Pushkin's play and Mussorgsky's Opera Boris Godunov tell the story of Russia's Time of Troubles, which resulted from an absence of legitimate power. After the death of Ivan the Terrible, who left no succession, the throne had been fought over and authority undermined. For 20 years at the start of the 17thc, famine, revolt, economic devastation and foreign invasions came close to destroying the Russian state forever.

From the foot of the statue in Moscow placed in their memory, Martin Sixsmith tells the story of the 2 men who saved Moscow from the predatory Poles. They were MÃ-nin and Pozharsky - one of them a Russian prince, the other a merchant. They raised a militia and saw off the invaders, allowing a new dynasty, the Romanov family, to fill the power vacuum. They would rule until overthrown by the Bolsheviks 300 years later. Glinka's patriotic National Anthem, written two centuries later, celebrates the rise of this new autocratic dynasty.

The Romanovs, as Martin Sixsmith points out, could have created a new style of governance in Russia. "The nobility might have seized the moment to insist on a role in running the country, similar to the one enjoyed by the English barons since the time of Magna Carta. But they didn't. Instead, the talk was of the need for an absolute ruler, unshackled by restrictions on his authority, and invested with the monolithic power necessary to safeguard national security." One more opportunity to temper the autocracy that would dog Russia for centuries had slipped by with nothing changed. The need for unity and security was paramount.

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking

Producers: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4. Show less