The History of Russia Podcast

Paul is dead, Alexander is the new Tsar and so today we're going to cover the first two to three years of his reign — roughly 1801 to 1803, where surely, things in Russia could only get better... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we are doing something slightly different. We are stepping off of the chronological conveyor belt — which has been moving at quite a clip lately — and we are going to take a breather and look at something I have perhaps neglected (well there is no 'perhaps' about it - I have). So for the next 35 or so minutes come with me on a journey through 18th Century Russian culture. The art, the archit...

It's the 23rd of March 1801 and in the Mikhailovsky Castle, just outside St Petersburg, something terrible is about to happen... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today as the title suggests we're going to cover three main themes or subjects Firstly, Paul's support of Napoleon’s march on India.  Secondly, we are going to spend some time trying to get to know Paul’s eldest son and heir, Alexander, who was a fascinating and genuinely complicated young man, with good reason. And then we’ll finish things off by taking a look at some of the people around Pa...

Today is another of those episodes, where in th early stages anyway, Russia is not the primary focus and is somewhat on the periphery because the real action is happening elsewhere and much of that is being driven by events in France Having said that Paul, as you would probably expect, does manage to get involved and do some Paul-like things  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more in...

After featuring in 36 episodes, Catherine who had transformed Russia has departed the scene.  Which means that the 42 year old, father of 8, Pavel or Paul Petrovich Romanov is now the emperor of all the Russias. Today, we’ll be taking a look a look back at what made Paul the man he was and we’ll also be covering the first couple of years of his reign to see how he dealt with his mother’s lega...

This week we are covering three items - Russia’s further consolidation of its Alaskan territory, Catherine’s, post- Potemkin love life.and then finally, we’ll witness three deaths, one which in the great scope of things was pretty insignificant, another which would be sadly almost pathetically tragic and a third which would genuinely mark the end of an era. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...

Today we are going to zoom in on that period just after the dust had settled — roughly 1792 onwards — and have a look at what Russia looked like from a geopolitical standpoint We'll also be talking about a man, sadly for the last time, who had become one of the titans of Russian History. Grigory Potemkin. (in a way I'm glad because for some strange reason my pronunciation of his name was inco...

After a decade of calmness in Russia with not much happening, the late 1780's suddenly exploded into action with wars against both the Ottomans and the Swedes and we also witness the death of another major European player. Oh and don't be alarmed but for this epsiode only, I've changed things - musically. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This time around we’ll be looking at, in general, more calmness and I’ll be concentrating on just four things that will take us up to the mid 1780s Further Russian territorial expansion and a touch more provincial reform  We’ll follow that with one or two family matters (not mine I hasten to add, but Catherine’s) And then in the second part of the episode we’ll look at a  European geopol...

In today’s episode there are three things on the agenda. An overall summary of the key events and main themes of The History of Russia from 840i to 1780 and how those themes and events had made Russia what it had become by the late 18th Century A whizz around the world in 1780 to see what was going on outside of Russia, again big-picture wise. And then as if that wasn’t enough you’ll get to h...

This time around we'll be covering a 5 year period 1776 -1780 where Russia was going through a very rare calm period particularly when balanced against what had gone on between 1768 and 1775 and what would take place in the late 1780s.  But that’s not to say, as you will soon see, that nothing was happening. Apologies, one Rooster in particular decided that the early part of the episode wasn'...

After a long lay off the boy is back! Today, we’re going to track back to look at some other events that took place between 1772 and 1777 and in particular what was going on with Catherine and her son Paul and the steps that the empress would take to deal with yet another pretender to the Russian throne.  Oh, and right at the end I’ll tell you a bit about what I’ve been up to over the last co...

Just a short update from me about life in general and the short-term impact to the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In recent episodes we've seen how various major events - the war with the Ottomans, the first partition of Poland, Smallpox, Pugachev, and the Moscow plague outbreak, occupied every waking hour of Catherine the Great's life. But did they?  Well in today's epsiode we are going to discover that the answer to that question was a resounding 'no' There's no listener discretion required for this on...

Pugachev's rebellion gathers steam but Catherine the Great, who has other things to worry about, fails to take it seriously. Once again, some parts of this episode are, to say the least, a bit on the grim side.... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first part of the episode we’ll be heading back to the 1760s and looking at the steps Catherine and others had taken to counter the effects of another of the 18th century’s fatal diseases - the dreaded smallpox. And then after that we’ll be taking a look at some further Russian territorial expansion and then finally the very beginning of and the reasons for the most serious rebellion of Cat...

In today’s episode and as per the title we’ll be looking at three major items Firstly the Russo-Turkish war, which we’ll be bringing to a close, secondly we’ll cover an outbreak of the plague and then we’ll finish things off by looking at how the war ended and what the resultant peace meant for both the Russian and Ottoman empires. Listener discretion required  - Please note that some parts o...

Battleships are at the ready in Cheshme Bay and Frederick the Great comes up with a very cunning plan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Grigory Potemkin makes his mark at court and the next installment of the Russo-Ottoman wars gets underway. Oh, and I make not one, not two but three almost catastrophic errors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This time around we’ll look into what the Turks objected to, see who the next, and last King of Poland will be and investigate how this whole palaver resulted in a full scale war between Russia and the Ottomans. Click on one of the links below to join the Boyar Duma where for a small monthly subscription you'll receive the following - Exclusive membership of the Boyar Duma and a shout out on...

On the home front Catherine continues to be thwarted. However, in the field of foreign diplomacy, she plays a blinder (or does she?) Click on one of the links below to join the Boyar Duma where for a small monthly subscription you'll receive the following - Exclusive membership of the Boyar Duma and a shout out on the Podcast Ad-free podcasts At least one members only episode per month Genera...

This time around we’ll be taking a look at two part-related subjects, The condition of Serfdom and Catherine's legal reforms or Nakaz. However if you are expecting a series of wholesale, fundamental changes - don't hold your collective breaths... Click on one of the links below to join the Boyar Duma where for a small monthly subscription you'll receive the following - Exclusive membership of the...

This time around, and as the episode title indicates, we’ll be covering two main incidents, 1763’s Khitrovo Affair which would have implications for the man of the moment, Catherine’s lover, Grigory Orlov and 1764’s Mirovich Plot which would result in the sad demise of one of our other key characters and both events would, in the end, have a positive outcome for the new empress.  Click on one...

This time around we’ll be taking a look at the steps that Catherine would take to kick start and consolidate her rule - how she would deal with the people who had helped her to seize power and how she would lay down her authority with the key institutions of the Russian state - government, church and the army.. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.