01x04 - Control the Truth

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] What is truth?

[all] I do solemnly swear--

[narrator] As children, we learn

that some facts are beyond dispute.

But if you're a tyrant

operating in a chaotic world,

the truth…

[g*n blasts]

…is often inconvenient.

[woman] Truth is a problem

for an authoritarian or strongman

because truth invites debate.

Truth suggests that we can question

the stories that we're being given.

[narrator] Few tyrants fought the w*r

on truth as relentlessly as this man:

Joseph Stalin…

[machine g*n fires]

…who used propaganda,

disinformation, and other clever tricks

to maintain total control

over the vast Soviet Union.

Stalin gave people

the foundation of their reality.

It's very simple:

if it preserves the interests

of the Revolution, it is true.

[narrator] By mastering the playbook,

Stalin didn't just control

his people's lives…

[in Russian] There's no longer

any so-called "freedom of the person."

[narrator] …he controlled their minds.

During Stalin's three-decade reign

over the Soviet Union,

he crushed all institutions that dared

challenge the power of the state.

To understand how he pulled that off,

you first need to know

key facts about the man himself.

[man] Stalin was born Ioseb Dzhugashvili

in a small Georgian town, Gori,

on the periphery of the Russian Empire.

Later in life,

he decides to take the name Stalin.

Stalin comes from the Russian word stal,

which means "steel."

[narrator] In his early 20s,

Stalin joined up with the Bolsheviks,

Marxist rebels looking to overthrow

the Russian government.

[Ronald] They engaged in violence.

Stalin himself was the leader

of a small t*rror1st g*ng.

[narrator] Stalin is arrested

multiple times and sent to Siberia,

but he escapes and rejoins the cause.

Those who survived, hardened.

They became tough.

[man] Stalin got Lenin's attention

because of his simple ability

to get things done.

[narrator] When the Bolsheviks

take power in 1917,

Lenin puts Stalin in charge of

a key government ministry.

In 1922, Stalin's named

General Secretary of the Communist Party,

which was, at the time,

a bureaucratic position.

[man] Others contemptuously dismissed

him as nothing but a paper pusher.

That was a plot

that Stalin deliberately cultivated

so that people would not find him

to be a threat.

[narrator]

So that's how Stalin got himself

into a position of power and influence.

But to rise to the level of tyrant,

he still had to outmaneuver his rivals

and outrun his past.

Luckily, the playbook has

the perfect tactic

for wiping the slate clean.

[jovial music plays]

Someone once said, "He who controls

the past controls the future."

[Jonathan]

Stalin was a student of history.

He recognizes that you can't just sit back

and wait for the laws of history

to work themselves out.

It has to be imposed.

[narrator]True for Stalin

and these guys as well.

In an effort

to restore national pride under his rule,

Hitler ordered the n*zi high command

to destroy World w*r I memorials

in occupied Europe,

erasing evidence of Germany's past defeat.

The Kim regime in North Korea insists

that South Korea fired the first shots

in the Korean w*r,

when in truth it began

when the North Koreans invaded Seoul,

while Mao Zedong firmly denied

that any Chinese citizens starved

as a result of his Great Leap Forward,

despite evidence

that the famine k*lled up to 45 million.

[machine g*n fires]

By 1923,

Vladimir Lenin's health is failing.

Stalin, along with fellow officials

Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev,

are appointed to rule over the country.

Meanwhile, Stalin is

already planning his next moves.

Stalin had to demonstrate

that he was the heir of Lenin's,

that they shared visions.

[narrator] But he has one small problem.

Towards the end of his life,

Lenin was suspicious of Stalin.

[Jonathan] He says, "Stalin is too rude.

He is too intolerant."

"If he is allowed to continue,

I fear that he will divide the party."

[narrator] January 1924.

Lenin is lying on death's door.

So now, Stalin begins the process

of giving their relationship

a more productive spin.

After Lenin passes on,

Stalin immediately takes charge,

planning his funeral.

Stalin begins giving passionate lectures

on Leninist philosophy.

He authorizes the building

of a mausoleum for Lenin

in the middle of Red Square.

And to prove their tight, personal bond,

Stalin circulates

a private photo of himself and Lenin.

But first,

he has retouchers blow up his figure

so that Lenin recedes

beside his heir apparent

and push them more closely together.

As a bonus,

they smooth Stalin's complexion,

marked by a childhood bout with smallpox,

and lengthen his arm,

damaged by a childhood carriage accident.

It's one of history's first Photoshops.

Stalin's many efforts to reframe

his relationship with Lenin pay off.

