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00:00This is a production of the U.S. Department of State.
00:30For 50 years after the Second World War, Soviet muscle, both military and political, dominated
00:43the Baltic states.
00:48But in 1991 they gained their independence.
00:51Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were now free to live their lives, revive their culture
00:58and clear up the mess.
01:14This is Tallinn, capital of Estonia.
01:19From here I'll be travelling through the Baltics, south to Kaliningrad.
01:23When I was last here, 16 years ago, it was an unwelcoming Soviet republic.
01:28Left to its own devices, Tallinn has boomed.
01:35Estonia has a population not much more than Birmingham.
01:39And everyone is doing rather nicely.
01:43I'm driving along the coast to meet some of these newly affluent Estonians who are trying
01:48to come to terms with it all.
02:02The days of communist conformity are long gone.
02:05Our hosts, Margus, Evelyn and their family, live in a pyramid.
02:09Evelyn, what's it like living inside a pyramid?
02:16It helps to find the way to do things and the way you really feel and find the power
02:23inside you that's like God in you.
02:29It helps to find God in you because God is everything.
02:38I mean God is like the basic energy.
02:42If you find this God, you can create whatever.
02:47Are Estonians particularly interested in spiritual things?
02:53Many people are searching for spiritual enlightenment and are looking for different practices and
03:01how to get their life flowing easier and to be happier.
03:12Living in a pyramid is clearly not the only way to make your life happier and tonight
03:16friends and neighbours are here to try another approach.
03:19At the moment it mainly involves staring.
03:42The sun is at last beginning to set and Margus, our host, is making final preparations.
04:06It looks like any summer barbecue but the only difference is that what's going on this
04:09barbecue are the guests.
04:30Margus leads off.
04:38Intrepid ladies follow him.
04:44Some of the men are not so sure.
05:02Why do you think people do this, Marcus?
05:07I think they do that because of the same reason why I do that.
05:12It gives me a good feeling and my heart will be open.
05:19I know who I am better.
05:23Is it about conquering fear?
05:27Yes, yes.
05:29To understand that fear, how we can be without fear.
05:35We have to bring fear so close if we can, to look what is fear.
05:42I have to say, I feel I'm scared at the moment more than...
05:50Really?
05:51Really.
05:52Really.
05:53That's great.
05:54It's so funny.
05:55Really.
05:56I feel, what I have to say, how can I say?
05:59You did very well.
06:00Very well.
06:01Very good.
06:02It's a curiously emotional evening.
06:04Though I'm afraid the only things I'll be putting on fire are chestnuts.
06:15Further up the coast are 100 concrete suitcases.
06:22They symbolise the plight of all those Estonians who fled abroad when the Red Army marched into their country in 1944.
06:31This is an art collection assembled by Jan Manitzki, who was a baby in arms, was caught up in it all.
06:37Just from this coastline here, many small fishing boats left over the Finnish Gulf to Finland or the Baltics to Sweden.
06:47And most people could only bring with them a suitcase.
06:52And many times when the small boats were crowded, then they even had to leave them on the shore here.
06:59So this is some kind of reminder of what has happened on these shores.
07:11Having made his money as business manager of the pop group Abba, Manitzki came back home and offered his expertise to Estonia's new free market economy.
07:21Now all his energies are going into this art centre.
07:25His paintings by Estonian artists are a bit of everything.
07:29The good, the bad and the ugly.
07:34As my mother would say, I don't think I could live with that.
07:37I would neither put it in my living room.
07:41No, exactly. Perhaps in the bathroom.
07:44Okay.
07:45Jan shows me his latest acquisition, and very topical it is.
07:49This is the painter Yuri Arak's view of the organised, by individuals, demolishing of the monstrum.
07:59The monstrum being?
08:00The monstrum. This is the Soviet system.
08:02Right, right.
08:03We started up in a very, very difficult situation.
08:08Yeah.
08:10The Estonian economy and the whole society was so integrated in the Soviet system.
08:16Yeah.
08:17For example, to illustrate it, a big shoe making factory in Tallinn produced left foot shoes number 44.
08:27Yeah.
08:28The right foot shoes were made in Irkutsk maybe or Murmansk or somewhere.
08:35Yeah.
