once upon a time there was a country the largest in the world in fact it was an empire it was called the soviet union shortly before its seventieth birthday it vanished from the map it was . just a ship ha ha ha ha well a good shake your religion stick to the still for you. in the kremlin in moscow mikhail gorbachev was starting to realize the soviet union was falling apart. right when the new gorbachev couldn't stop this process it was turning out differently from the way he'd expected and was taking on a life of its own i don't believe that he intended the soviet union to disintegrate the soviet union fell apart mainly because the baltic republics wanted to leave when they left everyone else saw that it could be done and wanted to do it too as i was with was more than examples of that is just. good it would do that why do the soviet union collapsed what were united germany was it called the chop soft approach already going hard line. i got the chops approach was important but without reagan's policies they would have been no go but stuff but that would do it your. business which opened its gate was yeah and the truth is the seventh union lost because the us was so intractable that the. the gates were opened the berlin wall fell and moscow's empire contracted at a breathtaking base. on the international stage gorbachev ended on a high note in the two plus four treaties the soviet union relinquished east germany and paved the way for a new european order europeans in general but especially the east and west germans were grateful to him. the era of the soviet union as a superpower ended with the reunification of the two germany's. the retreat began. moscow pulled five hundred thousand soviet soldiers out of east germany alone. the group of soviet armed forces in germany was the largest permanent army ever stationed by an occupation force abroad. the logistics needed to get them back home were just as fast. as. poland had also broken with moscow so most of the troops left germany via the ferry port of new kron on the baltic island over again. observers followed the huge enterprise with great interest nobody knew exactly what weapons the soviet army had kept in east germany. as foreign feel good feel hugo there were a lot of hazardous materials so we kept out of everything so you could almost piece it together these were initiatives those were special russian rail cars which were somewhat larger than normal but enclosed and when they passed through then you knew either there was a rocket inside or maybe there wasn't like you didn't go off like a kind of like. the soviet withdrawal gave me a cry on a much needed boost. as one of east germany's last big transportation projects the port had been built specifically for trade with the soviet union and the collapse of comic-con and left it largely idle. and few when they decided to use them with run ferry and told to ship a forty three percent in other words almost half of the military transports to the salient union it had an enormous significance for the port especially for the railway workers and ship crews it's copy they had to work again there was something to do on the ships what turning around in an unbroken forty eight hours cycle to transport this huge military machine back to the east so. might have to confess they really tried to paint it as a proud army leaving germany with its head high the first time i was standing on the table at the port is the reality actually is different it's just it was nothing left of what we in the west germany had learnt about the superpower. but they were just young men in uniforms who were much too thin they obviously hadn't been getting much food that cheekbones stood out shop and looking at some of those guys you really thought they belong with their mothers not in the army your that's what the ovens in the army. the word went out at soviet army bases across the country everything can go of course it wasn't official but under the counter in good old socialist style. the doj market been introduced into the former east germany and banknotes were easier to transport than equipment. if i just just i know it was going on you said ok a kalashnikov you can get one for a hundred marks. the soldiers were facing a journey into the unknown. the soviet union they had come from was disintegrating . on august thirty first one nine hundred ninety four the soviet troop withdrawal was complete. germany paid about fifteen billion dollars marks to cover its cost but the price that moscow painted was far greater. until then the heroic soviet army had been seen as a symbol of the empires power and grander. it would soon learn to emotionally it was seen as a defeat. really i'm telling you a defeat not only did i understand it that way but also the bulk of the population did was just for most of. the empire wasn't only disintegrating at its edges it was also tearing itself apart internally mikhail gorbachev had wanted to give the republics more autonomy. in the summer of one thousand nine hundred one orthodox communists including the soviet union's own minister of defense mounted a coup against hope much often surrounding the russian parliament with tanks. citizens turned down to stop them. the coup plotters held gorbachev captive for three days at his holiday home in crimea the country was dissolving as were the values that had held it together the army a shared ideology and some a darity. in a video interview gorbachev refused to declare a state of emergency and thereby recognize the coup. the newly elected president of the russian socialist soviet republic boris yeltsin went out