The History of Russia Podcast

In Today's episode we'll be visiting a number of different locations.First, Iberia — because Napoleon's other war, the one being fought in Spain and Portugal, was quietly draining exactly the men, materiel and focus that would be ideally required in the east. Then we’ll head east ourselves, to the Ottoman front and take a short detour into the Caucasus. Next it’s back to St Petersburg, to watch Speransky's reform programme start to come apart at the seams. And then finally, the main event — the actual mechanics of how France and Russia went from suspicious allies to open enemies over the course of 1811, and what both sides were doing about it.

Today we're going to look at what Tilsit actually meant first of all for Russia. What it did to the domestic mood, what it meant economically, how it left a messy war with the Ottomans (yes, Russia nd Turkey were at it gain), hanging in mid-air We will also be covering what the reform minded civil servant Mikhail Speransky was quietly trying to do in the background.And then finally, we’ll examine the hairline cracks that were starting to appear with regard to the Franco-Russian relationship and how they started to impact upon the bigger European picture.

Napoleon continued to sweep all before him - on land. But at sea, it was a different story.Prussia decided to join the allied coalition, and imediately regreted it. Which meant that Alexander had no other choice but go to war with the French.But that would all, literrally end in tears and Napoleon and Alexander agreed to a treaty - which on paper looked advantageous to both but in hindsight, just papered over the cracks.

It's 1804 and a new coalition was being formed (the 3rd) to try to and defeat Napoleon and the French.However, in the following year the French emperor would again show just why he was one of the greatest military figures of all time,

Paul is dead, Alexander is the new Tsar and so today we're going to cover the first two to three years of his reign — roughly 1801 to 1803, where surely, things in Russia could only get better...

Today we are doing something slightly different. We are stepping off of the chronological conveyor belt — which has been moving at quite a clip lately — and we are going to take a breather and look at something I have perhaps neglected (well there is no 'perhaps' about it - I have). So for the next 35 or so minutes come with me on a journey through 18th Century Russian culture. The art, the architecture. the literature, the music - and let's see if we can work out whether any of it was actualy Russian.

It's the 23rd of March 1801 and in the Mikhailovsky Castle, just outside St Petersburg, something terrible is about to happen...

Today as the title suggests we're going to cover three main themes or subjectsFirstly, Paul's support of Napoleon’s march on India. Secondly, we are going to spend some time trying to get to know Paul’s eldest son and heir, Alexander, who was a fascinating and genuinely complicated young man, with good reason.And then we’ll finish things off by taking a look at some of the people around Paul who were starting to get seriously hacked-off with the Tsar himself and the direction that things in general were going.If you want get in touch with a question or a positive or negative comment then you can by sending me a mail at nordicworld@outlook.com and I will try to respond as soon as I can.

Today is another of those episodes, where in th early stages anyway, Russia is not the primary focus and is somewhat on the periphery because the real action is happening elsewhere and much of that is being driven by events in FranceHaving said that Paul, as you would probably expect, does manage to get involved and do some Paul-like things