1953-1985

In May 1956, an Italian publishing scout visited Russia's greatest living poet, Boris Pasternak. He left carrying the original manuscript of Dr. Zhivago. Pasternak believed his novel was unlikely ever to be published in the Soviet Union, where the authorities regarded it as an irredeemable assault on the 1917 Revolution. But Pasternak thought it stood a chance of being published and read in the West. From Italy it made its way around the world to earn Pasternak the 1958 Pulitzer Prize in Literature. Copies were sold in Moscow and Leningrad on the Black Market and when Pasternak died in 1960 in Russia his funeral was attended by thousands of admirers who defied their government to bid him farewell.

Examines events in the Soviet Union during the era of Khrushchev, with an emphasis on his political reforms.

Examines events in the Soviet Union during the era of Breshnev, with an emphasis on the political climate of the period.

Drawing on original interviews and declassified documents, examines the behind-the-scenes story of the early space race between the Soviet Union and the U.S., the U-2 spy planes, and the Soviet launching of the Sputnik satellite.

The death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 left a political vacuum. By 1957 that vacuum was filled by Nikita Khrushchev. He pushed for economic reforms and more accountability from Communist Party leaders. He wrongly believed that he could accomplish all this without fundamentally changing the system.

Elena Gorokhova grows up in 1960's Leningrad where she discovers that beauty and passion can be found in unexpected places in Soviet Russia.