Russian government has recently approved a list of unfriendly countries. It comes as no surprise that the USA was added to the list.
Not long before that, the US declared that they stopped issuing their visas to ordinary nationals of Russia.
Russian-American relations have not been as bad as they are now since the Cold War.
We wanted to learn more about the previous 'cold period' in relationship between the two counties. At the time, the communication was not enabled by politicians but by people, via TV broadcasting.
35 years ago, people in both countries saw probably the most explosive TV genre of the time, American-Soviet Space Bridge which was hosted by Vladimir Pozner and Phil Donahue.
Why was that Space Bridge so well remembered? Why has it become so famous? We talked to the film makers and participants in order to find out.
A spoiler: you will be surprised to see how similar were the arguments in 1980s to what we hear now.
Contents:
00:00 Intro
01:10 The most explosive TV program in the history of Soviet Union.
03:50 "Evil Empire": USSR-USA relations in 1980s.
08:09 How did they come up with the idea to organise Space Bridges?
11:32 Did KGB interfere?
13:34 There were more Space Bridges before the Leningrad Seattle one. Why were they less remarkable?
16:41 Why Pozner and Donahue were elected to host the famous Space Bridge?
22:46 Why Donahue was afraid of hosting the program?
23:43 How were the participants selected?
28:46 Why was it organised in Leningrad?
30:32 Who approved the Space Bridges in the top government?
33:01 Why did they show a recording, not a live broadcast?
34:13 Script of the Space Bridge
35:18 Why did not the Space Bridge follow the initial script?
38:20 Why was Donahue so aggressive?
40:57 Why were lives and careers of the Soviet team at stake?
44:27 Whataboutism. What is it and why was it used in the Leningrad studio?
48:20 Arguments given during the Space Bridge are up-to-date even now.
49:24 Did KGB representatives control the shooting process?
51:05 A girl who was critical of Soviet Union. How is she doing now?
57:23 "There is no sex in Soviet Union". How did this quote originate?
59:54 Everyone knows what the American dream is. How about the Russian one?
01:02:31 Why was the Russian team unhappy with the Space Bridge?
01:05:23 What is the difference between editing process in the USA and Soviet Union?
01:09:23 How many people had watched the Space Bridge?
01:10:17 Did Pozner and Donahue become friends after the Space Bridge?
01:11:34 Censorship on American TV: "I don't give a rat's ass about how you call it".
01:13:41 Why the Space Bridge genre had faded away so quickly?
01:14:13 Did the US-Russian relationship get worse now than they were in 1980s?
01:18:03 Do we need another Space Bridge now?