1 00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:19,960 No one has yet told the true story of events currently terrifying the USSR. 2 00:01:26,540 --> 00:01:29,880 A famine appears to be killing thousands of Ukrainian peasants. 3 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:36,320 It's not due to climatic conditions, because the Soviet government has 4 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:38,280 been blessed in the last few years. 5 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:45,200 Persistent rumours suggest that this famine is being caused 6 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:46,840 by the Bolsheviks. 7 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:58,920 But why would Stalin allow Soviet citizens to die, when he claims to 8 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,160 have brought happiness and prosperity to their lives? 9 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:07,520 This is the subject of my next article. 10 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:24,160 My name is Gareth Jones. 11 00:02:25,640 --> 00:02:29,080 Until a few weeks ago, I was foreign affairs adviser to Lloyd George, 12 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:30,880 the former prime minister of Great Britain. 13 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:37,000 I'm now a journalist. 14 00:02:37,640 --> 00:02:40,360 I write for the Western Mail and will be making this journey 15 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:41,840 on their behalf. 16 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:50,200 A journey of 6,000 miles lies before me across the Europe of 1933, 17 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:53,840 a continent torn apart by national passion, class hatred and the 18 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,400 recent world economic crisis. 19 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:10,800 My mission will take me across the North Sea in Germany, 20 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:13,600 before crossing the Soviet border 21 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:16,840 and making my way to Moscow, capital of the young USSR. 22 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:21,400 I know this country well. 23 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:23,560 It's my third journey to the Soviet Union. 24 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:28,520 I want to understand this famine. 25 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:32,600 To hear from real folk, the forgotten men, 26 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:36,520 talking to them in their own language, Russian. 27 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:48,240 Having worked for Lloyd George opens doors for me. 28 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:52,520 Just before leaving for Moscow, I get a real scoop. 29 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:56,360 I'm the first foreign journalist 30 00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:59,280 to be allowed to fly in Adolf Hitler's private plane. 31 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:11,560 He's only been Reich chancellor for three weeks, and already he's causing 32 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:14,200 concern and attracting attention from around the world. 33 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:22,720 In the plane, Hitler is a few feet away. 34 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:25,160 Goebbels is just behind him. 35 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:35,240 If aeroplanes should crash, whole history of Europe would change. 36 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:45,560 How has this ordinary looking man managed to become deified 37 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:47,280 by 14 million people? 38 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:54,080 The sun glints on the engine to the left. 39 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:56,280 Hitler has fallen asleep. 40 00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:05,240 I'm about to leave Germany, where a dictatorship has just begun, 41 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,040 for the land of dictatorship by the working class. 42 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:11,720 From the country of Fascism, 43 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:15,160 I'm now on my way to the home of Bolshevism to investigate 44 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:17,120 the famine in Ukraine. 45 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,200 I'll have to be careful in Russia 46 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:24,520 because I lied to the Soviet Embassy in order to get my visa. 47 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:29,000 I didn't tell them that I no longer work for Lloyd George. 48 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:51,480 I request that you take Gareth Jones into your care as soon as he arrives 49 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:55,280 in Moscow, to afford him your full attention, and to put him in contact 50 00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:58,520 with the people and institutions whose help he will require. 