and managed to persuade the insurgents to return to their barracks. his success made him the new strongman in moscow and he lost no time in upping the ante. he undermined a go bridge off in public interrupted him during a speech to parliament on august twenty third one thousand nine hundred one and treated him like a child and then to cap it all he did something nobody had expected. fields and de facto was drool russia from the soviet union something which nobody even imagine. so history has sometimes goes a bar off imagination so i think yeltsin was a very important vote in full view of. the end of the soviet union was sealed when the heads of state of russia ukraine and belarus signed the agreement establishing the commonwealth of independent states are c.i.s. . stun his last shift a bitch was one of them. you know there's this little bit of thought i had long believed it was a vision of socialism leading to communism was in itself a good one was that it measures it going as long as i lived in the u.s.s.r. as i never as a thought it would cease to exist most only go that it was budgets. for nine other soviet republics joined the c.i.s. the soviet union was practically left as a state without territory. which is up the because even just hoffer now before the deal was signed i didn't believe in the end of the soviet union mistook seriously sales most because that's just. one december twenty first one thousand nine hundred ninety one mikhail gorbachev stood down and the end of the soviet union was officially declared. the dream of communism was now history. gorbachev's role in these events is still controversial even now. if you just did the belief that called the child did all this because he was such a good person is fundamentally wrong or it would have it the new blood good a bunch of dolls a war gorbachev made freedom possible full stop. in the soviet union alone he gave freedom to two hundred eighty million people you know they're taking the whole eastern bloc and gave freedom to around half a billion people. whether he did so consciously or unconsciously is another matter . but he did something tremendous something historic. his policies ensure that a vast number of people emerged from a totalitarian soviet system peacefully and voluntarily vso is that the it that and i say yes. the story of the country that wanted to change the world ended just before it seventieth birthday one nation was suddenly fifteen. fifteen former soviet republics whose national characteristics and then tegan isms had been repressed for almost seventy years. now they came to the surface in the republic of moldova for example where moldova needs and russians came into direct conflict. the result was a new border within moldova itself which was heavily guarded and could only be crossed with a visa. the fourteenth formerly soviet now russian army played an important role in its creation. it was stationed in the city of tourist board and it stayed there in spite of moldova's declaration of independence the russians are now foreigners on foreign territory but it only recently been their home. but. the conflict was sparked by a dispute over the official language of the new state russian the unifying language of the old soviet union was to be replaced by romanian. russian such as vladimir a ton truck felt discriminated against. what it was doing with many interpreted this rebirth of national consciousness in their own way. instead of cultivating its culture its uniqueness its roots and its language. of nationalism arose. in the republic of moldova but this nationalism expressed itself in such a way that people were judged by their origins. it's also like that in the baltic countries. there are citizens and non-citizens are human beings and subhuman. what. this is exactly what happened here only in a worse way. even though forty percent of moldova's population was russian speaking. parliament passed a new law on languages. romanian was declared the official language romanian not mel dolphin but grow mania. the writing changed from cyrillic to latin script that meant a majority of the population which did not know the latin script became practically a literal. start when you had. the confrontation over the official language exploded into violence and the fourteenth russian army intervened transnistria the part of moldova where it was stationed split off and remained russian speaking. a thousand people died in the fighting along the new stair in the spring and summer of one thousand nine hundred two pieces now returned but in reality the conflict was only ever put on ice. because now it's off on alongside the russian army. the fighting began on march second and four boys were immediately killed this is where they are buried the commander of the battalion is also buried here. because they attacked the barracks and coach eddie. the soldiers their one thousand year old boys were outnumbered. basically the conflict was artificially blown out of proportion. well neither they nor we wanted this war but when a war began and see every day of fighting sets peace back at least a year not. the case of transnistria is just one example of the numerous conflicts that erupted between the peoples of the former soviet union. the common values of the soviet years counted for little in those wild times. new war memorials constantly joined the old ones often adorned with the red stars. russia whose fear of influence was continually shrinking was always involved. in the conflict oh my i'm one of us nick if you'd stand up i believe that this conflict had entirely different roots what gave. the