08:36Back in Tallinn, the incoming ferries are full as yet more people discover the unhurried appeal of the old town.
08:46Across the Gothic rooftops rises the new Estonia, a mini Manhattan with a state-of-the-art electronic economy.
08:55But in Old Town Square, I discover there are limits to the Estonian dream.
09:01Businessman Peter Noll tells me that for the Russians who stayed on here, the government has devised an exquisite torture.
09:09Russians are obliged to learn Estonian, aren't they?
09:11That's correct.
09:12In order to become an Estonian citizen, you must pass the test in Estonian, which comprises of about 3,000 characters.
09:19That's why we have still, I think it's around 10,000 or just slightly below,
09:24That's why we have still, I think it's around 10,000 or just slightly below,
09:28of residents in Estonia without nationality.
09:32So they're not citizens of Estonia, but they're not Russians anymore because they've given up their Russian citizenship.
09:37So what rights do they have?
09:39They have the right to live here.
09:42They're mainly elderly people which are not learning the language anymore, but the family are taking care of them.
09:50However, this has been already discussed by the European Union as well,
09:54because you cannot have it that somebody's a resident in your country who has been living all his life and cannot have a citizenship.
10:02So it's an issue actually on the European Union agenda.
10:13In Soviet times, the Baltic states were seen as something of a bracing seaside sanatorium.
10:18I've been recommended a clinic outside Tallinn where all sorts of traditional treatments await the tired traveller.
10:25The lady I've come to see is one of those Russians who stayed on.
10:33Her name is Lyudmila Agayeva and she's an Herudo therapist.
10:41Next.
10:42Hello.
10:43Hello, how are you?
10:45Very bad.
10:47I'll help you.
10:49Let's go with me.
10:50I'm very bad because I've come here.
10:59Do you want the take-off shirt?
11:02Everything?
11:03Small striptease.
11:04Small striptease?
11:05Yes.
11:13There we go.
11:14It's yellow.
11:15I can go behind the screens.
11:20There we go.
11:22Small, not very good striptease.
11:24Is that okay?
11:25Enough?
11:26Is that okay?
11:27Enough?
11:28Very nice.
11:29Very nice.
11:31Please.
11:32Okay.
11:33On back or front?
11:35No.
11:36Back, okay.
11:38See, I've never done this before.
11:40This is the first time, so I don't know what happens.
11:43Comfort?
11:44Do you have comfort?
11:45Yes, I'm comfortable.
11:46Very comfortable.
11:47Yes.
11:48Yes.
11:49My heart's beating rather fast.
11:51Isn't it?
11:53Quickly, quickly.
11:54Very fast, yes.
11:55I'm nervous, you see.
11:56I've never had small creatures.
11:58You see, there are books.
12:00Books.
12:08You can see.
12:09Yeah.
12:12Oh, right.
12:15Oh, yes, that doesn't make me feel any better.
12:18Better, very better.
12:20But they work.
12:22They do work to make me feel stronger.
12:25Yes.
12:26Better.
12:27Translator.
12:29I've been doing so much traveling.
12:31I just, oh, is that on my body now?
12:33So it is.
12:34Oh.
12:35Well, I experience a slight sting.
12:37Nothing more than having an injection.
12:44So it's sucking out bad blood or?
12:49Yes, yes.
12:52Bad blood.
12:53Stuck to you now, isn't it?
12:54Oh, ow.
12:55Oh.
12:56Oh.
12:57What was it now?
12:58Mm-hmm.
12:59Definitely like a little electric charge.
13:01Mm-hmm.
13:05These special leeches, leeches that move from.
13:08Yes, yes, special.
13:11It's not so bad, it's just.
13:15Start thinking about what is going on.
13:20Little black things.
13:21Oops.
13:22With their heads into your body.
13:24Dogs.
13:26Dogs.
13:28Oh, it's like a series of quite sharp electric shocks.
13:32Oof.
13:33Ooh.
13:35Ooh, it's quite, that's quite a strong stinging sensation.
13:47Put it this way, we'll be doing it again for a bit.
13:54Ah, I feel better.
13:55How much blood do they take?
13:57One glass vodka.
13:59One glass of vodka?
14:00Yes.
14:02Yes, please.
