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(dramatic music) - Good evening. President Reagan goes to Moscow for his summit with Mr. Gorbachev.

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It'll be his first visit to Russia, his first chance to sample glasnost at the heart of what he used to call the evil empire. Our report tonight is about that empire

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and the impact of glasnost upon it. Because of the sensitivity of the issues involved, our film was shot in secret and on amateur video. Nationalism in the Soviet Union

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is one of the most explosive questions facing the Kremlin, and it puts glasnost to a crucial test. How do you offer the freedom needed to unlock the economic--

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- A famous London landmark. Where exactly, Sambach Nigel? - Piccadilly Circus. - It is. - To rediscover a national identity

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long suppressed by the Union of Soviet Socialists. Our greatest asset, nationalism, no matter what form it may take, is blind. Attempts at self-isolation only lead to a spiritual dead end.

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The warning was directed at Armenia and Azerbaijan, where nationalism has flared into dangerous confrontation. But the message was also intended for the other Soviet republics,

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and not least for the Baltic state of Latvia, where nationalism had long been dormant, but where Glasnost has resurrected old dreams and new hopes, and where they too have a message, a letter to Gorbachev.

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(dramatic music) (dramatic music) Like all good Soviet citizens, these children in Latvia are being put through their paces

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in preparation for May Day. For more than 40 years, the Soviets have imposed their communism, their customs, and the Russian language

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on the children of this Baltic Republic. From an early age, there's little choice but to obey the power most Latvians believe has been imposed by an army of occupation.

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But Gorbachev has brought new hopes. His policy of glasnost or openness has impressed even those who've suffered most under the repressive regimes of the past.

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Lydia Lasmaner was released from labor camp last year. She spent a total of 15 years in prison for nationalism. (Lydia speaking in foreign language) - When I was in the prison camp,

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I never believed that we would ever get out of there, because it did not seem possible under the existing special law, which extended our term of imprisonment

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whenever we committed the least transgression. This law had been specially invented to ensure that people like myself should never reappear in society again.

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And suddenly Gorbachev altered all this. I do believe in his Glasnost. In any case, I would very much like to believe in it. - In Latvia, as throughout the Soviet Union,

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there's an air of excitement and anticipation. The children of Glasnost are still taught to revere Lenin, but other idols have tumbled. Gorbachev has started to rewrite Soviet history,

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to admit what was previously inadmissible, to shatter old taboos. He's even publicly acknowledged the truth about Stalin's brutality,

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experienced firsthand by thousands of Latvians. But Glasnost hasn't ended repression. In January, Juris Vidinč, a senior doctor and high-ranking official,

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was stripped of party membership and demoted when he joined the human rights group Helsinki 86. (speaking in foreign language) - Every day which prolongs so-called glasnost

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means our partial victory, because people are ceasing to be afraid. They begin to think, they begin to take part in activities, and I believe that if this process continues

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for another month, two months, or a year, and I believe it will go on, that will be our victory. - In the center of the capital, Riga, monument to freedom and the motherland stands tall.

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It's in what's now called Lenin Street, formerly Adolf Hitler Street, and before that, Freedom Street. The names encapsulate Latvia's recent history,

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a nation torn apart by two opposing powers. In the First World War, Latvia fought off the Russians and the Germans, each anxious to control this gateway

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to both Europe and the Soviet Union. Latvia's brief period as an independent state began in 1918. A democracy was set up under President Shaxter.

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He was to have only three successors. Independence and prosperity lasted just 21 years. In 1939, Hitler and Stalin carved up Eastern Europe in a secret agreement in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

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The Soviets took Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. They soon tightened their grip on this strategic area, extending their boundary to the Baltic coast, strengthening their land and sea defenses.

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In June 1940, Red Army tanks rolled into Riga. They invaded all three Baltic states. At the same time, Paris fell to the Nazis, so the world hardly noticed what was happening

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to Latvia and her neighbors. Then came Stalin's brutal deportations. The victims, anyone who might question the Soviet's right to be there.

