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Russia: The Wild East

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Factual: History

A history of Russia, written and presented by Martin Sixsmith

Russia: The Wild East: Series 1

Russia: The Wild East: Series 1: Episode 23: The Year 1917 Dawns

Series 1

Episode 23

Episode 23: The Year 1917 Dawns

The Year 1917 Dawns

BBC Radio 4 - Russia: The Wild East, Series 1, The Year 1917 Dawns

Martin Sixsmith plots the course of revolution that marks the end of Russian Tsarism.

Europe at war; a disillusioned people; a tsar blindly believing in his autocratic right to rule; a new leader in waiting - Martin Sixsmith plots the course of Russian revolution.

1917 is the year etched into Russian history. The First World War had caused disillusion amongst the military and the workers. Tsar Nicholas the 2nd believed blindly in his autocratic right to rule, but enemies were all around him, and the eventual victor - Lenin - was biding his time at a safe distance. 

Shostakovich's Symphony 'The Year 1917' provides the backdrop for this most momentous year in Russian History. The February Revolution of 1917 was, like the earlier peasant revolts of Stenka Razin and Pugachev, a spontaneous uprising against a hated regime. Contrary to the Soviet account of the period, Martin Sixsmith argues "It was unplanned, uncoordinated, and the professional revolutionaries were left trailing in its wake."

But, with his kingdom crumbling, Tsar Nicholas the Second is portrayed, through letters to his wife Alexandra, as strangely detached. He barely mentions the revolution that was about to end Tsarism in Russia, as if willing it to go away by concentrating on other, minor inconveniences. Finally the Romanov dynasty, that had begun in the heroic glory of 1613 and celebrated its third centenary with great pomp just four years previously, came to an end in the banality of a provincial railway siding where Nicholas was forced to resign. 

In the Tauride Palace in Saint Petersburg from where Martin Sixsmith tells the rest of the story, Nicholas's portrait was unceremoniously ripped from the wall of the Duma chamber. Sixsmith walks from the palace's right wing, where the Duma deputies announced they were creating a new government, to the left wing where hundreds of workers, soldiers and peasants were gathering - the two groups jostling to fill the vacuum. The time was crying out for someone to seize the initiative; he was already waiting in the wings. 

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking


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

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Russia: The Wild East

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Episode 23: The Year 1917 Dawns

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