
They were hollowed out for lightness.
They were designed to
impale and shatter on impact.
And it was, it's a terrifying weapon.
- [Colm] While Russian
infantrymen had pikes
that were 15 feet long, the
Hussars' lances measured 20.
So in a battle with a Russian adversary,
a Polish Hussar could impale his target
five feet before his enemy could reach him.
(suspenseful music)
(lance crashing into target)
As lances go, the Hussars'
weapon was highly effective.
But by the 17th century,
both Russia and Poland
were fielding regiments
of armored musketeers.
(guns blasting)
You might think that muskets
would've stopped the
Hussars in their tracks.
But they didn't.
- Those weapons were not rifled.
They weren't accurate.
It was a ball, didn't always fit perfectly.
Powder consistency wasn't always right on.
It was hit and miss.
- [Colm] Unlike the
plodding Russian infantry,
the Winged Hussars were lightning fast.
- The Hussars would start at a walk,
then they would work their way to a trot,
the enemy would fire a salvo,
and within that moment
of going from trot to canter
to gallop, Hussars would
pretty much cross the field
in moments before the
muskets could actually hit them.
- [Colm] With speed,
precision, and sheer force,
the Hussars easily smashed
through Russian infantry columns.
And there was one more thing
that assured their victory in battle.
- To see a charge coming at you,
several hundred or several thousand,
the ground shook like an earthquake,
and through the smoke and musket,
the powder burning and clouds
of gunsmoke in front of you,
and you would start to see
the tops of the lance pennants
coming towards you, and the
wings, those spectacular wings,
you knew there was not gonna
be too many guys with dry pants
because to receive a charge
from the Hussars is death.
- [Colm] And that's why
every Russian soldier
feared the angels of
death of the battlefield,
the Polish Winged Hussars.
It would take several
centuries for conflict
between Russia and Poland to be reduced
from violence on the battlefield
to a battle of the bands.
(marching band music)
Up next, the secrets of Ivan the Terrible.
(dramatic music)
(lighthearted Russian music)
Just outside Moscow's
State Historical Museum,
tourists pose with
lookalikes from Russia's past.
Tsar Nicholas II,
Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin.
This woman looks unafraid.
Perhaps that's because she doesn't know
that she's posing with Ivan the Terrible.
Inside the museum,
Ivan has an entire gallery
all to himself.
(ominous music)
(speaks in foreign language)
- [Colm] The case contains several books
in Ivan's own handwriting,
and above them is this.
(speaks in foreign language)
Hair shirts were often worn by monks
who hoped to show remorse for their sins
by suffering extreme pain.
(speaks in foreign language)
(firebomb wooshing)
(people shouting)
Why would Ivan the
Terrible, powerful leader
and notorious tyrant, want to wear this?
How did Ivan the Terrible
become Ivan the Remorseful?
That is our museum secret.
The story begins in 1547, as a young Ivan
is crowned the first tsar of Russia.
(coins clinking)
He came to power at a time
when Russia's noble class,
the boyars, were agitating
for a larger share of power.
(speaks in foreign language)
Some may have believed
that Ivan would be a pushover.
They were wrong.
The new tsar sought to unify
and modernize his nation,
protecting the borders by creating
a people's army, known as the streltsy.
Ivan was a complicated man.
He was an avid chess player who brought
careful calculation into everything he did.
He was also deeply religious.
Like his subjects, he believed
that even the smallest sin
could lead to eternal damnation.
He felt that his subjects would
be more likely to follow him
if they understood the
depth of his religious devotion.
To prove his piety, he built the church
that has become an icon of Russia itself,
St Basil's Cathedral.
(singing in foreign language)
- Ivan the Terrible believed that God was
on his side because he God, as he believed,
gives him a power to rule the country.
That was his mission.
(singing in foreign language)
- [Colm] Believing he
should answer to God alone,
Ivan proposed laws that
would give him absolute power.
The boyars resisted, insisting
that Ivan rule by consensus.
Instead of leading an
army against the boyars,
Ivan made an unexpected move.
He left his palace in
Moscow to take up residence
in the village of Aleksandrova Sloboda.
Historian Larissa Zaraskaya
believes this was a brilliant tactic.
(speaks in foreign language)
Ivan knew that the boyars would realize
that they couldn't rule Russia without him,
and soon they begged him to come back.
Ivan agreed to return on condition
that the boyars accede to
his demand to absolute power
and that he be allowed to
command his own secret police.
Ivan ordered them to
identify and arrest anyone
who might pose a threat to his rule.
His methods were ruthless and terrifying.
(door clangs and creaks)
And when suspected traitors wouldn't talk,
Ivan had them brought here.
(speaks in foreign language)
Under Ivan's direction, his secret police
extracted information and confessions
through brutality and torture.
(screaming)
Victims were flayed
alive and boiled in oil.
(screaming)
Often their agony lasted for days.
Ivan's methods cemented his power,
(cannons boom)
giving him the authority to launch wars
that would expand and
unify the Russian state.
