The History of Russia Podcast · Damon Boar

Episode 100, Russia’s story so far, and the world in 1780.

·35 min

The episode opens by marking the hundredth installment and laying out three jobs for itself. It starts with a broad recap of Russia's history from roughly 840 onward. The story begins with Vikings from eastern Scandinavia setting up river trade routes that linked the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Those routes become the backbone of the early state that follows. The narration then moves forward through centuries of consolidation and conflict. The central figure in the middle stretch is Peter the Great. He wants to Europeanize Russia. He also wants to turn it into a military power on land and at sea. To do that, he reorganizes the army along European lines. He builds a navy from scratch. He reforms administration and taxation. He forces nobles into state service. He imposes Western dress codes. He subordinates the church to the state. He also travels to western Europe, sends his first wife to a convent, and tortures his son Alexei to death. The Great Northern War gives him the opening he wants against Sweden. After years of fighting, he defeats Charles XII. Russia gains access to the Baltic. On marshland taken from Sweden, he builds St Petersburg. The city becomes Russia's window to the West. In 1721 he proclaims Russia an empire and takes the title of emperor. The episode does not pretend that this progress was cheap. It points out the heavy taxation, forced labor, brutal discipline, and widening inequality that came with it. Peter strengthens the state. He also deepens autocracy. After his death in 1725, the succession turns into a scramble. There are short reigns and back-and-forth family politics. Catherine the First rules briefly. Peter the Second follows. Then Anna, one of Ivan V's daughters, takes power. Then her great-nephew Ivan VI is proclaimed czar as a one-year-old. Elizabeth engineers a coup and rules for twenty years. Peter III lasts only a few months before Catherine the Second ousts him. By 1780 she has already been in power for eighteen years. The episode pauses there to note that the empire she rules is now a very different thing from the Russia that began the story. It then turns to the wider world in 1780 before drifting into the host's own thoughts about independent podcasting and what the future may hold.

As heard by us

A centennial sweep that turns Russian state-building into a clear, sobering argument.

Episode 100 uses the milestone to pull Russia back into view and widen the frame, moving from the early river routes to Peter the Great and then out to the world in 1780, where Catherine II is already firmly in place.

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Want the whole Russian story, plus the world around it, in one clean sweep?

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