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The History of Russia Podcast
Episode 66 - The Unlikely Empress and the Unpragmatic Sanction
Elizabeth Petrovna is the new empress of Russia. However, she's busy getting her house in order and there is a coronation to plan.
So whilst she's off doing that, we'll undertake a quick retrospective of Anna Ivanovna's reign and then we'll take a look at the causes, and the initial events, of the War of the Austrian Succession.
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More episodes
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Episode 100, Russia’s story so far, and the world in 1780.
35:04|In today’s episode there are three things on the agenda.An overall summary of the key events and main themes of The History of Russia from 840i to 1780 and how those themes and events had made Russia what it had become by the late 18th CenturyA whizz around the world in 1780 to see what was going on outside of Russia, again big-picture wise.And then as if that wasn’t enough you’ll get to hear me waffling on about the pitiful existence of an independent podcaster and what I think the future holds for me and others like me who do the same thing.Episode 99 - The almost empty in-tray
30:23|This time around we'll be covering a 5 year period 1776 -1780 where Russia was going through a very rare calm period particularly when balanced against what had gone on between 1768 and 1775 and what would take place in the late 1780s. But that’s not to say, as you will soon see, that nothing was happening.Apologies, one Rooster in particular decided that the early part of the episode wasn't quite to his liking and decided to complain, loudly and often. I managed to edit most of it out but you can still catch the occasional bit of crowing.Episode 98 - Two Weddings, Two Deaths and a Cockroach
27:54|After a long lay off the boy is back!Today, we’re going to track back to look at some other events that took place between 1772 and 1777 and in particular what was going on with Catherine and her son Paul and the steps that the empress would take to deal with yet another pretender to the Russian throne. Oh, and right at the end I’ll tell you a bit about what I’ve been up to over the last couple of months and how that will hopefully affect, the podcast’s future, in a positive way, and apologies in advance, I’m just getting over a bout of Tonsillitis and so my voice might be a bit up and down.Podcast Update - November 2025
03:29|Just a short update from me about life in general and the short-term impact to the podcast.Episode 97 - You’re going up and I’m going down
26:08|In recent episodes we've seen how various major events - the war with the Ottomans, the first partition of Poland, Smallpox, Pugachev, and the Moscow plague outbreak, occupied every waking hour of Catherine the Great's life.But did they? Well in today's epsiode we are going to discover that the answer to that question was a resounding 'no'There's no listener discretion required for this one - play it loud and play it often!Episode 96 - The Pugachevshchina
25:50|Pugachev's rebellion gathers steam but Catherine the Great, who has other things to worry about, fails to take it seriously.Once again, some parts of this episode are, to say the least, a bit on the grim side....Episode 95 - Variolation, Expansion and Rebellion
33:11|In the first part of the episode we’ll be heading back to the 1760s and looking at the steps Catherine and others had taken to counter the effects of another of the 18th century’s fatal diseases - the dreaded smallpox.And then after that we’ll be taking a look at some further Russian territorial expansion and then finally the very beginning of and the reasons for the most serious rebellion of Catherine’s reign which was led by - Tsar Peter III, that’s right, that Peter III, the one who had died or been murdered back in 1762. Like the last episode some of today’s content, especially during the first half is a little bit on the uncomfortable side and so perhaps the whole thing is best listened to late at night when little ears are safely tucked up in bed.Episode 94 - War, Plague and Peace
27:33|In today’s episode and as per the title we’ll be looking at three major itemsFirstly the Russo-Turkish war, which we’ll be bringing to a close, secondly we’ll cover an outbreak of the plague and then we’ll finish things off by looking at how the war ended and what the resultant peace meant for both the Russian and Ottoman empires.Listener discretion required - Please note that some parts of the episode are, to say the least, a liitle bit on the grim side.Episode 93 - Three slices of Polish Pie
29:43|Battleships are at the ready in Cheshme Bay and Frederick the Great comes up with a very cunning plan