"NIGHT OVER CHINA" "Written and directed by Alexandr Medvedkin" "Narrated by Yuri Kolychev" "The movie uses footage from USSR Central Film Archive, State Film Foundation and foreign sources." "Central Documentary Studio." "Moscow, 1971" "To the east of the land of Russia lies the country of Zhongguo." "This is what the Chinese nations have always called themselves." "5000 years ago, the ancient culture of this country had already contributed greatly to the development of human civilization." "For centuries, the hearts of Russian people respected their neighbor." "The friendship between our nations is sealed with blood." "Thousands of Chinese volunteers perished fighting for the Soviet revolution in 1919." "Thousands of Soviet soldiers died fighting to free China from the Japanese occupation in 1945." "A neighbor is always a neighbor." "Not matter, how many times the morning sun rises over the world our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will always seek friendship with the people of China." "Then why is there so much unease today when we talk about China?" "Our movie will try to answer this question." "This movie will attempt to defend the Chinese people from their worst enemy, the Maoists." "This is real footage." "Beijing, 1969." "You are watching the so-called 9th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party." "Listen to what Mao's successor and assistant Lin Biao has to say:" ""Chinese Communist Party is fighting to crush modern revisionism that has its core in the clique of Soviet revisionists."" "This formula worked its way into new regulations." "It worries me to hear my country and my Party being slandered." "What do our two great nations have to argue about?" "What dark forces are building a Great Wall of enmity and alienation between us?" "There's no end to the good will expressed by our motherland, and we want to restore our good friendship." "Take a look at our newspapers." "You will not find evil insults to China." "We only encourage a feeling of respect and good disposition towards the Chinese people." "This is what the future demands of us." "Now, here are Beijing newspapers." "They are full of profanity, scorn and libel aimed at our Party and the Soviet government." ""Curse the black Soviet revisionists!" Renmin Ribao writes." ""Starve and get ready for the great war with social imperialists!" echoes Guangmin Ribao." "And yet, the good will of the Soviet government is immeasurable." "In 1965, the head of the ministry of USSR, Nikolai Kosygin, visited Beijing." "The talk was about being good neighbors." "Meanwhile, however, Beijing was secretly preparing the Cultural Revolution and being good neighbors could interfere with what would become a political coup." "The Maoists did everything to alienate our two great nations." "They raged at the Soviet Embassy gates." "They insulted the Soviet people." "They damaged our cars." "They shed the blood of Soviet frontier guards." "It seemed, the last sparks of warmth and friendship had disappeared." "But in 1969, on his way from Hanoi to Moscow Alexey Kosygin visited Beijing again." "Once again, the Soviet government attempted to normalize relations." "What is there to fight over?" "Only due to the peace-loving efforts of the Soviet people did negotiations in Beijing began again." "Here we have curious documentary footage shot at different times in China." "Even now, over 80% of the population are peasants." "For centuries, the Chinese countryside has been miserably poor and backward." "People could not own their land." "In the past, their lot was drudgery on the landowners' property." "Hunger and merciless oppression by the rich was ended by the revolution." "I have never seen anything more moving than this footage." "This is a trial of landowners by liberated Chinese farmers." "How bitter must be the farmers' grievances to make them scream their lungs out after a lifetime of silence." "These old men never dreamed of owning a horse or owning the land that feeds them." "Their own land." "Now, no force can snatch it away from the hands of victorious people." "The communists gave the land to impoverished farmers." "The communists brought 700 million people to the socialist reconstruction of their country." "The first five-year plan awakened the enormous creative potential of the Chinese people." "During those years, the Chinese Communist Party trained thousands of gifted organizers as well as workers, engineers and scientists." "Who could foresee that only a few years later many would become the victims of repression and schemes that disrupted the second five-year plan." "Today, it is still hard to tell the whole truth about Mao Zedong and his supporters." "But you cannot alter history." "Moscow is very far from Beijing." "But the tragedy of the Chinese people still resonates with my motherland." "Sooner or later, a direct and uncompromising depiction of Maoism will appear on the screen." "Sooner or later, we must unearth real