51 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:12,600 I find Moscow in a disgraceful state. 52 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:17,080 Everywhere, very pale and ill crowds of people. 53 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:22,280 To hide this reality, 54 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:24,600 one of the Bolsheviks main weapons is 55 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:26,600 of course, propaganda, which 56 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:29,320 is inescapable wherever you go. 57 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:36,920 A young militant tells me: "You're a man of the past. 58 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:39,040 I'm a man of the future." 59 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:53,320 The Bolshevik continues: 60 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:56,320 "You belong to the capitalist world that is fast collapsing. 61 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:03,320 "I belong to the Communist world, which will soon triumph. 62 00:07:04,840 --> 00:07:07,720 "Look at Moscow, old and new stands 63 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:10,080 "side by side and the new is triumphing. 64 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:18,200 "The Bolshevik Revolution is building a new industrialised Russia, 65 00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:20,720 "where the machine will take the place of God. 66 00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:24,400 "We will prove to the world that communism can build a powerful, 67 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:29,920 "prosperous state, in which everyone can be happy and not go hungry." 68 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:54,000 It makes me mad to think that people come here and after being led by 69 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,720 their nose and eating their fill, they go home and say that 70 00:07:57,880 --> 00:07:59,640 the USSR is a paradise. 71 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:05,000 No one can have any idea of what is going on here, especially in the 72 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:08,720 countryside, without talking to the peasants who've travelled hundreds 73 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:12,040 and hundreds of miles to the capital, in search of bread. 74 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:21,040 In Tverskaya street, a rough, bearded 75 00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:23,200 peasant in a sheepskin coat calls out: 76 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:28,400 "In the name of God, give to me. 77 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:34,640 "I'm from Ukraine and there 'hleba niet' - there is no bread. 78 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:37,440 "We're dying." 79 00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:46,880 I decide to see for myself how the peasants are really living. 80 00:08:53,040 --> 00:08:55,480 I have a difficult task ahead. 81 00:08:56,880 --> 00:09:00,400 Journalists are not even allowed to go to the countryside 82 00:09:00,560 --> 00:09:02,160 and must stay in Moscow. 83 00:09:04,360 --> 00:09:07,480 I go to the British Embassy to ask for advice about how to travel 84 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:09,440 to Ukrainian villages. 85 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:11,840 One of the secretaries says to me: 86 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:17,400 "Don't go there, it's dangerous now there are bandits looking for food. 87 00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:22,360 "But if you really want to go, don't tell any Communist 88 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:25,560 "or you will be arrested." 89 00:09:35,630 --> 00:09:37,350 They have spread false information. 90 00:09:38,750 --> 00:09:41,510 We must put an end to this and prevent these gentlemen from 91 00:09:41,670 --> 00:09:43,750 travelling anywhere in the USSR. 92 00:09:43,910 --> 00:09:45,950 There are so many spies in this country. 93 00:09:52,030 --> 00:09:56,270 Disregarding this ban, I go to the station in Moscow, where trains 94 00:09:56,430 --> 00:09:57,870 leave for Ukraine. 95 00:09:59,270 --> 00:10:02,990 I buy a ticket for Kharkov, the capital, pretending that I need 96 00:10:03,150 --> 00:10:05,350 to visit a tractor factory. 97 00:10:09,150 --> 00:10:13,110 I get into a dark and foul-smelling wooden train. 98 00:10:19,390 --> 00:10:22,070 I ask questions of my fellow travellers, 99 00:10:22,230 --> 00:10:27,910 but they are silenced by their fear of the OGPU, the political police. 100 00:10:28,470 --> 00:10:30,630 "I'm afraid of talking to you," said one of them. 101 00:10:30,790 --> 00:10:32,350 "You might be a spy." 102 00:10:37,670 --> 00:10:39,110 Halt in a station. 103 00:10:41,750 --> 00:10:43,870 Talk to a group of peasant women. 104 00:10:44,030 --> 00:10:45,270 "We're starving. 105 00:10:46,230 --> 00:10:48,990 "Two months we've hardly had bread. 106 00:10:49,150 --> 00:10:51,710 "We're from Ukraine and we're trying to go north. 107 00:10:57,750 --> 00:11:00,710 "We're dying quietly in the villages." 108 00:11:10,910 --> 00:11:13,790 Why is there a famine in one of the richest wheat growing countries 109 00:11:13,950 --> 00:11:15,030 in the world? 