BBC: The Lost World of Communism English Subtitles

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Private images from a lost world
of communism in Eastern Europe.

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The communists claimed they
were building a socialist paradise.

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Most people think they
created hell on earth.

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But what was life really like for
the people of Eastern Europe?

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Effectively imprisoned
behind the iron curtain.

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The answers are
sometimes surprising.

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While some cannot forget
the abnormality of those times,

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others feel that they led
perfectly ordinary lives.

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Mass games at the
Strahov Stadium, Prague,

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in communist Czechoslovakia.

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Here in the heart of Europe,

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Czechs and Slovaks were part of
an experiment to change the world.

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The communists sought
a new kind of society

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and a new kind of human being.

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They sought to erase the past
and reprogram the nation's memory.

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Popular attempts to reform
the system were brutally crushed

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in an invasion by

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This is the story of a
happily married couple.

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Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu.

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Who together ruled Romania
for nearly a quarter of a century.

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Romanians sarcastically called
this "socialism in one family".

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The concentration of
power in their hands

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and the cult of personality
which surrounded them

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was quite different from the other
communist countries in Europe.

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Even the private lives of Romanians
were targeted by the Ceausescus.

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