Time and Tide S2022E02 - Svetlana Alexievich: Chronicle of the Little People (Part 1)

A documentary on the Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, produced in 2000. Belarus, the focus of her work, was the site of fierce fighting between the Soviet Union and Germany during World War II. Its people also suffered tragedies during the Soviet war in Afghanistan and after the Chornobyl nuclear accident. When the program was made, Alexievich had already spent some 20 years recording the voices of the voiceless people behind these troubling events. These are the voices of the "little people" that would disappear in the oblivion of state history if they were not recorded. Ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, people were beginning to change. The "little people" were beginning to use the word "I" and to speak of themselves as individuals. The program brings alive these voices from the depths of history, filled with love and sorrow.