110 00:11:38,270 --> 00:11:41,030 The young Bolshevik I met in Moscow had told me: 111 00:11:41,190 --> 00:11:42,950 "We will, whatever the cost, 112 00:11:43,110 --> 00:11:45,390 "transform the poor peasant Soviet Union 113 00:11:45,550 --> 00:11:48,350 "into a rich and industrialised state. 114 00:11:50,070 --> 00:11:53,270 "We will build factories here and steelworks there. 115 00:11:56,070 --> 00:11:59,430 "We will create a Communist version of the United States. 116 00:11:59,590 --> 00:12:01,310 "We will beat even America. 117 00:12:02,510 --> 00:12:06,310 "Do you know what our weapon is? It's our five year plan." 118 00:12:32,910 --> 00:12:36,430 The young Bolshevik had told me to finance the industrialisation 119 00:12:36,590 --> 00:12:39,230 of the country and to obtain foreign currency, 120 00:12:39,390 --> 00:12:43,030 we only had one solution - produce a lot of wheat and export it. 121 00:12:52,470 --> 00:12:55,990 To achieve their plan, the Bolsheviks decided to seize the land from the 122 00:12:56,150 --> 00:13:01,950 peasants and to transform it into vast collective farms called kolkhoz. 123 00:13:03,150 --> 00:13:07,870 Forced collectivisation of the countryside had just begun. 124 00:13:19,270 --> 00:13:22,470 We were forced to abandon our land and join the kolkhoz. 125 00:13:25,270 --> 00:13:30,470 The Bolsheviks left us only our house, a cow and a few chickens. 126 00:13:30,630 --> 00:13:32,110 It's a dog's life. 127 00:13:34,470 --> 00:13:37,950 It would be better to be buried than be alive in these times. 128 00:13:38,110 --> 00:13:41,230 Why work if we don't have our own land? 129 00:13:41,390 --> 00:13:43,590 Why should I give my horse to others? 130 00:13:44,710 --> 00:13:48,070 Why should drunks and good- for-nothings benefit from my cow? 131 00:13:49,190 --> 00:13:51,510 I'd rather eat them than give them to the government. 132 00:14:10,950 --> 00:14:12,070 by the peasants themselves. 133 00:14:18,310 --> 00:14:21,950 We have also noticed that very often the cattle are voluntarily and 134 00:14:22,110 --> 00:14:24,870 systematically reduced to a state that leaves slaughter 135 00:14:25,030 --> 00:14:26,590 as the only option. 136 00:14:49,110 --> 00:14:52,990 The two peasants next to me tell me that the best amongst them, those who 137 00:14:53,150 --> 00:14:56,430 had previously worked day and night, and those who refused to join the 138 00:14:56,590 --> 00:14:59,230 kolkhoz, were called kulaks. 139 00:15:04,070 --> 00:15:07,350 For the Bolsheviks, kulaks are the enemy. 140 00:15:08,950 --> 00:15:13,670 Those who do not want to follow the plan, those who exploit others. 141 00:15:13,830 --> 00:15:16,150 They are the rich peasants at the top of the social ladder 142 00:15:16,310 --> 00:15:17,870 in the countryside. 143 00:15:18,910 --> 00:15:20,510 That's why, according to them, 144 00:15:20,670 --> 00:15:22,910 the kulak class must be eliminated. 145 00:15:31,030 --> 00:15:32,550 But who are the kulaks? 146 00:15:35,750 --> 00:15:37,430 They might be anyone. 147 00:15:40,630 --> 00:15:44,550 Owning a cow or two or planting a little wheat might be enough. 148 00:15:47,430 --> 00:15:51,550 All, even now, are still afraid of being assassinated or sent away to 149 00:15:51,710 --> 00:15:55,150 Siberia as kulaks, as millions before them. 150 00:16:07,470 --> 00:16:12,870 During my last journey in the USSR, I saw the first food problems. 151 00:16:13,550 --> 00:16:17,230 They had appeared after forced collectivisation, totally 152 00:16:17,390 --> 00:16:20,870 disproportionate requisitioning of grain, the slaughtering of animals 153 00:16:21,030 --> 00:16:22,910 and the deportation of the best farmers. 154 00:16:24,990 --> 00:16:28,030 The plan destabilised the countryside. 155 00:16:43,270 --> 00:16:45,710 "Will there be soup this winter? 156 00:16:45,870 --> 00:16:49,550 "They took our land, our cattle and our wheat. 157 00:16:49,710 --> 00:16:53,110 "We won't have enough seed to plant this year. 158 00:16:53,270 --> 00:16:56,670 "No one can imagine what hunger means. 159 00:16:56,830 --> 00:17:01,710 "We suffered it in 1921 and the sad life is upon us again. 160 00:17:01,870 --> 00:17:03,750 "The future looks bleak." 161 00:17:44,470 --> 00:17:48,110 In some villages, the government requisition of grain has led to 162 00:17:48,270 --> 00:17:50,830 fighting between the peasants and the Communist authorities. 163 00:17:52,990 --> 00:17:56,350 Grain silos are full, but stomachs are empty. 164 00:18:05,390 --> 00:18:08,310 The train travels across the steppes. 165 00:18:08,470 --> 00:18:11,150 Opposite me is a domineering man. 166 00:18:14,470 --> 00:18:18,670 You can easily tell that he's a party member, as most Communists in the 167 00:18:18,830 --> 00:18:21,230 USSR have this ruthless look. 168 00:18:23,190 --> 00:18:26,190 He tells me he's from the political department. 169 00:18:26,350 --> 00:18:29,750 This is a detachment of several thousand brigade members who were 170 00:18:29,910 --> 00:18:32,390 sent into the villages to force the peasants to accept the 171 00:18:32,550 --> 00:18:34,110 Communist measures. 172 00:18:35,590 --> 00:18:37,590 "We are semi-military," he tells me. 173 00:18:37,750 --> 00:18:40,150 "We will crush any opposition." 174 00:18:43,870 --> 00:18:47,470 He's determined to pursue what he considers to be a holy war against 175 00:18:47,630 --> 00:18:50,230 all those who refuse to hand over their grain quotas. 176 00:19:01,470 --> 00:19:03,190 We will not give in anymore. 