footage that testifies to the criminal nature of Maoism." "And we will do that now." "Beijing, 1956." "The 8th Congress of the CCP is opening today." "You can see guests from friendly socialist countries." "These are not 'black revisionists'." "Communists all over the world rejoiced at the victories of their Chinese brothers." "The 8th Congress gathered during the successful fulfillment of the first five-year plan." "The delegates represented 10 million communists united by the integrity of Lenin's ideas." "Devotion to Lenin." "Unity in fighting imperialism." "How could this audience foresee that comrade Mao, who is seen opening the congress, will later deal cruelly with most of these people and shatter the Party by mobilizing 30 million Red Guards." "In those days, Mao Zedong kept his plans for a political coup a secret." ""Our Party", he proclaimed from this pedestal, "is a politically mature and great Marxist and Leninist Party."" ""Now our Party is united and strong as never before."" "These words expressed the opinion of all delegates of the 8th Congress." ""Our country and all socialist counties want peace", said Mao Zedong." "That, too, resonated with the feelings of the communists." "How could they know that ten years later, having shattered the Party," "Mao would throw a different slogan at his people:" ""Get ready to starve!" "Get ready for the war with Soviet revisionists!"" "But this is later." "Right now, at the 8th Congress, Mao Zedong speaks with emotion:" ""We have to be able to learn from the leading Soviet Union."" ""We have to avoid great-power arrogance at all costs."" ""At all costs, we have to avoid putting on airs."" "Why would he insist on what he himself never believed in?" "He had no other choice." "Try arguing at this Congress, held under Lenin's banner of unity of communists from all countries." "Now it's time to remind the Beijing schismatics about the international solidarity of Marxist-Leninists." "Let us leave this congress hall for a while and return to footage of China's first five-year plan." "You are witnessing the reconstruction of Anshan metallurgical factory." "Soviet specialists practically rebuilt it from scratch." "It is equipped with Soviet technology." "Here, Moscow engineers worked side by side with Chinese friends, as well as managers from Ukraine and Ural mountains." "Now we are watching the metallurgical factory in Wuhan, one of the largest in Asia." "This is the first steel fusion." "Soviet construction workers share their enthusiasm with Chinese comrades." "The oldest Russian metallurgist, Alexandr Padurov, led a team of 250 Soviet engineers and technicians." "Back then, they were not called 'social-imperialists'." "How could they know the dark day would come when Mao would shoot the steel from this factory at the heads of Soviet frontier guards." "Shanxi cement plant was planned and built by specialists from the DDR." "How could they foresee that soon Mao would stretch a friendly hand over their heads to the worst enemies of German people-- West German revanchists." "The Maoists would approve the non-recognition of the border over the river Oder." "Guests from Poland did not expect this betrayal, either." "Trying to help their Chinese friends, they built them a large sugar factory, and taught young specialists to work there." "These are Czech power engineers." "They were dispatched by Golden Prague." "They are repairing a turbine at the Changshou power station." "If only they knew that on the 'black day' the voices of Beijing traitors would actually encourage counter-revolution." "The victorious pace of China's first five-year plan created many complex problems and unexpected difficulties." "The selfless help from socialist countries was a living example of our unsurpassed unity." "With the help of Muscovites, Changchun automobile factory is being built." "Where would the many thousands of auto engineers come from?" "They are trained in Moscow." "In the morning, you can see them among hospitable workers at Likhachev's factory." "During the day, they are in the workshops." "Their class brothers teach them." "We can see them in the construction department." "Together with their Moscow friends, they work out complex technological issues of the future factory." "Changchun's auto brand is a sister of Likhachev's factory brand." "But you cannot alter history." "Here is a teacher and his student." "I think, they would not believe that soon, the student will be forced to manufacture tanks that will threaten his own teacher." "We taught them in peace and friendship." "Changchun factory won't be launched for a while." "But China needs automobiles now." "You can see a caravan of ships transporting trucks along the Yangtse river." "This is also a contribution of the Soviet people for the socialist reconstruction of China." "All of their priceless experience, all of the achievements and benefits of socialism, my motherland and my Party offered to our Chinese brothers." "We