He would continue to use torture
to pursue his goals until,
in the 37th year of his reign,
he began to reflect on his sins.
He feared no man, but he did fear God.
- He was very religious.
He knew that he would like
to enter paradise someday,
and he knew that he was very severe,
and a lot of people
were brought into prison
and were killed according to his order,
and as a religious man, he started
to be prepared for this new afterlife.
- [Colm] In an attempt to appease God,
Ivan ordered the creation of this,
a synodic, a Russian book of the dead.
(speaks in foreign language)
For each name, a prayer was to be given
to soothe the souls of those
who perished under Ivan.
(speaks in foreign language)
But Ivan worried that it wasn't enough.
He'd forgotten many of his victims' names.
(speaks in foreign language)
And so, tormented still,
Ivan turned to the garment
that would make him
penitent in the eyes of God.
And legend has it that for
the remainder of his days,
Ivan wore only the hair shirt.
And that's because Ivan the Terrible
had become Ivan the Remorseful.
Up next, (cannons boom)
the secret of Napoleon's eagle.
(dramatic music)
(military-style drum music)
The newest wing of the
State Historical Museum
is dedicated to Napoleon's
invasion of Russia.
Or, as it's known to Russians,
the Patriotic War of 1812.
The collection celebrates one
of Russia's greatest victories
and one of Napoleon's worst defeats.
(cannons and guns blasting)
Every year, thousands of
reenactors come to Russia
to commemorate the Battle of Borodino,
Napoleon's army's bloodiest day.
The reenactors pride
themselves on authenticity,
from their uniforms to their weapons
to this, the French Imperial Eagle.
The eagle was a sacred emblem
that every French
regiment carried into battle.
(soldiers shouting)
French soldiers swore
to defend it to the death.
Inside the State Historical Museum
is an Imperial Eagle of
the Third French Regiment,
one of the few surviving
examples in the world.
But this eagle should not be here.
The reason why is a museum secret.
The secret has brought Victor Eiser
to Russia from his home in Canada.
Victor is the president of a Montreal-based
reenactment group called
(gun cracks) Brigade Napoleon.
He's here as a member
of the Imperial Guard,
but he's also a soldier
of the Third Regiment.
That gives him a special
interest in the museum's eagle.
- The eagle represents our regiment
and has our number on it.
We follow it, and even in a reenactment
when we have a mock
battle, the eagle is protected.
If you lost your eagle, it
was a terrible disgrace.
(guns blasting)
The interesting thing about reenactors,
when we don the uniforms, we feel younger,
and we feel passionate.
We're proud of our
regiment, so just as the eagle
was life and death to the
regiments 200 years ago,
we feel very much the same way.
So when I heard that there was an eagle
in Moscow, I was interested,
but when it was described
as Third of the Line,
I suddenly questioned how that could be.
As far as we know, we
never lost an eagle in battle.
- [Colm] The Third French Infantry was one
of the most illustrious
regiments in Napoleon's army.
Its soldiers were often
bloodied but never defeated,
and according to the regiment's records,
they never left an eagle behind.
(guns blasting)
- The possibility to go and
see the eagle with my own eyes
and try and resolve the discrepancy
between the history I know
and whatever background history
they have on their eagle is essential.
I can't go home without that.
(people talking)
- [Colm] Victor's next
stop, the 1812 gallery.
He's going to examine the museum's eagle
with the help of curator Dmitry Ozerkov.
- So here is the famous eagle.
- Ah.
- [Dmitry] That's definitely eagle
of the Third Regiment of the Line.
- This is what I've come so far to see.
- I've noticed this
button with number three,
so it makes that eagle of your regiment.
- Oh certainly my heart is pounding,
and that's why for me it's of course,
emotionally, looking at it and saying,
"I know my regimental
history says we didn't lose it,"
and then when you see it,
then you go, (Dmitry laughs)
(sucks in air) "I don't know."
Some mystery is there.
- [Colm] Victor needs
to take a closer look.
Because the eagle is too
precious to be removed
from its case, Victor and Dmitry decide
to take some high-definition photographs.
They hope to capture details
that are invisible to the naked eye.
On a computer monitor they examine
the image in a magnified view.
- Maybe on the closeups we can,
there we go.
- [Dmitry] Yeah.
- [Colm] At this point,
the two men make a surprising discovery.
- There was something
that was then scratched off.
- With the lighting... - I really see
that there's... - Oh, that's five.
- And I think that's definitely a
one. - One.
- [Victor] That's nice.
- [Dmitry] Definitely a
not-authentic number.
- [Colm] The men are stunned.
The original number was not three, but 15.
Dmitry suspects that
someone assembled the eagle
and its number from available parts.
- And my guess would
be that they had an eagle
with a damaged number for it, 15.
And they had an authentic number three
and put it on the base of the eagle
to make it look more authentic
than with a broken numbers.
- Yeah.
- [Colm] Victor knows
that there were several
Napoleonic regiments with the number 15.