177 00:19:03,830 --> 00:19:07,230 We give all our wheat to the state and we are starving. 178 00:19:08,590 --> 00:19:11,950 This year, from the very start of the procurement campaign, 179 00:19:12,110 --> 00:19:13,990 we will hide our grain. 180 00:19:15,030 --> 00:19:18,270 If the authorities shoot us, it will still be better than dying a 181 00:19:18,430 --> 00:19:20,630 slow death from starvation. 182 00:19:27,110 --> 00:19:30,350 The armed brigades go from one farmyard to another, 183 00:19:30,510 --> 00:19:31,950 killing all the dogs. 184 00:19:32,590 --> 00:19:35,350 Then they go about collecting all our food. 185 00:19:43,470 --> 00:19:45,750 They search with metal rods, look in 186 00:19:45,910 --> 00:19:47,590 the wood burners, rip up floorboards, 187 00:19:47,750 --> 00:19:49,710 make holes in the walls. 188 00:19:50,350 --> 00:19:52,390 During the search, the brigades ask 189 00:19:52,550 --> 00:19:54,670 where we keep our arms and our grain. 190 00:19:57,310 --> 00:19:59,590 My wife answers that we don't have either. 191 00:19:59,750 --> 00:20:01,110 They torture her. 192 00:20:02,110 --> 00:20:04,470 They put her fingers in the door and close it. 193 00:20:06,830 --> 00:20:09,470 They break her fingers, the blood flows. 194 00:20:09,630 --> 00:20:10,670 She faints. 195 00:20:12,990 --> 00:20:16,030 They pour water on her head to start torturing her again. 196 00:20:18,430 --> 00:20:22,710 They hit her and push a needle under her fingernails. 197 00:20:36,430 --> 00:20:39,550 Because of the Bolshevik violence in the countryside and the abusive 198 00:20:39,710 --> 00:20:43,510 collection of grain quotas, nationalism was strong in Ukraine. 199 00:20:45,910 --> 00:20:49,310 The Ukrainians were the most resistant to collectivisation because 200 00:20:49,470 --> 00:20:51,830 they'd always had a deep rooted connection to their land. 201 00:20:55,830 --> 00:20:58,990 Since this was taken from them at the beginning of the five year plan, 202 00:20:59,150 --> 00:21:01,910 the peasants consider this to be a new form of serfdom. 203 00:21:05,150 --> 00:21:08,470 No longer for the benefit of the Tsars, but for the Bolsheviks. 204 00:21:20,390 --> 00:21:23,470 The nationalists were openly demanding their right to independence 205 00:21:23,630 --> 00:21:25,830 and an end to grain quotas. 206 00:21:44,550 --> 00:21:47,590 If we do not immediately rectify the situation in Ukraine, 207 00:21:47,750 --> 00:21:49,390 we may lose Ukraine. 208 00:22:02,110 --> 00:22:03,870 ...under Comrade Kaganovich to the 209 00:22:04,030 --> 00:22:07,830 North Caucasus and under Comrade Molotov to Ukraine. 210 00:22:07,990 --> 00:22:11,870 The kolkhoz farms and villages most active in the sabotage of the state 211 00:22:12,030 --> 00:22:15,350 plan for the supply of grain, will be put on a blackboard. 212 00:22:16,390 --> 00:22:18,870 The following measures will be imposed: 213 00:22:19,030 --> 00:22:22,430 Immediate suspension of the supply of goods and the removal of all goods 214 00:22:22,590 --> 00:22:24,470 available in the shops. 215 00:22:25,390 --> 00:22:27,950 Total prohibition of all trade. 216 00:22:39,830 --> 00:22:42,710 They have put us on the blackboard. 217 00:22:43,390 --> 00:22:44,870 We have no bread. 218 00:22:45,870 --> 00:22:48,350 The cooperative shops cannot sell anything. 219 00:22:48,510 --> 00:22:51,310 There are no matches and no fuel. 220 00:22:51,470 --> 00:22:53,750 We cannot go and buy anything at all. 221 00:22:55,030 --> 00:22:57,270 We are not allowed out of the village. 222 00:22:57,430 --> 00:22:59,790 There are patrols everywhere. 223 00:23:06,110 --> 00:23:10,590 People are swelling up and dying, 15 a day at least. 224 00:23:23,510 --> 00:23:27,830 Pravda has published a completely paranoid speech by Stalin. 225 00:23:27,990 --> 00:23:31,950 He suggesting that Ukrainian peasants have built a vast underground town 226 00:23:32,110 --> 00:23:34,550 overflowing with hidden grain. 227 00:23:35,270 --> 00:23:38,230 Finding it would ensure the prosperity of the USSR. 228 00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:12,520 Stalin has therefore decided to specifically punish Ukraine, 229 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:16,520 the nationalists and the resistant peasants by confiscating even the 230 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:19,760 seeds required for the next harvest. 231 00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:22,160 Hunger has become a weapon. 232 00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:47,280 As nothing can be planted, the peasants are starting to leave. 233 00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:50,960 To find something to eat, 234 00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:55,080 they're trying to flee to neighbouring republics. 235 00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:00,280 But Stalin has decided to close Ukraine's borders, 236 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:05,400 thereby condemning the Ukrainian peasants to a certain death. 237 00:25:23,360 --> 00:25:27,280 ...to systematically check all travelling peasants, to immediately 238 00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:31,080 arrest all those trying to flee from Ukraine. 239 00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:49,680 The train stops in a small station. 240 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,560 This is my chance to slip away and enter Ukraine's no-man's land. 241 00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:02,520 I buckle my rucksack with precious food bought in Moscow. 