14:03200.
14:04I like it straight up with a twist.
14:05Maybe 300 millilitres.
14:07Ah.
14:08Are you enjoying it?
14:09Ooh, look, they're getting quite engorged.
14:15Is that growing?
14:17Full of blood.
14:18Early stimulation.
14:19They're stimulating the leech.
14:21Yes.
14:22Oh, gosh.
14:25That's something I thought I'd never seen in my life, someone stimulating a leech.
14:30It's the first time for everything.
14:39Do they have teeth?
14:43Yes, teeth.
14:44Yes.
14:45Understand?
14:46I understand.
14:47300 teeth.
14:48300 teeth?
14:49Yes.
14:50Each of these little fellows?
14:51Yes.
14:53And three jaws.
14:55Three...
14:56Jaws.
14:57Jaws.
14:58Oh, jaws.
14:59Yes, three jaws.
15:00Three...
15:01Ooh, that gives them some power.
15:04Three jaws.
15:05I mean, that's great.
15:07You know, breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time.
15:13After they finish...
15:15Yes.
15:16...take the blood...
15:17Yes.
15:18...then what?
15:19What happens then?
15:20Do you kill them?
15:21I kill.
15:22They...
15:23I kill.
15:24Yes.
15:25Why?
15:26Because...
15:27I couldn't be fond of them.
15:28Yes.
15:29They're my friends.
15:30Yes.
15:31Yes.
15:32Well, I don't want you to kill them.
15:33No, kill...
15:34Can they go somewhere to retire?
15:35No, kill...
15:36Somewhere where they can retire?
15:37Sit quietly in an armchair.
15:40It's a surprise for you.
15:41Read leech weekly.
15:42Please.
15:43Yes.
15:44Yes.
15:45You're a hard woman.
15:46When they are hungry...
15:49Yes.
15:51...you part second.
15:55OK.
15:57They're still sucking away at those, aren't they?
15:59Can you imagine that?
16:00Halfway through a nice little steak...
16:02What?
16:03...and someone comes and pulls a chair away.
16:05Don't want.
16:06OK.
16:10Is that blood in them?
16:11Yes.
16:12Oh, can I just touch them?
16:14Very nice blood.
16:16Yes, there you are.
16:17Thank you very much.
16:18Please.
16:20Frank, thank you, Arthur.
16:21The hermaphrodites.
16:22Thank you, Frank and Diana.
16:24Thank you, Arthur and Elizabeth.
16:28You've done a good job.
16:29Here you are.
16:30There they go.
16:31Yes.
16:32They know alcoholics.
16:36Ow!
16:37Now that hurts.
16:42I don't want to wash them.
16:43Vodka.
16:44Very strong vodka.
16:46That's what it is.
16:50Mm.
16:53You're right.
16:56Can I have some of that vodka?
16:59Do you want vodka?
17:00No.
17:01Want, want.
17:02Yeah, lovely.
17:03But they've had the vodka.
17:06I have vodka.
17:09Ooh.
17:10Oh!
17:13Now that's something.
17:14That is something else.
17:17Oh!
17:19Four breasts.
17:24Merci.
17:25You're going to kill me.
17:26Your friends, yes.
17:27I don't want to wash that.
17:30All finished.
17:35They die like that.
17:36Yes.
17:38No long worn out suffering.
17:40Now I was mafioso.
17:42You were?
17:43Mafioso.
17:44You're a caring person,
17:45but when the moment comes,
17:47you can turn into a killer.
17:52Natasha!
18:10This is Ape,
18:11my idea of the perfect border post.
18:15First time, yeah.
18:17No queues, no metal detectors,
18:18just a man in a hut.
18:21Thank you very much.
18:25Pausing only to correct my pronunciation
18:27to Arpe, not Ape,
18:29my courteous guard shows me into Latvia.
18:33Half as big again as Estonia,
18:35its population is little more than two million.
18:38Is this why their trains are so short?
18:44Something's missing.
18:45This is supposed to be the 750.
18:48Maybe it's a national holiday.
18:50Maybe they've heard about the leadships.
18:59Eventually an engine arrives
19:01and we become, officially,
19:03the 750 from Luchsni to Gulbeni.
19:15The train is arriving.