had no other choice." "This is what Lenin taught us." "Avid Chinese were enchanted by the Soviet way of life." "They came to us to study." "In the Soviet Union, they saw a university for a new socialist world." "Indeed, Chinese farmers have much to learn here." "The best farmers shared their experiences." "Farmers from faraway Jiangsu province were astounded at the amazing scope of collective farming, and its high culture." "What a long way to go for their motherland to achieve such heights!" "In today's China, archaic poverty still exists." "Poverty will impede the progress of Chinese farmers for years to come." "That's why they are eyeing thirstily the achievements of our agronomists." "They are smitten by the mighty technology that brings unsurpassed plenty." "Among the guests, there was a Chinese tractor driver." "She was so nervous, laying her first track in the friendly soil of Ukraine." "This is Tibet." "The footage is from a documentary about the first tractor driver in the most backwards province of China." "Same as we had here in 1930's." "When our guests from Jiangsu realized how far the Communist Party of Soviet Union had brought its people they could get see their own future." "Let's go back to Jiangsu." "The Chinese communists were taking them along the same path until Mao Zedong sabotaged their progress with his Great Leap Forward." "Step by step, the province was overcoming its grinding poverty." "It was moving forward not in great leaps, but with the basics." "The simple plow, the village blacksmith..." "What could get in the way of their economic development?" "Mao Zedong's adventurism." "The destruction of the Communist Party by the Maoists." "A political coup that brought the miseries of military dictatorship upon the Chinese people." "Cynically deceiving the people under the pretext of "Cultural Revolution"." "Here I want to reflect on how it could happen." "To answer this question, let's get back to the 8th Congress of the CCP." "Nothing foretold the imminent tragedy." "Mao insisted: "Now our Party is united and strong as ever."" "Liu Shaoqi, deputy chairman of the Central Committee, reported on the success of the first five-year plan." ""Overcoming extreme backwardness of a poor economy, step by step, the Party enforced the practice of socialism."" "With great difficulty, the Chinese people have begun to build a socialist society." "Who among the delegates at the 8th Congress did not want to move faster?" "It is time to remember that in this same speech" "Liu Shaoqi, speaking on behalf of the delegates, warned the supporters of experimentation of the dangers of economic adventurism and thoughtless haste." "Why did Mao Zedong applaud those words?" "Was he not ready for the Great Leap Forward?" "We will tell you about that Leap now." "The logic behind this invention is amazing." "It was perfectly anticipated by the strategy of "The Great Sparrow War" in Beijing." "One day, the entire population of the capital was called up to gather at the streets to perform a strange mission." ""Liquidate every sparrow in Beijing."" "Beijing strategists elaborated:" ""We have a million sparrows."" ""Each sparrow eats a grain of rice -- that's one million grains."" ""One hundred grains per sparrow a day -- that's one hundred million."" ""One year has 365 days..." "The sparrows will eat us alive!"" ""What will the people eat?"" ""Destroy the sparrows!"" "At the signal, all Beijing's sparrows were driven into the air." "People chased them to death." "Sparrows were not allowed to land until they fell on the ground, dead from exhaustion." "The entire population of Beijing was mobilized for this bizarre battle." "Military troops were assembled too." "An old ironic phrase "Using cannons to hunt sparrows" was morbidly realized." "The battle is over." "The last little bird is killed." "Dozens of trucks carry piles of bird bodies out of Beijing." "What an incredible mechanistic logic:" "Extinguish a million birds -- save millions of tons of grain." "Feed the country." "We would not mention this tragi-comic event unless the planning of the Great Leap Forward did not utilize the same mechanistic logic." "One Beijing strategist pondered:" "China has 200 million farmyards." "If every farmyard starts smelting steel in two years our steel production will surpass USA, Soviet Union and West Germany." "This is not a joke." "They just forgot about the overwhelming poverty of the Chinese provinces." "A mechanistic, sparrow-like logic informed the basis of the Great Leap Forward." "At the beckoning of an omnipotent hand, all the decisions of the 8th Congress were overturned." "New numbers from Chairman Mao shocked the whole world." "In two years, China will produce not 8 million, but 100 million tons of steel." "There will be a 6.5 times increase in industrial production." "and a 2.5 times increase in harvests." "This is unique footage." "This is homegrown metallurgy." "Since antiquity, technologically backwards China practiced