242 00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:04,560 I get out of the train. 243 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,720 I'm alone, ready to start my adventure. 244 00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:17,120 I walk along the railway tracks to avoid getting lost, 245 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:20,040 because if I go off into the countryside, I may never come back. 246 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:45,320 The village I arrive at has an unearthly quietness about it. 247 00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:49,280 Not a sound. 248 00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:50,560 Silence. 249 00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,920 Two women stop me and invite me into a house. 250 00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,240 I ask: "What's happening in the village?" 251 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:24,640 One of them replies with a single word: "Golod." Famine. 252 00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:29,400 "Even worse than in 1921," she adds. 253 00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:57,920 I ask another peasant woman: 254 00:27:58,080 --> 00:27:59,720 "Potchemu golod?" 255 00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:01,080 Why the famine? 256 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:03,760 "It's not the fault of nature. 257 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:06,480 "It's the fault of the Communists. 258 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,000 "They took everything from us." 259 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:20,920 "In the old days, I would have welcomed you and given you chicken 260 00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:24,040 "and eggs, milk and good white bread. 261 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,000 "In the old days, we fed the world. 262 00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:41,880 "Now we don't even have bread. 263 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:44,720 "They're killing us." 264 00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:01,600 Kolkhoz members also wander around the steppe looking for rodents. 265 00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,720 We have noticed that the starving will eat them raw as soon as 266 00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:06,840 they catch the creature. 267 00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:11,680 We have registered a number of deaths in the fields and in the steppes 268 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:13,880 while people hunt for rodents. 269 00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,280 The bodies are often left a long time without being buried. 270 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:23,880 We have stopped visiting friends and neighbours. 271 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:27,080 All our traditions of hospitality and 272 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:29,240 solidarity have suddenly disappeared. 273 00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:34,840 Everyone is turning in on themselves, retreating into a hole. 274 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:44,160 Indifference to everything is creeping in, indifference to our 275 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:49,960 decline and to the death of friends, then of our nearest and dearest. 276 00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:40,960 I walk on until dark. 277 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,840 On arriving in the next village, a man comes up to me and invites 278 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:49,440 me into his house. 279 00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:56,680 Fear of death looms over the family, as they don't have enough potatoes 280 00:30:56,840 --> 00:30:59,120 to last until the next crop. 281 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:10,200 I share my white bread, my butter and my cheese. 282 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,080 A young girl says to me: 283 00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:18,560 "Now I have eaten such wonderful things, 284 00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:19,920 "I can die happy." 285 00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:29,640 I stay there that night. 286 00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:32,760 We sleep nine in the room. 287 00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,560 In the morning, before leaving, the peasant says to me: 288 00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:46,040 "Things are terrible here. 289 00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:48,080 "But go down to the Poltava district, 290 00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:49,440 "it's far worse. 291 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:53,040 "You will see hundreds of empty houses. 292 00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:05,160 Some have gone away, but most have died. 293 00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:33,480 People kill children and acquaintances, 294 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:35,600 even strangers in the street. 