Over the next five years,

Stalin fortifies his position

atop the Soviet government,

sidelining all competition

on his path to absolute power.

He became

the sole leader of the Soviet Union.

And from then on, Stalin produced

his own history of the Communist Party,

and everyone was taught

that view of history.

[narrator] But doctoring the past

will only get you so far

if your people have access to other,

more current sources of information.

If you're really going to win

the w*r on truth,

you're just getting started.

[machinery whirring]

One of the most powerful tools

that any leader has

is who controls information.

[woman] When you can actually shut down

channels for information,

then you can press one preferred narrative

and make that the reality

that your citizens live in.

[narrator] Stalin didn't have to

do this all by himself.

He had a head start.

Stalin had inherited

a totalitarian dictatorship.

They already had

complete control of the mass media.

And of course,

there'd been censorship under Czarism,

but it was chicken feed

compared to under Stalin.

[narrator]

And when it came to off-limits subjects,

Stalin thought of everything.

Individual incomes: out of bounds.

Price increases,

anything involving food shortages,

or generalized hunger: unspeakable.

Statistics on crime, unemployment,

or homelessness: scandalous.

Reports of natural or man-made disasters,

such as earthquakes or airplane crashes,

news of prison conditions,

ads for foreign goods.

Oh, wait, there's more.

The names of officials and their spouses,

the availability of medicine,

and anything

about the architecture of the Kremlin

or repairs to the Bolshoi Theater,

obviously.

Under Stalin,

libraries either destroyed…

[high-pitched beeping]

…or restricted

texts that the state deemed offensive,

which kept impressionable Soviet minds

safely protected

from characters like Sherlock Holmes.

Why Sherlock Holmes?

Well, Sherlock Holmes,

very much his own man.

Maybe a little too individualistic

for the collectivized mind of Stalinism.

[narrator] And Robinson Crusoe.

Robinson Crusoe's

a kind of capitalist hero.

He's entrepreneurial.

He makes do and somehow survives.

[narrator] If you think

censoring books is extreme,

wait until you see what happens

when a real crisis arrives.

In the late 1920s, to raise revenue

for the transformation of the economy,

Stalin started this major process

of reforming the Soviet agriculture,

of trying to put people

into collective farms.

[Ronald] They decided to make the peasants

the producers for the cities,

the army, and export.

And the result was famine.

[machine g*n fires]

Millions of people in Ukraine alone

were starving to death.

People turned to cannibalism.

None of that was reported in the press,

and people had no idea it was occurring.

[Arturas] Instead of admitting

that the strategy was a mistake,

he decided actually to sacrifice

these millions of lives

for what he saw was a more important goal,

which is to preserve

the existing socialist system.

[Jonathan]

So Stalin creates his own reality.

It's totally under control.

It's going to be

taken care of very shortly.

At the same time, Stalin closes off

the Ukraine from world view.

[narrator] But at the end of the day,

the vultures in the international press

are going to find their way in.

Follow the playbook

and you won't have to

deal with this problem alone.

-[lighthearted music plays]

-[machine g*n fires]

In the 1930s, many people in the West,

liberals and leftists most importantly,

thought the Soviet Union was providing

an alternative

to the capitalist Depression,

so they didn't wanna believe bad things

about the Soviet Union.

[narrator] Stalin's predecessor Lenin

reportedly had a term

for these sorts of unexpected allies:

useful idiots.

You basically exploit

a vulnerability that they have:

their ego, through money,

to get on board with your narrative,

which then lends credibility

and legitimacy to your regime.

[narrator] Stalin wasn't the only tyrant

who knew this.

Hitler had prominent early advocates

in the Duke and Duchess of Windsor

and Charles Lindbergh,

who helped elevate his image

as a statesman.

As much of the world turned against

Fidel Castro's tyranny in Cuba,

Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez

remained a close friend

and defender of his regime.

And North Korea's Kim Jong-Un

found an unlikely wingman

in former NBA superstar Dennis Rodman.

[game buzzer sounds]

[crowd cheering]

Stalin takes the tactic even further.

He invites a series

of leftist writers and thinkers,

from George Bernard Shaw

to H. G. Wells to Jean-Paul Sartre,

to see the socialist utopia

of their dreams firsthand.

But to truly sell

his version of the truth to the world,

Stalin would need to enlist

a trusted voice of authority…

like Walter Duranty.

[machine g*n fires]

Duranty had been the New York Times'

man in Moscow since 1922,

but among his fellow journalists,

Duranty was more known for his womanizing

and wooden leg than for his principles.