divine and they claimed that the moldovans wanted to prevent the spread of the russian language is newsnight. but again. very honest. but interesting muska wanted to maintain its influence in this important region. video and you know it is after all the gateway to the balkans uprightness and i wanted to do that at any cost but that shot if this was to. transnistria was no isolated case. everywhere in the early one nine hundred ninety s. regional conflicts flared up and russia intervened in nearly all of them in chechnya georgia and the caucasus. they were micro states where almost the entire male population was under arms and decades and sometimes centuries old conflict flared up again. in chechnya for instance which i sure could live with being soviets but after the soviet union's demise they suddenly belong to russia and the chechens had never wanted to be russian. in the first few years following the disintegration of the soviet union more than thirty thousand people were killed in violent civil wars. this conflict the will of those that there were many conflicts that we inherited from the soviet union. i mean the conflicts and to take a stand about. south ossetia and a growing car about. and we had internal fighting in chechnya. there was a transit history a conflict. everywhere russia intervened as a peacemaker with the aim of resolving these conflicts that he should we have new but you only get to work with the people it was as if a battered giant like gulliver gave one side a weapon then provide the other and gave support to yet another said that they would all fight against each other on the giant looked down from above but also hungry and wounded but yet still stronger than all the rest of the fellows in the if you hear them. good men the so-called wars or former soviet republics have never managed to stand on their own two feet. the small republic of moldova remained completely dependent on russia in the one nine hundred ninety s. it was one of europe's poorest regions. transnistria which has only five hundred thousand inhabitants it's not recognized by any state in the world it remains a russian outpost. and it still has its statue of lenin. my name is. i'm twenty six years all. of this time chairwoman of the and joe engine subversion all development of transnistria i think for me i have no idea now does all of this process we just go and groan. what will be our future but i hope it will be. better that it is now like because i'm very good like i'm very optimistic person. she sees herself as a sort of ambassador for russia the whole of transister your looks like a small soviet republic. people really love russia and there is almost no lag negative approach and negative seeing set of feelings to their russian russian federation in fact there is one culture that has one language the russian one their ease. like almost fun history. russia provide for this time a lot of a lot of assistance. the existence of transnistria is based on the old pillars of the soviet union the army a common language and a policy of dependency. moscow pays for part of the pensions of transnistria and retirees which certainly doesn't harm their love for russia. many of them long for the good old days. and. that john is a grandmother is a typical example. movie. when you look at a hand for example you have five fingers with five fingers it's easier to take or carry something try doing the same with one finger at. the soviet union was like a single powerful hand like today it's different all that is gone. everyone pulls in his own direction everyone has his own household i don't like this were never going to. be many people of her generation see only disadvantages in the way things are now and advantages in the way things work in the soviet system of values is still hanging on. but i think. we not only have russians and moldovans but also bug ariens and belarusians all kinds of nationalities fates brought us together. we live together in friendship in the collective where we worked today it's different your russian your ukrainian your your this or that or you. the new republics were also struggling with the deal lead to consequences of socialist planning each had always been dependent on the others and none of them could exist alone. moldova for example was the vineyard of the soviet union moldovan wines were exported all over the u.s.s.r. from moscow to minsk from leningrad to kiev. but once moldova distanced itself from moscow business slumped and not entirely coincidentally. there is also the book says that the denies. it was difficult to sell our products as was. no longer had the option to export. moves in the way used to export to russia ukraine and belarus now this was no longer possible. the old planned economy the economic foundation of the soviet union crumbled and has hindered the development of free markets to this day. many of the new states trying to implement a free market economy but they had no experience of anything like it at the beginning of the ninety's everything ground to a halt. even in russia. i knew a couple of salute. if that i did not mean is that it was an incredibly difficult task he is and we wanted to move step by step from a systematically organized system to a market economy going i mean i thought. we and the whole thing was supposed to happen in keeping with people's lives it was. a movie in the steam salute as would. the method of privatization russia chose looked like lenin's last bright idea each citizen received a share of the common property the factories and collective farms created during the soviet era vouchers and stock