this kind of steelmaking." "It more or less satisfied pre-industrial demands for metal." "In old times, village blacksmiths smelted low-quality pig iron." "Chairman Mao ordered countrywide mobilization." "Every village was converted into a smelting factory." "Every farmyard built a furnace." "80 million farmers were torn away from the land and transferred to metallurgy." "They had no time to plant and grow rice, and two harvests were skipped." "80 million peasant metallurgists." "Day and night they smelted pig iron." "They wasted millions of tons of ore." "They burned millions of tons of coal." "They made mountains of useless junk." "They wrecked the country's economy." "This was The Great Fraud perpetrated upon the people." "When you look at these inspired faces you can't help but ask:" ""How could they know that eclipsing America in steel production within a mere two years was the delirious dream of a fanatic."" "It was a popular deception on a massive scale." "People simplemindedly trusted the slogans of a demagogue." "Extinguish all sparrows, smelt mountains of steel, or triple rice harvests in two years..." "Triple the harvest!" "An order from above can only abolish destitution on paper." "A paper that will print anything." "Every farmer was forcibly recruited to 'people's communes'." "The communes were maintained by strict military regime." "Line up!" "Right!" "Left!" "Turn around!" "In the field, they line up for morning prayer." "The god, Chairman Mao, promised them:" ""After 3 years of persistent labor -- 10 thousand years of happiness."" "He obviously never read Lenin." "It is as if Lenin saw the Great Leap Forward with his own eyes." "Log ago, at the 10th Congress of Workers' Communist Party Bureau, he warned:" ""If some communist fantasized about changing economic foundations of private farming in three years, he certainly was a dreamer."" "The beautiful fantasy of the Great Leap Forward has evaporated." "It brought the people chaos and destruction." "The country suffered unprecedented famine." "With the famine, sickness and death visited millions of peasant families." "It is as if the ghosts of a malignant past returned to the villages." ""Poverty is good." This is how Chairman Mao comforted them." ""It's scary to think what might happen if everybody became a rich man."" "These were his words: "Scary to think."" "But the anguished farmers were fed up with famine." "The inventor of the Great Leap Forward received the disapproval of the Party." "He had to resign from his position as the country's leader." "But he wasted no time." "This footage is no less amazing than that of the Sparrow War." "You can see Chairman Mao swimming in the Yangtze." "Why does he need this romantic water circus?" "He is appealing to the youth of China." "Now, he needs millions of ecstatic young people." "Now, he has even more dizzying 'leaps' in mind." "This man will do anything for power." "Power over the people." "Power over the country." "In his youth, he swung from anarchism to monarchism, until he joined communists." "In the caves of Yan'an, he fostered plans for absolute dictatorship." "He waited and maneuvered for years, gathering his followers." "He destroyed the Party's best people." "Today, this cunning politician has a good reason to go swimming." "Soon, he will give the malevolent order:" ""Fire on the headquarters."" "The Maoists incited 30 million immature youths against the Chinese Communist Party." "It was a political coup." "They called it "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution"." "But this was not a 'cultural' revolution." "The blind force of misguided youth was thrown into a political game with only one goal:" "to steal the authority from the CCP, to remove the party from the political arena, and clear the way for Mao's dictatorship." "Here is "China" magazine." "It is published in Russian in Beijing." ""To crush the bourgeois headquarters."" "Where is this headquarters?" "The article is afraid to name it directly because it implies the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party." "The rhetoric beats around the bush, explaining that bourgeois headquarters consists of a bunch of powerful Party heads who chose the capitalist way of development." "They are the target of this great cultural revolution." "Their complete eradication is the main goal of this revolution." "Observe how this goal is achieved." "Red Guards handcuff members of the Central Committee." "This is the Secretary of the Central Committee, Luo Ruiqing." "Politburo member Peng Zhen." "Vice-mayor of Beijing Fang Jin." "Minister of higher education Jiang Nanxiang." "Secretary of Beijing City Party Committee Wan Li." "Politburo candidate Lu Dingyi." "Deputy minister of culture Xia Yan." "Dramatist Tian Han." "Professor of Beijing University Peng Peiyun." "Millions of communists were subject to repression." "These were the organizers of socialist reconstruction, scientists, engineers, writers." "Millions of the