19:19The train is arriving.
19:34We've got to sit down.
19:37We've got to sit down.
19:38One way.
19:41One way.
19:43One way.
20:02Our progress through this sylvan countryside
20:04seems unreal,
20:05almost dreamlike,
20:07which seems entirely suitable
20:09for this is Midsummer's Eve
20:11and a big night for Latvians
20:12as people up and down the country
20:14gather for the pagan festival of Jani.
20:23The Latvians converted to Christianity
20:25much later than most of Europe,
20:27so resolutely pagan with the local tribes
20:29that in 1198
20:31the Pope launched a crusade against them.
20:34Ligua, ligua...
20:40Here in the heart of the countryside
20:42the pre-Christian traditions of Jani
20:44are being painstakingly revived.
20:46The women wear garlands
20:48which must contain at least 27 different flowers.
20:52New arrivals at the celebration
20:54are ritually insulted
20:56and then expected to reply.
21:00Ligua, ligua...
21:04Ligua, ligua...
21:09Once you've shown you can hold your own
21:11you're allowed to hug the host.
21:21Jani is a celebration of birth,
21:23growth and fecundity
21:25and they do it in style.
21:27The Latvians have preserved
21:291,200...
21:31melodies
21:33to sing on this one night
21:35and 28,000
21:37texts and little
21:39song lyrics.
21:41Are these written down or just handed down?
21:43They're written down as a book.
21:51At the moment the sad thing is that
21:53people just get drunk on Jani
21:55and they think that tradition is not necessary
21:57and they don't know what to do on Jani
21:59so that's all they do.
22:02In the evening we say goodbye to the sun
22:04in the morning we welcome the sun again
22:06and you can't sleep tonight.
22:08I don't need a blanket.
22:10No, you stay here.
22:14Dancers circle the oak tree
22:16symbol of strength and virility.
22:22Single women
22:24are entreated to find partners.
22:26The food consists
22:28of cheese and bread
22:30a little severe
22:32but bread and cheese
22:34were all that was left to eat
22:36before the new harvest.
22:40Mind you, there's plenty of homebrew
22:42to wash it down.
22:48I hear my name called out
22:50and fear the worst.
22:57Behind a fog's powder
22:59was a fearful specimen.
23:10Hear my name, see my strength
23:12and fear the worst.
23:16Hear my name, see my strength
23:20and fear the worst.
23:26What were they saying?
23:32They were saying to you that you are now Michels, not Michael, Michels, which is the Latvian
23:39version, and the oak is always the symbol of strength and virility, and on Midsummer
23:47Night it's in the circle, it's concentrated on your head, so you are crowned with strength,
23:57virility, and they're singing and wishing that you will see everything well, you will
24:03hear everything well, and you will film everything well, and the filming part is part of the
24:10ancient tradition.
24:11Do I have to wear this throughout the rest of the filming?
24:14Of course, and the rest of the night.
24:26Believe me, it's not easy to dance with half a national park on your head.
24:39The setting of the Midsummer Night's Sun is the most important moment of the evening.
25:03Just before eleven o'clock, we process up the nearest hill to watch and to celebrate.
25:18This is developing into quite a test of stamina, and I've lost my national park.
25:31As darkness falls, last year's Yanni wreath is ceremonially burnt, and a symbolic new
25:48fire is lit.
26:07A blazing wheel of hopes and fears and thanks bowls down the hill, and we all cheer.
26:26Riga, the Latvian capital, rich in buildings from Stalinist grandeur to medieval gothic,
26:31has recently acquired a reputation as a safe place for summit meetings.
26:42To find out more about Riga's status as a world host, I'm on my way to meet one of the
26:47Baltic's top chefs, Martin Rittins.
26:51A Latvian who learnt his trade in Canada and Corby, North Hans, he now cooks for the world's
26:56most powerful.
26:59This is a starter that we did for George Bush when he was here, and crayfish, and crayfish
27:04is very, very traditional.
27:05Did he ask for this?
27:06No, he didn't, he didn't, but we talked, we talked to his, um, to his, um, you can take
27:18this home with you.
27:19Oh, thank you.
27:20So it's a Baltic crayfish, is this?
27:21It's a Baltic crayfish, it's a fresh water.
