On May Day 1960, a CIA U-2 spy plane was shot down over Sverdlovsk, deep inside the Soviet Union. Washington said it was a lost NASA weather plane. Then Khrushchev revealed the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was alive, and put him on trial in Moscow’s Hall of Columns.
This documentary follows the Grand Slam flight, the missile strike, the failed cover story, the wreckage exhibition in Gorky Park, the collapse of the Paris summit, the August 1960 show trial and Powers’ sentence, and briefly, his 1962 exchange for Rudolf Abel.
Chapters
0:00 Cold open: shot down on May Day
0:30 Who was Gary Powers?
1:08 The U-2 spy plane
2:17 The last flight before Paris
2:58 Operation Grand Slam
3:52 May Day 1960: the intruder
4:42 The missile over Sverdlovsk
5:55 Captured
6:26 The NASA cover story
7:30 Khrushchev springs the trap
8:44 The wreckage in Gorky Park
9:18 The Paris summit collapses
10:25 In the Lubyanka
11:01 The trial in the Hall of Columns
12:22 The sentence
13:17 The 1962 exchange
14:02 Coming home
14:58 Legacy
Frames labeled “Reconstruction” are AI-generated illustrations (FLUX.1 schnell), not photographs; they never show the faces of real people. Narration uses a synthetic voice.
── Archival film ──
Universal Newsreel (Universal-International News), 1960, public domain, via Internet Archive (archive.org/details/ID): 1960-05-05_russia, 1960-05-09_spy_story_of_the_year, 1960-05-12_powers_case, 1960-05-16_summit_crisis, 1960-05-19_down_from_summit, 1960-05-23_u2_at_un, 1960-05-27_un_spy_debate, 1960-08-18_u2_spy_trial
── Archival photos (author, license, Wikimedia Commons page ID: commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=ID) ──
– Central Intelligence Agency (Public domain): 51186108; 51186094; 51186097
– Robert M. Chapin (Public domain): 151880150
– The Central Intelligence Agency (Public domain): 29197329; 29197331; 29197326; 29196176
– Unknown (Public domain): 185247927
– Enemenemu (own work) (CC0): 12612554
– Министерство обороны России (CC BY 4.0): 106690311; 106690312; 106690313; 106690314
– Anefo (CC0): 68057287; 68057307
– Chernov / Чернов (CC BY-SA 3.0): 18163538; 18163525; 18163533
– Maksimov / Максимов (CC BY-SA 3.0): 18163433; 18163425; 18163451; 18163441
– Mikhail Ozerskiy / Михаил Озерский (CC BY-SA 3.0): 18163417; 17824053; 18163483; 18163501; 18163507; 18163457
– D. Chernov / Д. Чернов (CC BY-SA 3.0): 18163550; 18163559; 18163563; 18163520
– Warren K. Leffler (CC0): 150974904
– Unknown (Associated Press) (Public domain): 93708650
– U.S. Air Force photo (Public domain): 10653601; 45792539
– Larry Bessel, Los Angeles Times (CC BY 4.0): 138697566
– unknown (Public domain): 82756875
– NASA (Public domain): 6448042
– Ermine890 (CC BY-SA 4.0): 50795542
– Alan Wilson (CC BY-SA 2.0): 64707297
– Andrew Goodpaster (Public domain): 17103120
– Central Intelligence Agency (see “The Central Inte (Public domain): 30949236
– Warren K. Leffler (Public domain): 1442976
– Henk Lindeboom/ Anefo (CC0): 65334076
– Tourbillon (CC BY 3.0): 4215918
– Lockheed Aircraft Corp (CC0): 169580847
– Jung, Joachim G. (CC BY-SA 3.0 de): 5337810
– Nyttend (Public domain): 63435720
– SAS Scandinavian Airlines (Public domain): 35149071
– Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Nav (Public domain): 192157359
– Presumably a White House photographer, since it is (Public domain): 1765909
– National Archives and Records Administration (Public domain): 1565956
– Lothar Weber (CC BY-SA 4.0): 175101538
– U.S. News & World Report (LOC) (No known restrictions on publication): www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2015650953/
Sources: CIA history “The CIA and the U-2 Program, 1954-1974” (Pedlow & Welzenbach); F. G. Powers & C. Gentry, “Operation Overflight” (1970); M. Beschloss, “Mayday” (1986); D. Barrett, “The CIA and Congress” (2005).
#ColdWar #U2 #GaryPowers #Khrushchev #Espionage #USSR #truecrime #history
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