MILITARY MIGHT

The History Of The Red Army, 8.35pm, PBS America

THIS gripping new two-part documentary (concluding at the same time tomorrow) follows the history of Russia’s Red Army from its inception in 1918 across its tumultuous domestic and international deployment throughout the 20th Century. It was created by Leon Trotsky in 1918 to defeat the Tsar’s armies, and became one of history’s largest and most feared fighting forces — but throughout its history it has known incredible victories and crushing defeats. Archive footage brings many of these key moments vividly to life, from the Bolshevik Revolution and the ‘Great Patriotic War’ against the Nazis to the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union and the disastrous campaign in Afghanistan.