Russia: Catherine the Great and the Question of Europe

The extraordinary tale of how a small fortressed city became the centre of the largest contiguous landmass in the world, presented by Misha Glenny. 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 feel the expansion of Russia's empire in a century of geopolitical drama. This is the build up to today's war in Ukraine. With contributions from Virginia Rounding, biographer of Catherine the Great; Professor Simon Dixon of UCL; Professor Robert Service, author of The Last Tsar; and Dr Sarah Young of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde