The fascinating history of the military force of the Soviet Union. For 70 years, the Red Army was one of the foundations of the USSR, an instrument of fear as well as admiration, a symbol of liberation as well as coercion. While everyone knows that Trotsky's name is attached to its creation, most of its past is made up of military defeats and failures, contrary to the common idea. This documentary explores its history, combining epic narrative and deconstruction of the myth.

For the past century, Russian history has also been the history of its security services. They were used by the Soviet state to crush dissent. Millions suffered at their hands. Mass executions, secret wars, spies capable of stealing the atomic bomb, poisoning scandals all add up to the most extraordinary and dangerous security network the world has ever known. But even today, the security network is arguably stronger than ever. This is the History of the KGB, told through its veterans and its victims.
Founded in 1917, Cheka was the predecessor organization of the KGB. Set up as a 'temporary' measure by Lenin, unknown number of Soviet citizens would die at the hands of the secret services as internal dissents in the 1920s. An inglorious chapter is the "Great Terror" phase, when millions of Soviet citizens were convicted and executed in mock trials under Stalin's rule in the 1930s. Outside the Soviet Union, during the WWII they were busy infiltrating German High Command, British Intelligence and America's Manhattan Project. The Cold War had begun in earnest.