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The Compass: The Invention Of Russia: Catherine the Great and the question of Europe

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Catherine the Great and the question of Europe

01/03/2023 GMT

The Invention Of Russia

BBC World Service - The Compass, The Invention Of Russia, Catherine the Great and the question of Europe

How Catherine the Great extended Russian influence south and west

How Catherine the Great extended Russian influence south and west, through Sweden, Poland and parts of the Ottoman empire.

It was Peter the Great who created a new capital on the Baltic, and Catherine the Great who extended Russian influence south and west. Sweden, Poland, and the Ottomans all felt the Russian expansion in a century of geopolitical drama. This, says presenter Misha Glenny, is all part of the build up to today's war in Ukraine.

With contributions from Virginia Rounding, biographer of Catherine the Great; Prof Simon Dixon of University College London; Prof Robert Service, author of The Last Tsar; Prof Janet Hartley, author books on the Volga and Siberia; and Dr Sarah Young of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

Producer: Miles Warde 

(Photo: Portrait of Empress Catherine II (1729-1796), 1780s. Artist : Rokotov, Fyodor Stepanovich 1735-1808. Credit: Getty Images)

The Compass: The Invention Of Russia

Misha Glenny looks at the development of Russia.

Countries look so cohesive on the map - sturdy borders, familiar shapes. Don't be misled. They didn't always look like this. This is the story of Russia, biggest contiguous country on the planet, told from the time when it was still very small. 

"In my producer's history textbook it says here, on page 18, that Russia as a political entity did not exist."

With contributions across the series from Janet Hartley, author of a history of the Volga; Rhodric Braithwaite, former ambassador to Moscow; historian and sociologist, Mischa Gabowitsch; Anthony Beevor; Natalia Antelava; Kateryna Khinkulova; Dominic Lieven; Olesya Khromeychuk; and James Hill of the New York Times.

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