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Anne McElvoy

Catherine Merridale

Simon Thurley

Amit Chaudhuri

Michael Chaplin

Katy Hickman

Start the Week: The Kremlin: A fortress that has shaped a nation

The Kremlin: A fortress that has shaped a nation

28/10/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, The Kremlin: A fortress that has shaped a nation

Anne McElvoy with Catherine Merridale, Simon Thurley, Michael Chaplin and Amit Chaudhuri.

Anne McElvoy at the Free Thinking Festival with historian Catherine Merridale, head of English Heritage Simon Thurley and writers Amit Chaudhuri and Michael Chaplin.

Start the Week is at the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival in Gateshead. Anne McElvoy talks to the historian Catherine Merridale about the Kremlin - a Russian fortress which has retained its original medieval function to intimidate and control, and which holds a special place in the imagination. Few buildings in England inspire such fear, but Simon Thurley explores how the country's architecture has influenced the world. The Newcastle-born writer Michael Chaplin looks to the history of the River Tyne to understand the changing fortunes of the city and its population; and the Indian writer Amit Chaudhuri attempts to save the remnants of Calcutta's colonial past under its ever-changing skyline.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

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