Russia: The Wild East 'The Rise and Fall of the Soviets' (BBC Audio) CD

One of Radio 4's landmark Narrative History productions this the second part of a magnificent 50-part history of Russia through one and a half millennia written and narrated by Martin Sixsmith. The second part in this fascinating Radio 4 production covers the post-revolutionary period up the present day and includes: Civil War; The Peasant's Revolution; The End of the World Revolution in 1922; Industrialisation; Purges and the Rewriting of History; World War Two; The Nuclear Age beginning in 1949; The Death of Stalin in 1953 followed by Ideological Expansion in the 50s and 60s under Krushchev; Gorbachev's Reforms in the 80s and 90s leading to Destabilisation; the Chernobyl Disaster; Yeltsin and the end of the Soviet Union; and Putin and the Re-assertion of Democracy. Finally Sixsmith pulls all the themes of both series together and looks at Russian identity under five headings: Autocracy vs Democracy; East vs West; Collectivism vs Individualism; and Multi-ethnic empire vs. Slavic nation state.Read More