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15,000 Latvians vanished in one night alone. - In the morning, father and I went to see who'd been taken and who'd been left behind. We simply went along the road and I turned into a farmstead

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where some of my school friends lived. We saw the granny sitting on the doorstep nursing the youngest boy of the family. She'd gone with the child to a neighbor's house

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And in the meantime, the farmer, his wife, and their two older boys had been taken away. And similar scenes were to be seen all over the place. They were all deported to Russia.

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The majority never returned. When the Nazis invaded in July 1941, they were welcomed in the streets, and under the Nazis, atrocities continued.

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(dramatic music) Tens of thousands of Jews were herded to the pine forests on the outskirts of Riga, made to dig their own graves and shot.

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This is the site of a Nazi concentration camp. The inscription reads, Beyond this gate, the earth moans. The metronome inside this tomb represents the heartbeat

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of the 90,000 Latvians massacred during the German occupation. Not even children were spared. When the Red Army re-invaded Latvia

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to repel the Nazis in 1944, some saw them as liberators. Thousands more fled in terror. Latvia was forcibly made part of the Soviet Union while the West turned a blind eye.

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(speaking in foreign language) - We were simply ignored and left to the Soviet Union. Not a single Western state, neither the USA, Britain, nor France said anything on our behalf.

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We were simply presented to the Soviet Union. - The Soviets have officially ignored the freedom monument. It was forbidden to gather around this powerful symbol of all that they wished to suppress.

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But that didn't stop people remembering. The Helsinki 86 group organized a demonstration on the 23rd of August last year, the date Hitler signed Latvia over to Stalin.

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In films smuggled out of Latvia, we've been able to piece together the events of that day. Full of the new confidence that Glasnost has engendered, 5,000 people came out onto the streets of Riga,

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clutching flowers in the national colors of red and white. But official reports said only a few dozen hooligans were present. The authorities refused to allow people up to the monument.

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The KGB placed the organizers under house arrest. The group painted a banner saying, "Helsinki 86 are imprisoned here." They held it out of the window to catch the attention of passers-by.

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It was too late to stop the demonstration by removing the ringleaders. People were growing angry because they weren't allowed to lay flowers at the monument. Gorbachev came and said, "The monument must be open, any Latvian can come." - Thank you. - You did the right thing.

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Eventually the crowds got to the monument and laid their flowers. Patriotic emotions that people had dared not express publicly for 40 years came flooding out. The demonstration moved 86 year old Yulis Arbols to join the Helsinki group. The Russians have never treated us as equals, more like animals, as something inferior.

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And then we showed them in front of the monument that we were a nation. They too realized that Latvians did exist. That was a great joy. And in this state of elation, my wife says, "I behave as if I were 10 years younger."

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The ever-vigilant KGB seems to have been virtually untouched by the spirit of Glasnost. This man is a KGB photographer. And this is the actual footage shot by the KGB that day. Every detail is carefully recorded.

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Many don't want their faces on the KGB files. Lydia Lasmina says the KGB's still a law unto themselves. They've stopped her attending nationalist demonstrations. I was stopped by KGB officials earlier on, forcibly pushed into a car and taken home.

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There I was kept under guard until the following afternoon. For 24 hours I was prevented from leaving my home. Because of dissatisfaction at the official reports of the demonstrations last year, a new journal called "Ausachlus" or "New Dawn" has been started.

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It contains articles on nationalism and politics and has close links with Helsinki 86. The editor is Ivar Šukovskis. The paper is not officially recognized and the KGB have attempted to stop him publishing it, threatening him with imprisonment and a hefty fine if he continues.

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He is frequently tailed by the KGB and it is particularly risky for him to meet foreigners, but he wants the world to know about his journal. We met in the middle of the night in a house on the outskirts of Riga. The official press has been telling lies for many years, all the years of the Soviet regime in fact.

