TV REVIEWS : Superpowers in the Nuclear Age : ‘Soviets’ Examines Massive Changes Shaping Society

The new Soviet Union is such a work in progress--or regress--that almost each day brings cosmic new developments that could help reshape its history.

Given this volatile backdrop, it may seem foolhardy to present a documentary seeking to freeze this complex nation in time and examine the internal changes that are redefining it in these tumultuous last years of the 20th Century, when those changes are still ongoing.

Yet here comes “Soviets,” an aesthetically spectacular five-part PBS series that would be lacking if not for recently added openings and closings from Soviet-wise journalist Hedrick Smith that update it almost to the present. Although PBS at times uses Alistair Cooke-style human decoders to excess, Smith’s presence is essential.

All told, then, this work from Latvian filmmaker Juris Podnieks is a knockout, providing crucial insights into a land of multiple cultures and clashing national identities. There’s no doubt that the Soviet Union remains capable of engaging the world in nuclear holocaust. Yet foremost, here is a country at war with itself, and Podnieks, using a variety of arresting filmic techniques, records the ominously rising drum rolls.

“Soviets” premieres at 10 p.m. Sunday on KCET Channel 28 and KPBS Channel 15. And reflecting PBS’ new “event” programming strategy born from the gargantuan success of “The Civil War,” the series continues nightly through Thursday on Channels 28, 15 and KOCE Channel 50 at 10 p.m., and on KVCR Channel 24 at 9 p.m. Channel 24 will air an additional episode Monday night at 10 and Channel 50 will air two episodes Thursday night.

Created by Podnieks 18 months ago for England’s Central Independent Television, “Soviets” at first sight appears to be a TV version of a handsome cocktail-table book. There is no narration and almost the only English is spoken by interpreters.

The impact is initially a visceral one, for if there is a sort of sad poetry in chaos and suffering, Podnieks has surely tapped it. His use of slow motion, along with the music of Soviet composer Alexei Rybnikov as a haunting, dark undertone, is just stunning.

Although this lyrical approach may have a softening effect in some respects, Podnieks’ most powerful images in Part I are so everlasting--footage of Chernobyl citizens illegally returning to their radioactive homes, for example--that the message he delivers is one of bleakness and pessimism.

“If I could get hold of Gorbachev, I’d give him a canning,” says an angry woman near Chernobyl. “Those that are well-off he visits, but he doesn’t set a foot here, where we are suffering.”

That the Soviet Union is indeed a hard land getting harder is affirmed also by other elements of the series, including some blunt talk from the late Andrei Sakharov, and coverage of worker strife, moves for minority rights and the perilous drive for self-determination by many Soviet republics.

Podnieks returns to the Baltic states for his windup, further dashing glasnost giddiness by concluding on a note of violence.

“The rust has to be removed,” Soviet reformer Boris Yeltsin says earlier in the series about his own campaign to end Soviet corrosion. “Do you understand? Somebody had to give the first push.”

The question today, given the enigma of Mikhail Gorbachev and his seemingly tenuous hold on power, is who will survive to make the final push. Hence, the sense of blind destiny in “Soviets,” and the sense of urgency. Listen closely and you can hear the clock ticking.