27:22It's a team work, and Bush has a team, so do we here, so it's, um, the sauce, it's onion,
27:40sauce American, but with Latvian produce, carrots, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and cognac.
27:50Cognac.
27:51Cognac.
27:52Now, I want to see, how can you...
27:59All right.
28:02Up, up, up, up, up, up, up, higher, higher.
28:08Now, when George came, he only had an hour and a half.
28:13Well...
28:14Now, can I, now, I'll show you, I'll show you the trick.
28:18Like a tennis.
28:21You don't shake the pan, you shake the wrist.
28:24All right.
28:25So heavy, that, whoops.
28:28So incredibly heavy.
28:33Now, how do you think...
28:34Oh, wow, that is heavy.
28:36Respect, you guys who do that.
28:38How do you think Fanny Craddock did this?
28:40Yeah, I don't...
28:41She did it...
28:42I think she must have had a few pints beforehand.
28:44And a bit of a color.
28:45It must have been something stronger.
28:47When you have someone like the President of the United States,
28:50or whatever, when you have your friend George,
28:53President of the United States, and Laura to cook for,
28:56is it a big palaver?
28:58Have you got security people coming around, keeping an eye on you?
29:01It's very, very much so.
29:05Like we do all the state dinners,
29:08but never anything has been like this.
29:11And we had three days with the security people,
29:16their chefs.
29:17Three days for one meal?
29:18For one meal, yes.
29:20I was with their chefs for three days, we discussed the menu,
29:23we went through it very much in detail,
29:26and I had to show them where everything came from.
29:30Did they give you any juicy details about it?
29:32Absolutely.
29:33Don't give him apricot jam, because his leg starts to wobble.
29:43Now, here we'll try again.
29:45The tennis.
29:52It's in the wrist.
29:58It's not shake and bake.
30:01No, no, no, but in my case it is there.
30:08Let me see your wrist.
30:09Look at that, look at that.
30:11That is a wrist, that's noble, that's pathetic.
30:14That's a tennis.
30:15I'll work on it, I'll work on it.
30:22A lot.
30:23Not the whole lot, as you...
30:33We nearly had a Molotov cocktail.
30:36Yes, we did.
30:38You were telling me, actually, in the kitchen,
30:40the process is he vets, his chefs are with you for three days.
30:45For three days.
30:46We cook for 22, and I couldn't say this.
30:52I usually say the nicest one, that's for our president,
30:55or that's for that prime minister, but we weren't allowed this time.
31:00I had to keep my mouth shut, which is difficult for me.
31:05And they said that's the one, even if it was the most horrible one,
31:10because we're under stress, pressure, very quick, a la minute,
31:15it was all cooked in the last minute, it wasn't pre-cooked,
31:19and that was the one that he had.
31:22Now, another one I had to taste,
31:25and another one one of his security people tasted.
31:29Really?
31:30Yes.
31:31So it was very exciting.
31:32Your life was on the line.
31:34It was like a movie.
31:35Really?
31:36Yeah.
31:37And that's the way they do it.
31:39That's it, yeah.
31:50On Latvia's Baltic coast stands an abandoned cluster
31:53of concrete housing blocks,
31:55the remains of a once substantial Soviet presence.
32:00MUSIC
32:11Once they spoke of pride, achievement and a better future.
32:15Now they're turning to dust.
32:19And this is the reason why they were here.
32:22This was one of the Soviet Union's most important ears
32:25on the outside world.
32:28So here we are, in the belly of the beast.
32:33It was so important that when the Cold War ended,
32:36the people of Latvia were forced to leave their homes
32:39and go to the Soviet Union.
32:42In the belly of the beast.
32:45It was so important that when the Cold War ended,
32:48the people who built it tried to destroy it.
32:51But they reckoned without world opinion.
32:54In the old control room, Joris Zagars, a Latvian astronomer,
32:58explains how they saved the Ventspils radio telescope
33:01in the nick of time.
33:03And it was like in a fairy tale,
33:05let's say some 15 minutes before execution,
33:09or a little bit more,
33:11the order of destroying was changed
33:14for some kind of electrical demolition,
33:17but not touching the important parts of the instrument.
