Customer Reviews

People Power: The End of Soviet-Style Communism [VHS]

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While every history lesson is of course incomplete, this video touches the hard-to-reach personal side to the end of Soviet-style communism. Through interviews with people who were instrumental in the process, it gives the viewer a sense of what was going on for "the people" in Eastern Europe at the time. The whole story is well put-together and has no appreciable editorial slant. Communism was torn down by the hands of the same people who built it up; this video will help you understand why. In addition, it's extremely enjoyable! One of PBS's best.

I purchased this video more as a history lesson for my children. I enjoyed most of the video, especially the video footage from inside the eastern block countries. However, I was disappointed that there was not one mention of the underlying cause for the crumbling of the Soviet Empire. There was little mention of the failure of the communist system of government. Most of the failure was attributed merely to economic conditions. The video did not mention the western military build-up which was responsible for pushing the Soviet Union to the brink of destruction. There was not one mention of Ronald Reagan and the policies which he enacted that were responsible for bringing Gorbechev to the negotiating table. There was little or no mention of the moral failings of the communist system which left the people in fear and dispair. It was as if all of this occurred in a vacuum. This is a typical PBS production which cannot bring itself to give credit to conservative policies and therefore does not give a full accounting of history.