nation's best people." "Nobody counted how many." "China was shut off from the outside world." "Through the curtain of lies and disinformation we received only shreds of truth." "We want to find out exactly what happened in China." "Who are these bizarre revolutionaries?" "What did they know about the real intentions of Chairman Mao?" "We need to understand how they were caught up in this amazing religious madness, this blind readiness to crush the Party and the government, to disturb daily peace." "They are not revolutionaries." "They had no understanding of the treacherous plans of the Maoists." "Their overwhelming religious hysteria was provoked artificially." "Otherwise, the Cultural Revolution would not be possible." "Millions of naive boys and girls were subjected to merciless indoctrination." "The Chinese people were helpless to protest this madness of the youths who fell victim to cynical Maoism." "Chinese have an ancient toy, called 'dummy'." "It embodies humiliating thoughtlessness and pathetic callousness." "You don't need to think." "Your brightest sun is doing your thinking for you." "Do everything he says." "Understand?" "Execute." "Don't understand?" "Execute anyway." "You'll understand later." "It's incredible how any living human thought is blocked out." "This little red book is a famous compilation of quotations." "It was published in 29 languages, 3.5 billion copies." "Five books per person, including babies." "This book is mandatory for all occasions." "Let's take a look." "Here is a typical phrase from Chairman Mao." ""Movement for normalization of style is a total movement for Marxist upbringing."" "Take another one:" ""There's no fixing without bending."" "There's nothing special about these quotations." "The problem is, the whole population is bound to look for answers to all life's questions in a collection of pointless abstractions." "They are struggling to understand." "And so they read." "Farmers read in the fields while worrying about the harvest." "Doctors read before a complex operation." "Seamen read during their morning prayer to the Great Chairman." "Children read instead of having fun." "Soldiers read before they advance and when they rest." "While traveling, while resting, with the family..." "Everywhere, only this red book can give one the right to live." "Behind its deliberate obscurity there is an inhuman prerogative:" ""Don't try to think."" "Trust blindly and pray to the Chairman Mao, like to a god." "Never disobey." "A watchful minder will tear your head off." "The hysterical system of Mao Zedong's personality cult, and all this religious ecstasy around his name serve the most mundane purpose:" "to eliminate every chance for a simple man to figure out what's going on." "Is this why millions of Red Guards are discouraged from reading any other books?" "The Chairman explained:" ""The more books you read, the more stupid you get."" "Was this a slip of a tongue?" "No, it's no slip." "In support of this idea, he said on another occasion:" ""You won't become an emperor after reading many books."" "This "Marxist"'s cherished dream is to become an all-powerful emperor." "He once proclaimed: "I was charmed by the successes of China's emperors, namely, Yao Yishun, Qin Shi Huangdi, Lu Ban, after reading many books about them."" "Indeed, there were times when everything in China was simple." "Cut off one head -- thousands tremble with fear." "Torture one Chinese to death, break another one's ribs -- thousands will drop on their knees." "This was real power, real order." "Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi ordered all books to be burned and scientists thrown into cellars." "Why did he do that?" "Ancient Chinese official Shang Yang explained:" ""When people are illiterate they are easier to govern."" ""Easier to govern."" "Isn't this why the Maoists pushed Red Guards to struggle against culture and education?" "Universities were closed." "Students burned books and manuscripts." "Schoolchildren scorned their classes." "Teachers were made to wear dunce caps." "Professors were executed." "Ancient scrolls were burned." "Books were thrown in the fire." "Maoist slogans were pasted over masterpieces." "Painting of ancient masters were thrown out from their frames." "Priceless sculptures were defaced." "Monuments and statues were knocked down." "Crushing everything not connected with the name of Mao, these boys and girls were naive like children." "Single-handedly, they destroyed a host of masterpieces the world's finest museums would covet." "Children were converted into weapons of the dictatorship." "Soon, there was nothing was left to crush." "The country swept by the hurricane of destruction required a respite." "30 million feverishly excited boys and girls had finished their job and now were obsolete." "Let's go back to the beginning of their crusade." "It seems, just yesterday they hurried along these roads in response to Chairman Mao's call." "If only they had