33:20And it was because the world's radioastronomical society
33:24was making some protestations,
33:27as well as the Russian Academy of Science,
33:30that to destroy the best radio telescope in Northern Europe
33:34only on political reasons, it's some kind of vandalism.
33:38Instead, they sent in a wrecking team
33:40to make it impossible to use.
33:42This is one of the examples of electric sabotage,
33:47because all these connections have been dismounted and disconnected.
33:52And no paper, no diagram how to connect them.
33:56So it was some kind of scientific puzzle for our engineers,
34:01and some challenge to really put them together.
34:04And this is not the only box.
34:06We have at least four such boxes, eight panels.
34:10But how to connect it was a hard job.
34:13And this demolition work, it was performed during one week.
34:18We have worked four years to put them back.
34:23How does this compare in sort of size and scale
34:26to other radio telescopes?
34:29From the point of the scale, it's not the biggest one.
34:32In Europe, here are three to five,
34:34the bigger radio telescopes of the scale of 70 meters,
34:38as in Jodlubank, in Robledo in Spain, and in Effelsberg in Germany.
34:42But the value of the telescope is not only the size.
34:46The value is also the accuracy of the surface.
34:49And the accuracy of the surface is very high for this telescope.
34:52It's really the best radio telescope of Northern Europe.
35:03Let's come.
35:06OK.
35:08Like a submarine, more than a submarine in the sky.
35:12And now, the next level.
35:16And here is our submarine, let's say.
35:19It looks like a submarine, and it's tilting when we are working.
35:23This whole chamber tilts, does it?
35:26Yes, and you can walk on the left wall as well.
35:30How does it tilt? How many degrees?
35:33It tilts.
35:36It tilts.
35:39It tilts.
35:42How does it tilt? How many degrees?
35:45About 100, so more than 90 degrees.
35:48It must be a weird sensation.
36:13Be careful.
36:16You could have got a lift.
36:19Wow, fantastic.
36:22Here we are, pointing at the heavens.
36:25Down this top.
36:28I really feel well done to you and your team.
36:31You have saved this thing.
36:34Yes, we have saved it.
36:37There are not so many beautiful radio telescopes in the world.
36:41And this is one of the top instruments.
36:44So it's to be used for extra-galactic radio astronomy.
36:50It's the best application we can offer.
36:53And it's a wonderful sun trap.
36:56Yes, as well as for...
37:01Yes, you could have a few loungers around here.
37:04You could make all the money you need.
37:07The surface is the most valuable part of the telescope.
37:11Its accuracy is better than one millimetre.
37:14Saving the telescope was a rare victory for common sense.
37:22Across the border is the largest of the Baltic republics, Lithuania.
37:26Influenced more by Poland than Sweden, it's staunchly Catholic.
37:32And in the middle of its green and pleasant countryside
37:35is a remarkable religious site.
37:43This is the Hill of Crosses,
37:45a symbol of Lithuanian defiance for over 150 years.
37:49The communists bulldozed it three times
37:52and once even flooded the area with sewage before a papal visit,
37:56which only served to make it even more popular.
38:05Lithuania, the capital of Vilnius
38:28The skyline of the capital Vilnius shows Lithuania's mixed fortunes.
38:32One of the most enlightened empires of medieval Europe
38:35had since fallen under the sway of Poland, Sweden, Germany and Tsarist Russia.
38:45The television tower above Vilnius has become a shrine to Baltic liberation.
38:55In 1991, 13 unarmed Lithuanians were killed by the Red Army
39:00as they tried to protect the freedom to broadcast Lithuania's independence vote.
39:04It was the climax of three years of protest.
39:12Two years earlier, an estimated 2 million men, women and children
39:16from all the Baltic republics joined hands in a human chain
39:20which stretched over 300 miles from Tallinn to Vilnius.
39:25The chain marked 50 years of smouldering resentment.
39:44Song festivals, which were permitted,
39:47provided an outlet for anti-Russian feeling.
39:51The protest, which became known as the Singing Revolution,
39:54was something quite unique in politics
39:57and it led to the freedom of the Baltic states.
40:00We are a singing nation.
40:02Well, I've heard a lot about this...
40:04Algis Greytai is a Lithuanian TV star.
40:07I want to see just how it works.
