Collapse of the USSR – Raw Footage of Soviet Soldiers Receiving Food Aid [1991]

On 30 December 1991, ITN filmed Soviet soldiers in the German city of Potsdam as they worked to unload a delivery of Western aid destined for the Russian city of Smolensk. In March 1991, East and West Germany had reunified, while just weeks before this footage was filmed, on 12 December 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had become the Russian Federation. With so much change occurring so quickly, it is unsurprising that the old Communist insignia remained on the uniforms of the soldiers. As well as filming in Potsdam, ITN also filmed at three other locations along the route of the aid convoy: in Berlin, the capital of the recently-reunified Germany; in the Belarussian city of Brest, where British aid volunteers spent time with Soviet soldiers; and in Smolensk, the convoy’s final destination.