One 15th Regiment served in Russia
(gun cracks)
and was decimated during Napoleon's
final defeat at Waterloo.
But when the regiment was disbanded,
its eagle was destroyed.
There is no record that any 15th Regiment
ever lost its eagle.
Victor and Dmitry have solved one mystery,
only to reveal another.
- I'm much relieved
that it's not my regiment
that lost its eagle, but
still, to be able to see
200 years of history there
is very moving.
If I was someone from the 15th
who happened to be touring through,
I'd like to know where it
came from, how it got there,
but with the few eagles
still existing in the world,
they now represent all the French armies
that fought during that period.
So today it really doesn't matter
whether it's the Third
or the 15th, whatever.
The respect that the men held for it,
that the men died for it,
followed it, is still there.
So it's no less valuable,
and anyone seeing the eagle
should be proud of that
type of heroic determination.
- [Colm] Next on Museum Secrets,
a revolutionary Rolls Royce.
(dramatic music)
Moscow's State Historical
Museum makes no secret
of the opulent lifestyle of the tsars.
Over the centuries that they ruled,
the tsars acquired enormous wealth.
But all this ended with the
Communist Revolution of 1917.
After the execution of Tsar Nicholas,
the culture of excess was replaced
by the classless equality
of the Soviet state.
And that makes one of
the museum's acquisitions
a little strange.
It's the only artifact with fog lamps
and an all-leather interior.
- It's a Rolls Royce
car, Silver Ghost model.
- [Colm] This luxury vehicle
was owned by communist
leader Vladimir Lenin.
- Lenin used this car for
traveling around Moscow,
to the suburbs of Moscow
and the surroundings.
Of course it was very
convenient for Lenin, I think,
to make speeches and
to have some discussions,
maybe with people who
gathered around the cars
in the Red Square or
in the streets of Moscow.
(male operatic singing in foreign language)
- [Colm] Lenin declared
that revolutionaries must guard
against bourgeois tendencies.
(male operatic singing in foreign language)
So why did Lenin own a Rolls?
That's our museum secret.
The investigation begins at Moscow's
premier Rolls Royce showroom.
Until the fall of the Soviet Union,
there were no dealerships in Russia,
but perhaps a visiting
salesperson convinced Lenin
that the Rolls was his kind of car.
- People who buy Rolls Royces
are definitely very successful people.
- [Colm] So far, so good.
Lenin was definitely a
successful revolutionary.
- And they don't want any compromises.
- [Colm] That sounds like Lenin too.
When counter-revolutionaries
challenged him,
he started a bloody civil war.
Definitely not a compromiser.
(guns fire)
- Of course, these people
can afford to buy the best.
- [Colm] That part
doesn't sound like Lenin.
He wasn't a rich man.
But early on in the revolution,
his Bolsheviks had
liberated the tsar's gold
and the tsar's collection
of fine automobiles.
- There were about 40
motorcars in the tsarist garage,
and it seems that even
the communist leaders
were not against such cars.
- [Colm] So perhaps Lenin owned this Rolls
because he got it for free.
To be certain, we'll need to prove
that Tsar Nicholas was the original owner.
- Unfortunately, we haven't
got the original documents.
But if we speak about our
car and about its identity,
we have got the chassis number,
and the chassis number is fixed
to the front of the
dashboard, under the bonnet.
- [Colm] 17KG is clearly visible.
But with a car this old,
it would be surprising
if the chassis number could be traced.
Or maybe not.
- Rolls Royce keeps records on all the cars
of previous years to track those cars
that have wonderful history behind them.
- [Colm] Incredibly, a request
to head office elicits
the original bill of sale.
The purchaser was not Tsar Nicholas,
but an emissary of Vladimir Lenin.
The date is 1922.
(bell crashes)
In the years following
the bloody revolution,
all industrial nations imposed an embargo,
forbidding trade with the
Russian communist state.
So how did Lenin manage to do business
with a British car maker?
A clue lies not in cars, but planes.
Rolls Royce made the best
engines for bomber planes,
and Lenin needed them for his war machine.
Lenin asked the British
to break the embargo.
He knew that Britain
was mired in depression,
with idle factories and hungry workers.
British leaders held their noses
and allowed Lenin to buy several
of their most advanced airplane engines.
To sweeten the deal, Lenin was given
a 15% discount on something else.
A Rolls Royce automobile.
The Rolls Royce plane engines helped Lenin
and his Bolsheviks win the civil war
and impose a brutal totalitarian state.
But the question remains,
should he have kept the car?
- Of course not.
Lenin was our leader of communist party,
and the motto of that party was
that all people have to be equal.
He should've done something
that the whole country
is driving Rolls Royces. (laughs)
(male operatic singing in foreign language)
- [Colm] In this place
where power and piety meet,
for every mystery we reveal,
far more must remain unspoken.
Secrets of sacrifice and strategy
hidden in plain sight
inside Moscow's State Historical Museum.
(doors bang)
(mysterious instrumental music)