certificates were distributed. but the idea was doomed to failure. the police were stupid what scott school but a quick transition to fairy tales happens only in fairy tales in reality it doesn't work that the individual elements of the market were shocking for people who grew up in a socialist system because of so got unsuitable nor the guzzlers shock you wish. the former soviet citizens couldn't do anything with the vouchers because their value meant nothing to them. so they gave them away or exchange them often in return for daily necessities or they invested in stocks without knowing what was behind them. the old systems that you. used when you were in the soviet union people really didn't understand why they had to make money. no matter how much money they had they still couldn't buy an apartment anyway so. the apartments were allocated by the state. no matter how much money you had you couldn't buy property or an apartment for your daughter not even a car. but. now you could if you knew how but most russians didn't know. but if you were clever you could amass a fortune by buying up individually worthless vouchers so-called businessmen often from the old nomenclature tura had a field day. in the gray area between shrewdness and criminality they laid the foundations for incredible wealth and social influence the oligarchy sapir what was supposed to be a classless society was becoming the very opposite. just on the premier welcome it's and yet i mean it was no secret that the largest shareholders in a company were often their former managers. we called them red directors. anyone who managed a large industrial enterprise in the soviet union which as a rule became its owner during privatization when my. this person would be well acquainted with the company. and could take it over with little effort which is just. one of them's are going to say something is something and. post soviet society was tilting out of balance the old communists wanted to stop the privatization and rebelled against boris had seen . nationalists and populists like bloody measure enough skee who wanted to resurrect the old russia attracted more and more followers the russian parliament sometime started to resemble a carnival boxing match. but the measure and off ski ran for president in one nine hundred ninety three and almost seemed to have a chance of winning. him a great yellow we've got a democracy it was a lie it is the elections were fake privatisation was robberies crime it spirals us it was shared banditry all the bad things in the world were thrown and our country but that's why the population today the democrats so much the a democrat. in one thousand nine hundred three the reformists who had been elected to parliament before the disintegration of the soviet union tried to launch a coup against bars he had seen. he had seen responded by bombing the parliament building. this unprecedented move kept him in power. but the next elections were approaching and yeltsin had few successes to show. thank you also read a threat of the communist would regard to. and there was there and they damn our how to avoid it and yeltsin yeltsin has and his entourage decided to seek the support of so-called adi dogs who offered money for their support and for the campaign in exchange they give loans to yards and group in exchange for shares. that's the state going on to process. this is when the already guards took over the real power in the kremlin. these a rich man paid for yeltsin's election campaign and after he won they got their rewards high office in the government and especially great influence on yachts and . his power waned and he became little more than a puppet. one sick of that. he only listened to those who constantly told him what a genius he was. that he was on the same level as clinton and thatcher. or that he would be admitted to the g seven or g eight. that's why he conducted that orchestra in germany when he was drunk and after he'd been to america for the first time he said on t.v. i flew around the statue of liberty twice so i'm twice as free. during his second term in office yeltsin was increasingly ridiculed as some sort of clumsy dancing bear. he had become politically irrelevant. has to be in the last bit was it was need to go and slowly it became like it was in the byzantine empire with intrigues and nepotism and strange arrangements and crooked deals which had nothing to do with the people nor with the government. somehow comical characters suddenly started making the important decisions. in the usa usually. better rose was one of the most important soviet republics one of the four founding republics of the u.s.'s. and one of the three where nuclear weapons were stationed. today minsk is the capital of the republic of belarus it's a city full of red flags and it looks as if the soviet union had never been away. from. the. sun is thought sure she is now a pensioner in minsk his fate is a metaphor for the way the states of the former soviet union have changed. with no. one see acted on the world stage. he talked to bill clinton. and negotiated with the powerful. today he doesn't even get enough to live on as you want to believe. that it's one of them today i received a pension of thirty year a sense that. it was supposed to amount to seventy five percent of the salary of the president of parliament the supreme soviet. alcohol changed its name. as though there is no supreme soviet anymore well the piece that he goes i get the idea when those soviet and yet. when he became the first head of state in bell arose in one nine hundred ninety one church gave each wanted