295 00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:39,920 Each day that goes by encourages 296 00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:41,240 these people in the idea that 297 00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:42,600 it is perfectly acceptable 298 00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:44,000 to eat human flesh. 299 00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:50,720 My shoes are wearing out from walking along the rough, icy stones 300 00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:53,080 along the railway tracks. 301 00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:57,560 With each step I feel the hard snow and stones through the soles. 302 00:32:57,720 --> 00:32:59,200 In a station I ask again, 303 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:02,480 each peasant: "Why is there a famine?" 304 00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:07,800 A policeman comes over: 305 00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:12,040 "Move on. Stop talking to him about the famine. 306 00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:14,760 "Can't you see he's a foreigner?" 307 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:16,160 He turns to me. 308 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:18,600 "Come here. What are you doing here? 309 00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:20,640 "Show me your documents. 310 00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:24,120 "Follow me. I'm taking you to Kharkov." 311 00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:28,840 The worst visions come to mind. 312 00:33:31,800 --> 00:33:37,000 I think my time is up that I will be tortured in an OGPU prison. 313 00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:41,760 Throughout the journey, I try to impress him, telling him how I 314 00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:44,720 interviewed Lenin's widow and a number of important people 315 00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:46,760 from the Soviet regime. 316 00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,120 On arriving in Kharkov, I realised that the policeman is indeed 317 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,720 convinced my arrest would plunge the USSR, Europe and the United 318 00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:03,840 States into a world war. 319 00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:09,280 He decides to take me to a foreign consulate and leave me there, 320 00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:10,720 on the doorstep. 321 00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:21,040 My journey through the villages is over. 322 00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:42,280 In the streets, I see thousands of peasants who have fled the villages 323 00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:44,560 to find food in the towns. 324 00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:48,520 They're begging. 325 00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:55,720 Their pale children cry and hold out their hands as I pass by. 326 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:57,480 Uncle, give us bread. 327 00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:03,720 People in their thousands start to 328 00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:05,960 queue for bread at 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon, 329 00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:10,320 to be served the next morning when the shops open. 330 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:17,920 A man tells me there is terror everywhere, famine everywhere. 331 00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:19,520 There is no hope. 332 00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:41,160 A service has been organised to take in children. 333 00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:46,360 These children have been abandoned by their parents, who go back to their 334 00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:50,400 village to die, hoping that someone in the town will take care 335 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,080 of their offspring. 336 00:35:56,720 --> 00:36:00,000 It is undeniable that this famine has been organised to give 337 00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:02,280 the peasants a lesson. 338 00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:06,520 The government in Moscow has indeed organised through relentless 339 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:09,920 requisitioning, the complete disappearance of all means of 340 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:12,720 subsistence in the Ukrainian countryside. 341 00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:18,400 Why does the international press not publish anything about this slaughter 342 00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:21,440 organised by the Soviet government? 343 00:36:34,990 --> 00:36:38,550 In the last few weeks, there has been a beginning of Russification 344 00:36:38,710 --> 00:36:39,670 of Ukraine. 345 00:36:41,590 --> 00:36:45,350 Muscovites have been placed in leading positions in Kharkov, and 346 00:36:45,510 --> 00:36:47,510 now Russian is to be taught in the schools. 