40:09I mean, can you just get people to sing?
40:11I mean, can you just get people to sing?
40:13I mean, can you just get people to sing?
40:15I mean, can you just get people to sing?
40:17I mean, can you just get people to sing?
40:20Ah, it's very easy.
40:47Three, four...
41:00Convincing?
41:02Very good.
41:10Beautiful. Now I'm convinced, yes.
41:12Maybe they can stay and get some other people.
41:14Can you stay here?
41:16We'll try to gather more people.
41:18Okay?
41:20You can sit down.
41:22That's very good.
41:24If you get a little choir to do that,
41:26then I would be impressed.
41:28I'd be very impressed.
41:32Not that one.
41:48Do you know this man?
41:50Do you know him?
41:52Yes.
42:10Okay, they're all going to sing together now.
42:12The same song.
42:43Don't kill me.
42:45Is that enough? Maybe another song?
42:47I don't know. We don't know the word.
42:49Very good. You've made the point.
42:51I think that's excellent.
42:53So it's $50.
42:55Very good. Eurovision Song Contest next year.
42:57This is Nida in southern Lithuania.
43:05And the chunky boat taking me out of the harbour
43:07is an old Baltic fishing park.
43:13We're heading towards one of Europe's
43:15most intriguing landscapes.
43:17A 60-mile-long, two-mile-wide sandbank
43:19they call the Caronian Spit.
43:27This formidable wall of sand
43:29is one of the most extraordinary
43:31and fragile places in the world.
43:33It's the only place in the world
43:35where you can walk on sand.
43:37It's the only place in the world
43:39where you can walk on sand.
43:41It's one of the most extraordinary
43:43and fragile environments on the continent.
43:47Now protected as a national park,
43:49these still-shifting sands curve away
43:51to the south and west,
43:53with the Baltic waves on one side
43:55and lazy lagoons on the other.
44:11Forests have been planted to help hold
44:13this young and delicate strip of land together.
44:17As I follow the paths and roads
44:19that lead through them,
44:21I find that the curiosities of nature
44:23are matched by a few political surprises.
44:42In one of the odder twists of post-war politics,
44:44this part of East Prussia
44:46was ceded to the victorious Russians.
44:48They kicked out the Germans
44:50and renamed the ancient city of Königsberg
44:52Kaliningrad.
44:54But now their neighbours have won independence.
44:56Kaliningrad is marooned.
44:58A Russian island in the European sea.
45:11But today the mood in Kaliningrad
45:13is resolutely optimistic.
45:15It's exactly 60 years ago today
45:17that the old Prussian city of Königsberg
45:19was consigned to history.
45:21And Kaliningrad,
45:23named after a Stalinist president of the USSR,
45:25took its place.
45:29Today it's the red, white and blues
45:31of the Russian Federation
45:33that are the colours of celebration.
45:36As a result of the ethnic cleansing of the Germans,
45:38everyone gathered here
45:40can trace themselves back to Mother Russia.
45:46The opening ceremony
45:48in front of the new Victory Monument
45:50owes more to Eurovision
45:52than any memories of Red Square.
45:58Note the brand new Orthodox cathedral
46:00in the background,
46:02of which the old Communist regime
46:04would certainly not have approved.
46:34Now it's the turn of the suits,
46:36followed by a press circus
46:38hanging on every word.
46:44The mayor of Kaliningrad
46:46welcomes, amongst others,
46:48President Putin's man from Moscow.
46:50Putin's wife, by the way,
46:52is a Kaliningrad girl.
46:54Also on parade
46:56is a Russian Orthodox priest
46:58and a much-bemeddled veteran
47:00of the great patriotic war.
47:05Representing Russian power today
47:07is the Admiral of the Baltic Fleet,
47:09whose nuclear submarines
47:11lie just up the coast.
47:26Then it's time for the Russian National Anthem.
47:29Old tune, new words.
47:34Old tune, new words.
47:36Old tune, new words.
47:38Old tune, new words.
47:40Old tune, new words.
47:42Old tune, new words.
47:44Old tune, new words.
47:46Old tune, new words.
47:48Old tune, new words.
47:50Old tune, new words.
47:52Old tune, new words.
47:54Old tune, new words.
47:56Old tune, new words.
