This first episode sets the scene for the rise of Stalin from a revolutionary to a position of power to a leader in the Soviet system, his conflict with Leon Trotsky and his scheming to gain control.
The story of Stalin's rise to power, and the terrible consequences of his forced collectivization and industrialization. The results can be seen in the millions he slaughted, the devastation of villages, and the destruction of the middle classes, to bring about the militarization of the Soviet Union.
For Stalin, human life had no meaning; he believed that terror and violence was necessary to maintain the revolution and development of the state. Prisoners, deportees, criminals and others were sent to concentration camps, where they provided a vast army of labour for Stalin's ambitious projects. The enemies of the totalitarian state were pursued with mass terror and destruction, and exterminated after infamous show trials.
By 1940, Stalin had bled Russia of any potential leaders, and certainly did not want war. He signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler, but this was ruptured after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. The war casualties were immense: 20 million dead, 25 million homeless, 70,00 cities and villages destroyed. The people were exhausted, but Stalin refused to agree to reasonable peace terms, and after the Potsdam conference, the Cold war began. Stalin died in 1953, regretting nothing, and it took his successors years to free themselves from the system.