known that soon, some of them would end their lives in suicide and others would perish far away from home." "Children of the working class, they were ready for any sacrifice in the name of the revolution." "How inhuman, and how cynical, to send these exalted youths to crush the Party and destroy the people's government," "to squeeze them like lemons and then discard the whole battered generation." "Chairman Mao forgot them very quickly." "Only the army could remain at the foundation of his dictatorship." "Indoctrinating the army had always been the Maoists' prerogative." "At the 9th Congress of the CCP, Lin Biao proclaimed:" ""Cultural Revolution would not be possible without the army, and Mao Zedong's ideas would not be possible to propagate."" "It was true from the very beginning." "Behind the Red Guards' backs, at the factories and in the countryside, there were generals and officers." "Army divisions intervened when angry masses resisted revolutionary committees and chased away Red Guards." "The tidal wave of militarism washed over the country." "The Chairman's order was:" ""Get ready to starve and fight the great war."" "Beijing newspapers revealed who the new enemy was." ""Get ready to fight with Soviet revisionists."" "Military psychosis." "To the horror of residents, trenches appeared in Beijing." "Young people were taught to shoot and prepared for war." "It's sad to see military psychosis engulfing even children." "Hatred for the Soviet people became the new defining core of the Maoism." "Now, Maoism cannot exist without frenzied anti-Sovietism." "Maoism today is the betrayal of the international communist movement." "When you see the tragic footage from the Vietnam war you can't help but ask:" "Does anti-communism of Beijing's sectarians not encourage the impudence of American military?" "Beijing is oddly tolerant to military aggression right on China's border." "But how intolerant they have become of the other communist movements in the world." "Remember the incident in Czech Republic." "Beijing newspapers were more reactionary than capitalist media and defended counter-revolution." "In the grave crisis in Poland, Beijing papers shamelessly encouraged reactionaries to crush the power of the people." "Beijing leaders -- who are they with?" "What political coalition are they in and whose interests are they fighting for?" "Such a tragic paradox." "The founder of Maoism has not renounced Lenin's teaching yet." "By lying to Chinese people he is trying to camouflage the anti-Leninist essence of his military dictatorship." "He would use any means to dismember and crush the coalition of socialist countries that maintain their struggle with imperialism." "Propagandists in Beijing might use this strange slogan:" ""Under the banner of Marxism, hand in hand with imperialism, against the communism."" "This frightening situation seems unreal." "Let's go back to the 9th Congress of the CCP." "Weren't they professing Marxism on their way to the congress?" "And was not smashing international communism proposed as the first priority?" "Fallen victim to a political coup, the Chinese Communist Party would never comply with such a betrayal." "By usurping its proud name, a different party did it." "Mao Zedong's party." "These Red Guards were not elected to attend the congress." "They were assigned after careful selection and repeated purges." "They will vote enthusiastically for anything, as many times as needed, as long as their brightest sun orders them to do so." "But we will honor the memory of the delegates of a different congress." "Thirteen years ago, different people represented the Party." "Where are they?" "Of 173 elected members of the Central Committee only 48 would appear at the 9th Congress." "How many communists were killed?" "How many were driven to suicide?" "What could we expect from the 9th Congress?" "A different party has gathered." "It just made Mao Zedong its lifetime leader." "Lin Biao was assigned to be his successor." "The Beijing Marxists have just restored the rule of dynastic succession from imperial China." "Here he is, the strange successor to the throne." "Less than three years later, Lin Biao will be declared Chairman's enemy and eliminated." "This is the nature of Mao Zedong's party." "Still calling it a communist party, Mao and his successor secured their dynastic positions at the 9th Congress." "The Politburo's new members include Mao's wife, Jiang Qing," "Lin Biao's wife, Ye Qun," "Mao's son-in-law, Yao Wenyuan," "Mao's former secretary, Chen Boda, and his bodyguard, Wang Dongxing." "What a bunch!" "That's what kind of party this is." "Even Red Guards might balk at such a vote." "But the voting was handled by Chairman Mao himself." "Who protests?" "Try to revolt." "Who protests?" "The dark night over China, like any night, will come to an end." "The day will come." "The red sun of truth will rise over China." "No Maoists will be able to replace it." "THE END Subtitled by invidia (for KG)"