Rumors of Duranty's ambition

and shaky ethics

make their way to the Kremlin,

where Stalin sees

the reporter's potential…

[phone ringing]

…to help him draw attention

away from the ongoing famine.

Stalin offers Duranty

an exclusive interview at the Kremlin…

where he holds court

on the wonders of Communism

and his plan for Soviet prosperity.

Duranty is grateful for the access.

He writes glowing articles

about the Soviet leader.

Duranty is invited to visit the Ukraine,

which has been off-limits

to most foreign reporters.

They took him to Ukraine

and they selectively showed places

where there was no famine.

[birds chirping]

[narrator] But as he ventures deeper

into the countryside…

[woman crying]

…the reality becomes undeniable.

Does Duranty report the truth?

Nope.

He continues filing articles that claim

rumors of the famine are overblown.

Amazingly, Duranty's fake news reports

earned him a Pulitzer Prize,

as they shape Stalin's reputation

around the world.

Now that you've got

your censorship regime in place

and key allies

putting out PR fires abroad,

it's time to take your w*r on truth

to the next level.

And to do that, it requires you take aim

at the most sacred institution of all.

[g*n fires]

[choir vocalizing]

[rock music plays]

Religion usually answers the questions

that can't be answered.

Things like, "What's the meaning of life?"

"Why are we here?"

[narrator] But as a tyrant,

there's only room

for one source of spiritual truth…

[g*n fires]

…and God knows that's you.

Stalin wanted to see religion destroyed.

Not only because of religious doctrine

that was the opiate of the masses.

They were against the Church

because it had gold, gems,

valuable works of art.

Wealth that Stalin needed

for building the Soviet state.

[narrator]

But to turn people away from faith,

you need to do more than repress religion.

You need to replace it.

In the place of religion,

the Soviet Union provided their own dogma.

That is what they called Marxism-Leninism.

[narrator]

Instead of Christmas and Easter…

The Soviets created their own holidays.

May Day, Labor Day,

and November 7th, the anniversary

of when the Bolsheviks came to power.

[narrator]

And in place of Jesus and the saints,

Stalin's regime elevated

new Communist martyrs

for people to emulate and revere,

like this kid.

According to the story,

thirteen-year-old Pavlik Morozov was

a model student and ardent young communist

living in a small village

deep in the Ural Mountains.

But one day, during the Great Famine,

his loyalty to the state is tested.

When he discovers his father has been

hoarding grain and selling it for profit…

[coin clatters]

…young Pavlik makes the patriotic choice.

He informs on his father,

alerting the local secret police

to his crimes.

But his uncle, grandparents,

and cousin are not impressed.

They surprise young Pavlik

in the nearby forest and m*rder him.

As the Soviet newspapers spread word

of the horrendous crime,

Pavlik becomes a folk hero…

[bell tolling]

…and his relatives are ex*cuted.

Stalin makes sure Pavlik's story lives on.

His exploits are retold in songs,

plays, books, and a full-length opera.

But this heroic tale has a twist.

The story is probably false.

Since the end of the Soviet Union,

we've learned Pavlik Morozov is

an invented Soviet myth

as part of their propaganda efforts.

[narrator] But if you think that matters,

you haven't been paying attention.

When you replace religion with the state,

your truth becomes divine.

And yet, some of your people will still

stubbornly cling to another set of truths:

so-called scientific facts.

Don't worry.

You can take care of those too.

[woman] The whole culture

of science and research,

where you have objective facts

and conclusions that draw

not on ideology but factual accuracy,

is anathema to tyrants.

[narrator] Well, of course it is,

because scientists think

their truth is superior.

But that can't possibly be the case.

Spanish dictator Francisco Franco

dissolved the nation's

scientific research board

and rejected theories like evolution

that he and his party saw as incompatible

with their Christian beliefs.

Hitler and the Third Reich

strictly controlled

which areas of science could be pursued,

at one point rejecting relativity

and quantum mechanics

in favor of fields like Aryan physics.

President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia

reportedly forced

thousands of people with HIV

to refuse traditional treatments

in favor of his own personal remedy

that he claimed could eradicate the virus

within three days.

Needless to say, it did not.

Stalin's view of scientific disciplines

was in many ways dictated

by his ideological dogma.

If certain facts didn't fit that paradigm,

they could be ignored,

and scientists were incentivized

to ignore those facts.

[narrator] One guy who truly got this was

revolutionary biologist Trofim Lysenko.

