MA in TV and Radio Journalism

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Raised by my Motherland: A radio documentary on Lyudmila Matthews, an orphan, a survivor and a witness of Stalin’s Great Terror
(Griffith College, 2018) Conor, Fay
This radio documentary, entitled Raised by my Motherland tells the story of Lyudmila Matthews. Lyudmila was a child in the Soviet Union when the series of repressions known as the Great Terror, or the Purges, orchestrated by Josef Stalin gained momentum. The Terror, through killings and forced starvation, resulted in the deaths of millions across the newly established Soviet Union and remains the most problematic aspect of the nations Communist history. The Terror destroyed Lyudmila’s family as her father fell victim to its ravages. Raised by My Motherland seeks to situate the story of this initial destruction of the family unit its proper historical context and then explore how Lyudmila, the one remaining survivor of that family navigated life in the Soviet Union as an orphan and experienced the unique nation as it was gradually moulded from above by its totalitarian leader, Stalin and then moulded again by his death. Lyudmila’s story is, considering her old age, a rare one and thus Raised by my Motherland places most of its emphasis on her voice as she reﬂects on her own Soviet Century. This is her account of that phenomenon which erupted in 1917, the memory and inﬂuence of which survives to this day, 100 years later.