47:58Old tune, new words.
48:00Old tune, new words.
48:02Old tune, new words.
48:04Old tune, new words.
48:06Old tune, new words.
48:08The rest of the celebrations
48:10are delightfully unsullied.
48:14A bride's bus
48:16cruises the streets,
48:18disgorging a dozen young girls
48:20all with one cry.
48:22Happy holiday!
48:24What is there not to like about Kaliningrad?
48:37I asked my guide, Olga Danilova, whether Kaliningraders feel Russian or European.
48:46We feel Russian.
48:47This goes without saying.
48:49Kaliningrad may be special Russian, different from Russians living in the mainland Russia
48:56due to this geographical location we found ourselves in.
49:02In what way would you say you feel different from the others in what you call mainland
49:07Russia?
49:08Because we are so close to Europe, we are part, we are a geographical part of Europe.
49:12And we travel more to Poland and to Lithuania, further to Europe than we travel to Russia.
49:18And some of the children living here, they have never been to Russia.
49:22But to go to Poland or to Lithuania is quite a common thing.
49:26Is there any appetite here for independence from Russia?
49:29Oh, no.
49:30No way.
49:31We don't even have this idea in our minds because it's not possible.
49:36We are Russians.
49:37Though we travel to Russia not very often, most of us, but we are Russians.
50:08So, this all-open-air singing-dancing big thing?
50:22Yes, yes, yes it is.
50:23It is very popular, especially among older generation, who just enjoy themselves.
50:31And women?
50:32Women a lot?
50:33Single women?
50:34Oh, thank you.
50:36Is that because of the lack of men?
50:40Correct, correct.
50:41That's a war, legacy of the war, is it?
50:44Yes, yes, well spotted.
50:46I shall be leaving from this dockside early next morning and very hospitably, the captain
50:52of this venerable old banana boat, Vityaz, has agreed to let me use his cabin as a temporary
50:57base.
50:58Famous ship.
50:59Hello.
51:00Captain.
51:01Captain.
51:03Hello.
51:04Captain.
51:05Hello, Captain, how are you?
51:06Thank you very much indeed for letting us come here.
51:09Very, very kind of you.
51:11After its banana boat days, the Vityaz evacuated 20,000 Germans from here in 1945.
51:17It was given to the British, who in turn gave it to the Russians, for whom she ended up
51:22mapping the world's deepest seabed, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific.
51:27Hmm, this is quite a tour, isn't it, to get to the captain's cabin?
51:32Ah, a little bridge.
51:35It's now the centrepiece of Kaliningrad's Museum of the World Ocean.
51:41Welcome, it's your room.
51:43Oh, thank you.
51:44Here you will be sleeping, it's your bed.
51:46Fantastic, that's lovely.
51:48Captain's cabin, thank you very much.
51:50Dobre noche.
51:51Spasibo, dobre noche.
51:57It's very nice.
52:01Not wanting my last night to be an anticlimax, Olga's laid on a cultural visit.
52:07TUTONIC NIGHTS
52:26Part historical reenactment, part general punch-up,
52:29this homage to the Teutonic Knights ends in group hugs and a huge bonfire.
52:37It may be European rather than Russian history they're celebrating,
52:41but tonight in Kaliningrad, nobody really cares.
53:00Hi, hello there.
53:02Poland, I gather.
53:04Poland, I gather.
53:06Can I give you that? That's great, thanks.
53:11Thank you. Spasibo.
53:13OK.
53:15I'd hoped to sail down the River Pregel and across the Bay of Gdansk
53:19to my next destination and 17th country, Poland,
53:22but a sudden maritime tiff between the Russians and the Poles
53:26has resulted in a resounding niet to my plan.
53:35While I think of what else to do,
53:37I settle for a farewell cruise with Max and Sergei
53:40along the Kaliningrad waterfront.
53:44Past disused wharves and idle cranes.
53:48Past my old friend, the Vityaz.
53:58Remnants of the Baltic fleet are in for refits,
54:01but on the whole, this is a ghost port.
54:10Kaliningrad, more than anywhere else I've seen,
54:13is a victim of its history.
54:15Physically European, but emotionally, spiritually and politically,
54:19clinging to the Kremlin.