347 00:36:51,030 --> 00:36:55,310 Officials are even talking of a plan for colonisation. 348 00:36:55,470 --> 00:36:58,830 It's possible that in the very near future, Ukraine may become a 349 00:36:58,990 --> 00:37:00,950 de facto Russian region. 350 00:37:04,710 --> 00:37:05,990 I leave Kharkov. 351 00:37:09,350 --> 00:37:11,990 In the train from Moscow, an inspector comes to pull down the 352 00:37:12,150 --> 00:37:13,590 blinds in the compartment. 353 00:37:13,750 --> 00:37:14,710 I stop him. 354 00:37:15,390 --> 00:37:17,110 "No, let me do it," he says. 355 00:37:17,270 --> 00:37:20,310 -"They throw stones at the train." -"But who does that?" 356 00:37:20,470 --> 00:37:22,710 "The peasants, in protest." 357 00:37:41,470 --> 00:37:44,990 I have to be very careful until I leave Russia, 358 00:37:45,150 --> 00:37:48,510 but I will still ask questions to the people I meet in Moscow. 359 00:37:50,510 --> 00:37:53,950 In a street, a factory worker tells me: 360 00:37:54,110 --> 00:37:58,150 "The five year plan only works on paper and you can't eat numbers. 361 00:38:00,230 --> 00:38:03,190 "I don't believe a word they say in the newspapers. 362 00:38:03,350 --> 00:38:06,150 "They're all lies, lies, lies." 363 00:38:24,790 --> 00:38:28,470 I go to a reception at the Foreign Office to meet the minister, 364 00:38:28,630 --> 00:38:30,110 Maxime Litvinov. 365 00:38:33,790 --> 00:38:38,110 Surprisingly, he knows nothing of my arrest in Kharkov and my journey 366 00:38:38,270 --> 00:38:40,830 through the Ukrainian villages. 367 00:38:43,070 --> 00:38:46,670 He still thinks I work for Lloyd George and asks me to pass on 368 00:38:46,830 --> 00:38:48,470 his respects and greetings, 369 00:38:48,630 --> 00:38:51,070 having always been an admirer. 370 00:39:05,470 --> 00:39:08,990 My evening continues at the Metropole Hotel. 371 00:39:17,150 --> 00:39:20,070 Lights, red, green, blue. 372 00:39:20,230 --> 00:39:22,110 Fountains, balloons. 373 00:39:25,230 --> 00:39:27,830 Waiters in white, wine. 374 00:39:29,270 --> 00:39:31,430 I meet party members and foreign journalists. 375 00:39:37,070 --> 00:39:39,550 Walter Duranty, the famous Moscow correspondent for 376 00:39:39,710 --> 00:39:41,830 The New York Times, is here. 377 00:39:43,110 --> 00:39:48,190 He's charming with me, as he is with all English and American visitors. 378 00:39:48,350 --> 00:39:51,590 Duranty is even considered as the unofficial ambassador for the 379 00:39:51,750 --> 00:39:53,870 United States in the USSR. 380 00:40:17,830 --> 00:40:19,590 I don't trust Duranty. 381 00:40:21,310 --> 00:40:23,270 He asked me to be quiet. 382 00:40:32,710 --> 00:40:36,070 My dear parents, I've just left Moscow. 383 00:40:39,750 --> 00:40:43,910 I'm keen to come home. But on my way I must stop in Berlin. 384 00:40:50,790 --> 00:40:54,030 The situation in the USSR is absolutely terrible. 385 00:40:54,190 --> 00:40:56,590 Famine is almost everywhere and millions of people are 386 00:40:56,750 --> 00:40:58,350 dying of starvation. 387 00:41:13,350 --> 00:41:18,550 Dear journalist friends, thank you for coming to this press conference. 388 00:41:18,710 --> 00:41:22,350 Before I leave for London, I wanted to share with you what I saw and 389 00:41:22,510 --> 00:41:25,670 heard during my journey on foot around the villages in Ukraine. 390 00:41:28,510 --> 00:41:31,030 What did the peasants tell me? 391 00:41:31,190 --> 00:41:33,710 The same cry rang out everywhere. 392 00:41:33,870 --> 00:41:35,310 "There is no bread." 393 00:41:38,230 --> 00:41:41,470 The other sentence I heard throughout my visit was: 394 00:41:41,630 --> 00:41:43,150 "We are all swollen." 395 00:41:50,150 --> 00:41:54,110 I saw the ruination of farming in its grim reality. 396 00:41:54,270 --> 00:41:55,990 Famine is everywhere. 397 00:42:00,230 --> 00:42:03,510 I tramped through a number of villages in the snow of March. 398 00:42:03,670 --> 00:42:06,270 I talked to every peasant I met. 399 00:42:06,990 --> 00:42:11,270 I slept in peasant huts, sometimes nine to a room. 400 00:42:11,430 --> 00:42:14,390 I saw children with swollen bellies. 401 00:42:16,470 --> 00:42:20,150 If the situation is grave now, and if millions are dying in the villages, 402 00:42:20,310 --> 00:42:23,430 what will it be like in a month's time? 403 00:42:24,870 --> 00:42:28,430 The future is even bleaker than the present. 404 00:42:36,790 --> 00:42:39,550 I've just learned, to my astonishment, that Walter Duranty has 405 00:42:39,710 --> 00:42:43,230 telegraphed an article to the New York Times in which he insinuates 406 00:42:43,390 --> 00:42:46,950 that I am a liar and denies all information about a famine 407 00:42:47,110 --> 00:42:48,190 in the USSR. 408 00:42:55,030 --> 00:42:58,350 "Gareth Jones presents a big scare story about famine in 409 00:42:58,510 --> 00:42:59,910 "the Soviet Union, 410 00:43:00,670 --> 00:43:03,230 "but there is no actual starvation 411 00:43:03,390 --> 00:43:04,990 "or deaths from starvation. 412 00:43:06,310 --> 00:43:08,030 "There is, however, widespread 413 00:43:08,190 --> 00:43:09,350 "mortality from diseases 414 00:43:09,510 --> 00:43:11,110 "due to malnutrition. 415 00:43:14,390 --> 00:43:16,230 "It is all too true that the novelty 416 00:43:16,390 --> 00:43:17,830 "and mismanagement of the collective 417 00:43:17,990 --> 00:43:21,710 "farming have disrupted Soviet food production. 