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The Scots in Russia

The Scots in Russia: Episode 3: Czars and Bolsheviks

Factual: History

Episode 3

Episode 3: Czars and Bolsheviks

Czars and Bolsheviks

BBC Radio Scotland - The Scots in Russia, Czars and Bolsheviks

Billy Kay explores Scots-Russian relations before and after the revolution of 1917.

Billy Kay explores Scots-Russian relations before and after the revolution of 1917 and celebrates the deep cultural connections which have remained to the present day.

Billy Kay explores Scoto-Russian relations in the 20th century and celebrates the cultural connections which persist till the present day.

We open with a rousing rendition of The Red Flag sung by the choir of the Young Communist League from Glasgow in the 1950's and the voice of the late Eugenie Fraser whose book The House by the Dvina, recalled her childhood in a wealthy Scoto Russian family in Archangel in pre-revolutionary Russia.

From textile barons to industrialists, Scottish enterprises had a substantial presence in pre Revolutionary Russia with even the biggest deparment store in Moscow, Muir and Mirrielees being Scottish owned. Back in Scotland though it was the rise of Communism which attracted left wing radicals. Billy introduces the most influential of them and recalls his previous trip Russia. 

"I'm in Red Square in Moscow - it was here aged 16 on a school trip in 1968 that I heard the story of the Red Clydesiders - nearby, on the Kremlin Wall is a plaque to one of them Arthur McManus, and the mausoleum containing the body of Lenin who described the most famous of them along with Karl Liebknecht as one of those "isolated heroes who have taken upon themselves the arduous role of forerunners in the world revolution." It was the first time I had heard of the great John Maclean, and his radical cry, "All hail the Scottish Workers Republic."

Yet another Scot, Robert Bruce Lockhart was involved in high profile counter revolutionary activity and narrowly avoided execution by the Soviets for what was known as the Lockhart plot.

We hear too of the Russian love of Scottis literature, the Moscow Caledonian Club, the Czars' Scots and Gaelic speaking nannies, our introduction of football, and other ties that bind Russia and Scotland for hundreds of years.

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