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It has been telling wicked lies and has been able to lie with impunity. No Soviet citizen has been able to refute these lies. And if they started using frankness and speaking the truth, they would have to admit above all that Latvia is an occupied territory.

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And if they admitted that, the administration would have to go and give the Latvian nation the right to decide its own future. In all republics, whilst paying lip service to ethnic diversity, the Soviet Union has forced Russian culture and Russian language on the various nations it now rules. The aim was to unite through a common allegiance to Soviet communism.

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This was done by coercion, by forcing the native population to suppress its own national identity, and it has bred bitter resentment. Most Latvians have no wish to take part in official Soviet celebrations. Latvians don't want to parade for workers' unity, because this so-called unity has so often hurt them, made them poor, deprived them of everything in the name of the unity

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of the workers of the Soviet Union, and the whole idea has become prostituted. That's why they don't take part in such a parade. Those who go do so because they are required to take part. Those that do take part may be allowed to wear their national costume, but they would

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not be allowed to carry their national flag. This is the official Soviet Latvian flag. The original, two red stripes with a white stripe across the middle, has been banned since Stalin's time.

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(speaking in foreign language) - The authorities here went to ridiculous lengths in their efforts to eliminate Latvia's national colors. They even ordered an additional red stripe

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to be added to the red and white markings on our ambulances here, despite the fact that those were internationally recognized markings. This was done to prevent the Latvians

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from being reminded of their national flag. (speaking in foreign language) And those who were brave enough to raise the national flag and were caught were given a five-year prison sentence.

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Imagine, five years in a prison camp for raising a flag. - Such punishments continue. Last year, a man got a two-year suspended sentence and a 20% reduction in his wages for hoisting not this,

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but the former Latvian flag from a water tower. We snatched these shots of the KGB headquarters in Riga. In 1983, Lydia Lasmana spent eight months imprisoned in the basement.

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She had recorded the national anthem from a Western broadcast and played it to an old school friend. (Lydia speaking in foreign language)

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It wasn't propaganda to her, and she testified so in court. She said she could sing the national anthem herself and that in fact nobody else had been listening to the recording. But to our authorities, two persons constitute a gang.

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The Soviets seem to have found all sorts of reasons to imprison you, but what do you think the real reason that they keep putting you in prison? Well, I think that they are simply afraid of expressions of nationalism, since they try to quash such expressions everywhere,

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either through Russification or by isolating patriots. But I cannot help it. I grew up in the nationalist spirit. I was educated in Latvian schools.

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I cannot be changed. Immigrant factory workers, mainly Russians, have flooded into Riga since the Soviets took power. The city is surrounded by hastily built flats to accommodate them.

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It was a deliberate strategy to dilute the power of Latvian nationals. In Riga, they're now outnumbered by two to one. Official business is conducted in Russian, And if people insist on speaking Latvian,

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they can lay themselves open to a charge of anti-Soviet activity. - They used to hate us, and when we went to buy some necessities in the shop,

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they would say, "Speak intelligibly "or you won't get anything." And my wife always took me along on her shopping trips to interpret for her, since she does not speak any Russian.

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It always used to offend us. Any animal, any dog has the right to defend itself if it is attacked, if it is beaten, but we have been deprived of the right of self-defense.

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We are maligned, we are slandered in the press, lies are told about us, or only half-truths. We are not allowed to defend ourselves. - Old and young alike are affected.

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Nina tells of a train journey with her young son. - We took our seats. Then some army people and a couple of elderly Russians got into the compartment.

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The latter demanded that I should give up my seat, but I said this was a coach reserved for children and they should try other compartments. They became abusive,

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and one Russian woman called me a pig in broken Latvian. My child said to me, "Mummy, why did she say you're a pig?" The army people and other Russians called me a young good for nothing, blasted native and a fascist who should have been killed.

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They actually called me a fascist. I then called them invaders, and was expecting at least some of the Latvians on the train to help me, but no one stirred to defend me.