[machine g*n fires]

Lysenko was sure that the solution

to the Soviet Union's

ongoing food shortages

was to apply Marxist principles to plants.

[Arturas] He did silly things.

For example, he would take grain,

and he would expose grain to cold,

thinking that future generations

of that grain will be cold-resistant.

And of course, it's completely absurd,

but he framed this idea

as being closer to the Marxist principles.

And Stalin actually really liked it.

[narrator] Stalin invites Lysenko

to speak at the Kremlin,

where Lysenko assails modern genetics,

questions the loyalty

of the nation's scientists,

and promises

that his revolutionary theories

will end hunger in the USSR forever.

[scattered cheering]

Stalin likes what he hears.

Within just a few years,

all other theories of genetics are banned,

professors removed from their positions,

and labs are shut down.

[b*mb detonates]

Anybody who protests gets rooted out.

[g*n blasts]

[Jonathan] There was a w*r that

got started within Soviet science,

Soviet biology in particular,

uh, as a consequence of this.

[narrator] In propaganda,

Stalin portrays Lysenko

as a scientific genius and revolutionary.

But in practice,

Lysenko's theories fail completely,

leading to even more death

and hardship among the Soviet people.

So naturally,

Lysenko remains in his post until 1964.

Stalin saw Lysenko's ability

to mend facts in a particular discipline

as an important expression of loyalty.

And for Stalin, this expression of loyalty

was more important

than the scientific fact itself.

[narrator] Let's check in.

After discrediting science,

destroying religion, rewriting history,

and replacing troublesome facts

with propaganda,

your w*r on truth should be bearing fruit.

But there's one more obstacle

in your path to absolute control

of your people's minds and lives:

their faith in each other.

[Asha] Connections among citizens.

This is a threat

in an authoritarian system.

There can be no principles or values

that are higher than loyalty

and obedience to the person in charge.

[narrator] Crushing this threat is going

to take a strong stomach. So buckle up.

[Stalin speaking Russian]

The phenomenon of distrust is

an exceptionally powerful tool.

If you no longer trust anyone,

you willingly give yourself

to the power of the state,

because everything else is suspect.

[narrator]You'd think after all

of Stalin's hard work fighting truth,

he'd have this in the bag,

but a tyrant's job is never done.

[Jonathan]

In 1934, the truth of the matter is

that there were still problems

for Stalin's grip on power.

All of the enemies

had not been vanquished.

[Arturas] The beginning of the process

were the show trials in Moscow

where leading figures

of the Communist Party apparatus

were put on public trial

on charges of being members

of an anti-Soviet conspiracy.

[narrator] But when it came to turning

his people against each other,

the government purges

were just the appetizer.

[Jonathan] If these heroes

of the Revolution can be traitors,

who else can be a traitor?

The conclusion is obvious: anybody.

[Arturas]

It was the general line that said,

"Look, we have mass conspiracy

against our new state."

"Now your job is to go out

and find those conspirators."

[narrator] What's a loyal citizen to do?

[Arturas]

Neighbors started denouncing neighbors.

Some children started

denouncing their parents.

[Ronald] It all swirled into

a kind of snowball of bloodletting.

[g*n fires]

The Great Terror.

[narrator] During the Great Terror,

over 750,000 people were k*lled.

And for Stalin,

it was all part of his master plan.

He wrote a memo.

If you k*ll 100 people,

and five of them

were enemies of the people,

that's not a bad ratio.

That was Stalin's model.

Doesn't matter you k*ll too many…

it matters if you k*ll too few.

[narrator] As for anyone

who might think of saying

no, the accusations

against their fellow citizens aren't true,

there's a simple answer.

True? The party decides what is true.

There is a higher truth

in these dictatorships,

and that is the truth of power.

[narrator] By redefining truth

for millions of his citizens,

Stalin maintained

a stranglehold over the Soviet Union

for another 15 years.

You'd assume after all that,

he would be remembered as a villain,

but the truth is more… complicated.

[Russian choral music plays]

[Arturas] A lot of people

do revere Stalin as a great leader.

But the massive, massive human cost

was able to transform the Soviet society

from agricultural to industrial.

If you define success

as achieving the goals,

he was very successful.

[narrator] So now you know

the secret to Stalin's epic reign.

But tyranny isn't

just about controlling minds.

It's about the power

to rebuild society in your own image.

Take it from this man, Muammar Gaddafi,

who used his singular vision

and billions in oil wealth

to turn the desert nation of Libya

into his own personal shrine.

All my people, they love me all!

[narrator] What could possibly go wrong?

[theme music plays]