By 1613 when the Romanovs came to power, Russia was already a multiethnic empire. It was the wealth of that very empire - the northern forests, the agriculture of the Asian south, the mineral riches of Siberia - that had given Muscovy the strength to survive its recurring crises. It was this relationship between the Russian state and the Russian empire - its original Slavic population and its expanding multi-ethnic one - that became an ever more crucial factor in moulding her future identity

In this episode Martin Sixsmith visits the eastern fringe of the Ural Mountains to tell the story of Siberia - its staggering vastness that has spawned legends of space, and emptiness and freedom. He uses the dashing Cossack Yermak - whose memory endures in Russian folk poetry and popular ballads - to show how Siberia became a vital part of Russia's growing empire transforming Muscovy from a state on the brink to a nation of unequalled riches.

But the other, darker side to Siberia is also evoked in the poems of Yevgeny Yevtushenko and in Shostakovich's Opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with its poignant evocation of the convict road that so many Russians - including Dostoevsky, Lenin, Stalin, Mandelstam and Solzhenitsyn, would tread over the next four centuries. He also tells the story of the Old Believers who broke away from the Orthodox Church and whose heirs still gather today. They opposed the hijacking of religious belief by a centralised state-sponsored hierarchy and were part of a daunting set of problems that the new tsar, Peter the Great, had to tackle and tackle fast.

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking

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