418 00:43:22,430 --> 00:43:26,350 "But to put it brutally, you cannot make an omelette 419 00:43:26,510 --> 00:43:27,870 "without breaking eggs." 420 00:43:38,670 --> 00:43:41,550 I wish to respond to Mr. Duranty, who implies that I have 421 00:43:41,710 --> 00:43:43,510 made up a scare story. 422 00:43:44,830 --> 00:43:48,310 Walter Duranty says there is no famine in the USSR. 423 00:43:50,270 --> 00:43:52,750 The censorship of journalists in Moscow has turned them into 424 00:43:52,910 --> 00:43:54,630 masters of euphemism. 425 00:43:55,710 --> 00:43:59,990 So they give famine the polite name of food shortage. 426 00:44:03,630 --> 00:44:06,790 I would also like to congratulate the Soviet Foreign Office for their skill 427 00:44:06,950 --> 00:44:09,590 in concealing the true situation in the USSR. 428 00:44:32,750 --> 00:44:34,070 My dear Margaret, 429 00:44:34,950 --> 00:44:38,350 I know Duranty's description of the situation to be untrue. 430 00:44:38,510 --> 00:44:40,910 He just writes what they tell him to. 431 00:44:45,150 --> 00:44:47,990 That he works for The New York Times, 432 00:44:48,150 --> 00:44:51,950 and last year he won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for his flattering 433 00:44:52,110 --> 00:44:54,470 articles about Stalin's USSR. 434 00:44:56,270 --> 00:44:58,070 He is read and believed. 435 00:45:06,790 --> 00:45:10,510 I'm going home to Wales, to Barry, to my home. 436 00:45:22,070 --> 00:45:23,510 But I will not give up. 437 00:45:23,670 --> 00:45:25,870 I have work waiting for me. 438 00:45:26,670 --> 00:45:29,390 The Daily Express and the Western Mail have commissioned me to write 439 00:45:29,550 --> 00:45:32,150 a series of articles about the USSR and the famine. 440 00:45:48,590 --> 00:45:51,430 I would so like for the world to become aware of the situation in 441 00:45:51,590 --> 00:45:54,510 Ukraine, and for something to be done to alleviate the suffering 442 00:45:54,670 --> 00:45:55,950 of the peasants. 443 00:46:09,030 --> 00:46:12,550 Talk of famine now is called ridiculous. 444 00:46:12,710 --> 00:46:15,270 I have just finished a journey of 250 445 00:46:15,430 --> 00:46:16,990 miles by car through the heart of 446 00:46:17,150 --> 00:46:20,750 Ukraine, and I can assure you that the harvest is splendid. 447 00:46:23,430 --> 00:46:27,030 Babies and the elderly alike look in good health and well fed. 448 00:46:28,590 --> 00:46:32,590 Everywhere I went, the Communists and the peasants say the same thing. 449 00:46:32,750 --> 00:46:34,110 "Now all is well. 450 00:46:34,270 --> 00:46:36,030 "Now we have reserves for the winter. 451 00:46:36,190 --> 00:46:38,110 "Now we have more grain. 452 00:46:42,110 --> 00:46:45,590 "There was much resistance last year, and those who resisted 453 00:46:45,750 --> 00:46:47,230 "suffered bitterly. 454 00:46:47,390 --> 00:46:49,550 "Today, there is no more resistance. 455 00:46:49,710 --> 00:46:51,830 "The Kremlin won its battle." 456 00:47:09,790 --> 00:47:11,750 Comrades of the kolkhoz, 457 00:47:12,510 --> 00:47:14,710 the millions of poor peasants who in 458 00:47:14,870 --> 00:47:16,230 the old days always went hungry, 459 00:47:16,390 --> 00:47:20,270 have become in the kolkhoz, assured of their future. 460 00:47:21,590 --> 00:47:25,910 We can congratulate ourselves on the immense success of building socialism 461 00:47:26,070 --> 00:47:27,590 in the countryside. 462 00:47:28,190 --> 00:47:32,270 We saved no fewer than 20 million poor peasants from ruin and 463 00:47:32,430 --> 00:47:34,030 exploitation by the kulaks. 464 00:47:34,190 --> 00:47:38,550 We have turned them into happy members of the kolkhoz. 465 00:47:55,230 --> 00:47:58,830 Exactly nine months ago today, I left Wales to write about world affairs 466 00:47:58,990 --> 00:48:01,310 for the Manchester Guardian. 467 00:48:02,390 --> 00:48:05,550 I still cannot forget the swollen bellies of the Ukrainian children. 468 00:48:06,990 --> 00:48:10,030 I would have been so pleased if the dozens of articles I wrote on my 469 00:48:10,190 --> 00:48:13,710 return from Ukraine and my numerous conferences, had found a wider 470 00:48:13,870 --> 00:48:16,070 echo within public opinion. 471 00:48:17,630 --> 00:48:20,870 But at that time Western leaders, whilst perfectly well informed of 472 00:48:21,030 --> 00:48:23,190 the situation, looked away. 473 00:48:27,910 --> 00:48:31,190 They were too terrified by Nazi Germany and far too concerned about 474 00:48:31,350 --> 00:48:36,030 being able to continue to import millions of tons of Russian wheat. 475 00:48:36,190 --> 00:48:39,390 I'm currently in Inner Mongolia to investigate the strong tensions 476 00:48:39,550 --> 00:48:41,750 between the USSR and Japan. 477 00:48:43,470 --> 00:48:46,950 There are four Russians with me in the car. 478 00:48:49,750 --> 00:48:53,030 We're driving through uncharted land. 479 00:48:53,190 --> 00:48:56,990 All the maps are bad and the distance is wrong. 480 00:48:58,230 --> 00:48:59,630 We lose our way. 481 00:49:05,830 --> 00:49:08,870 About 7:00 in the evening, I'm tired 482 00:49:09,030 --> 00:49:10,830 and head into my yurt. 483 00:49:13,510 --> 00:49:16,830 Tomorrow, we will cross the land of outlaws. 484 00:49:27,830 --> 00:49:31,510 [GUNSHOTS] 485 00:49:44,070 --> 00:49:46,030 Gareth Jones is no more. 486 00:49:46,630 --> 00:49:50,190 He was shot on the eve of his 30th birthday. 487 00:49:55,630 --> 00:50:00,430 His body, pierced by three bullets, is lying at Pao Chang. 488 00:50:02,430 --> 00:50:05,870 Details of the circumstances of his death remain a mystery.