FALLEN EMPIRE

The Soviet Union: 100th Anniversary 1922, 8.40pm, PBS America

SIR MAX HASTINGS and Simon Sebag Montefiore are among the historians contributing to this prestige new history of the USSR — Union of Soviet Socialist Republics — which came into existence on 30 December, 1922. It unfolds nightly, over three parts, beginning with Stalin’s iron rule and victory in the Second World War. Tomorrow, we move on to the Cold War era, before concluding with the disastrous invasion of Afghanistan and the collapse of communism in 1989.