27 min

Catherine the Great and the question of Europe The Compass

    • Personal Journals

It was Peter the Great who created a new capital on the Baltic, and Catherine the Great who extended Russian influence south and west. Sweden, Poland, and the Ottomans all felt the Russian expansion in a century of geopolitical drama. This, says presenter Misha Glenny, is all part of the build up to today's war in Ukraine.
With contributions from Virginia Rounding, biographer of Catherine the Great; Prof Simon Dixon of University College London; Prof Robert Service, author of The Last Tsar; Prof Janet Hartley, author books on the Volga and Siberia; and Dr Sarah Young of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
Producer: Miles Warde
(Photo: Portrait of Empress Catherine II (1729-1796), 1780s. Artist : Rokotov, Fyodor Stepanovich 1735-1808. Credit: Getty Images)

It was Peter the Great who created a new capital on the Baltic, and Catherine the Great who extended Russian influence south and west. Sweden, Poland, and the Ottomans all felt the Russian expansion in a century of geopolitical drama. This, says presenter Misha Glenny, is all part of the build up to today's war in Ukraine.
With contributions from Virginia Rounding, biographer of Catherine the Great; Prof Simon Dixon of University College London; Prof Robert Service, author of The Last Tsar; Prof Janet Hartley, author books on the Volga and Siberia; and Dr Sarah Young of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
Producer: Miles Warde
(Photo: Portrait of Empress Catherine II (1729-1796), 1780s. Artist : Rokotov, Fyodor Stepanovich 1735-1808. Credit: Getty Images)

27 min

More by BBC

Global News Podcast
BBC World Service
Focus on Africa
BBC World Service
Elis James and John Robins
BBC Radio 5 Live
6 Minute English
BBC Radio
The Lazarus Heist
BBC World Service
Africa Daily
BBC World Service