to orient his country westwards and move it from a planned to a free market economy as quickly as possible. as he had learned from the chair noble disaster lies in. illusions do nothing for a country's fortunes. with questionable would you like we needed a new beginning and took the correct a logical route that poland also took we wanted to privatized our economy everything had to belong to the states and we wanted our citizens to be part of it because they had nothing back then but it's a very difficult process that can never be completely fair it was probably. he quickly found out how difficult it was to broker reform to people who mourned of the soviet union and glorified its memory. the communists in his government blocked his reforms. in one nine hundred ninety three they succeeded in removing him from office through accusations of corruption and it later turned out to be false. the man behind the allegations was alexander look i shan't go. look at that which is you know they had to discredit me. is that why all of our propagandists have portrayed me as a corrupt man who didn't actually do anything apart from steal what solution is in you most of. them. in one thousand nine hundred four alexander lukashenko was elected president and has been in power ever since. he pushed through constitutional changes to allow him self more than two terms in office. look at genco is moscow's closest ally. he read nationalized many private companies . and in the mid one nine hundred ninety s. looked as if he would resurrect the old style soviet union including its official language. as to. his bella russian is worse than his russian years ago so he needs two official languages. he's a course badly educated dictator if they're gonna think that it's a group where mullah brazil ejector. opposition is largely for britain in belarus. in the one nine hundred ninety s. just gave rich stood as a candidate for a new party but he didn't stand a chance. at that time he still hoped to supplant the old values with new ones. it was a vain hope that the. overwhelming majority of people in belarus support democratic principles our leadership only came to power with russia's help. he would deliver is there has to be if he does what he wants and everyone else shuts up and accept that. if they have jacked he removes them from the fi trough and a fast buck but the west doesn't understand that we're not a state based on law and order and that the way to becoming one has been blocked we're not a country where the government is democratically elected and we were moving towards it but then we were stopped. in. the will of the liquid a bottomless no problem. so at least russia got one ally back but in the mid ninety's it was still mired in crisis marcel scene had become the antithesis of a strongman and was spending more time in hospital than in the kremlin. ordinary russians were worse off than ever. after the great ruble crisis in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine he had since stepped down in the middle of his second term of office. so yeah. we're seeing you know us our shares for. now with the end but i see you have really yeah. well stuff. the new top dog in the kremlin was to be ensigns prime minister vladimir putin putin quickly adopted the image of a few loose fighter and enjoys appearing in public in front of military symbols. i have the impression that president putin's personality is a combination of peter the great and stalin. he wants to turn russia which could actually be a free democratic and prosperous republic into an empire again as it was in the days of the czars and the soviet union. is that. on the right question that shows up but the longer the west puts up with his arms it's. the bloodier the end will be . and the bloodier any attempt to stop him. because the. putting aside a thousand times that we do not want to attack or threaten anyone and as i've already said europe has been attacking us for a thousand years but we have never attacked anyone. who certainly acts like a man who is capable of attack he gets his nickname nimitz the german from his years as a secret service operative in east germany he knows the mechanisms of power and believes that the pillars on which the soviet union rested haven't been lost forever. reassured and anxious at the same time all eyes are turned to moscow where the lights are back on in the kremlin. enters the conflict zone this week conflict zone is at the u.s. army solon first training area is a very are our guest is lieutenant general ban hodges commander of the some thirty thousand u.s. soldiers in europe with the subs console russia come on the in chief in washington many people in europe are wondering is america still a reliable partner. in thirty minutes d.w. . the top stories followed across social media share your comments and content welcome to. news. and d.-w. we speak your language being dug up. for content in dari pashto and order prospects for returning our web special meeting at the refugee journals life in germany and the prospects for those returning home. join the discussion on t w dot com and on facebook. prospects for returning news d.-w. maybe for minds. big on money fun and fame with. short. life and autonomy. three careers three german d.j. superstars. adored by their fans for cost the world for their electrifying life sets. into the world of festivals and backstage parties a place where no one attain stardom just like the. superstar deejays starting november twenty fifth on the d w. rocco has been found guilty of genocide and war crimes a u.n. tribunal sentenced the former bosnian.