The Russian Revolution of 1917 changed the world forever. Almost overnight, an entire society was destroyed and replaced with one of the biggest and most radical social experiments ever seen. Within a generation, millions would be killed and almost one third of the world’s population would be living in the shadow of communism. The programme make use of dramatised recreations, written witness acounts, interviews with experts and colourised archival footage to tell how this extraordinary event happened. They focus on the sailors from the island naval base of Kronstadt, who in 1917 took up the revolutionary cause with bloody enthusiasm, only to have their dreams shattered when Lenin creates a brutal police state. The sailors denounce their former ally and face the Red Army for a final battle.