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Many Latvians have suffered on two counts, persecuted for their nationality and their religion. The Soviets felt threatened by the church, the only nationwide organization not under party control.

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Under Gorbachev, things have improved. He says a new law will reflect the interests of religious groups, but no one yet knows exactly what that means.

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In Latvia, the previously docile Lutheran church is taking the initiative. A group called Rebirth and Renewal under Father Rubenis is fighting for greater religious and nationalist freedom.

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Although the atmosphere in the last three years has appreciably altered, regarding the Church that is, it does not mean that it has in any way come near those standards of the Western or democratic society which are established in the world.

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It's still not possible to give children formal religious instruction, but there have been some triumphs. The state appointed church authorities disapproved of the way the priest at this church

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had been speaking out on religious and nationalist issues. They sent this new priest to replace him. The congregation refused to allow the new priest to enter their church,

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and even tried to physically carry him out of the porch. Eventually, their priest was reinstated, but demoted. This kind of struggle occurs almost daily in Latvia, as people push the system to its limits,

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daring the authorities to define the boundaries of Glasnost. - We feel at present also in the attitude towards the church that the forces against Glasnost are very strong and that they're being rallied.

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And we feel it particularly strongly at the moment in our republic, as is the case, I believe, in all the outlying areas of the Soviet Union.

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Because there is a great difference between what is possible in Moscow, or what happens in Moscow, and what happens here in Riga. Who's leading the opposition then? I mean, who is the opposition?

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I think they are all those whom we now call Stalinists. What does that mean? Explain that to me. It means all that section of the bureaucracy

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who want to retain their former positions, their former methods of work, their former privileges, their former elevated position compared with the rest of society.

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I think it is mainly a question of privileges and unwillingness to share power. - As the old guard and the new guard fight it out, There's an air of excitement in the Soviet Union,

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a sense that almost anything may be possible. But Gorbachev's achievements have to be measured in concrete terms too. The original motivation for his reforms

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was after all economic. And on the economic front, things have not yet improved. These apples on sale at the private market where the best quality food is sold

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cost the equivalent of over a pound a pound. Tomatoes were over five pounds a pound. Sugar is rationed to a kilo a person a month, and there are still long queues for basic necessities.

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In the cheapest state shops, you can't even get potatoes at this time of year. And in the private market, prices are so high that some people can only afford one potato

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when they finally get to the top of the queue. Gorbachev's openness has raised people's expectations. He may find it impossible to satisfy their new demands. - We have already risen above the status

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of being a mere human rights group, and we must think of something bigger than that. We must think about a program. Perhaps Helsinki 86 could even become a party in the future.

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- Surely you don't really believe that Mr. Gorbachev's glass lost will allow you to go that far? - The constitution doesn't prohibit

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the founding of another party. The constitution says the Communist Party has the leading role. We lay no claim to the position of being the leading party.

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We leave that to circumstances. It depends on what is or is not allowed. - It's still not clear what the authorities will allow. A huge section of Soviet society is reluctant to change.

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The police even tried to stop us filming this scene. If Gorbachev is to succeed, he'll have to carry the party with him next month, when for the first time,

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there'll be a vote on his reforms at a special party conference. Gorbachev's opponents are strong. They're already using the upsurge in nationalism

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as a pretext to oppose glasnost. It may be too late to compromise. (speaking in foreign language) I think that nationalism is his main concern.

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The deeper Glasnost goes, the more prominent expressions of nationalism become. And I believe that these problems are now so severe that such demonstrations must take place. These problems must be solved in some way. Either we are suppressed in the way it happened in Poland,

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where curfews and the army were used, or else our demands must be satisfied. (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language)

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The people we spoke to were all sure of one thing, that if Gorbachev does not succeed, there will be a return to the brutality and repression of the past.

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And as nationalists, they will be in the front line. [chanting] [Music] [Music]

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