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.

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

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Today as the title suggests we're going to cover three main themes or subjects

Firstly, 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 [email protected] and I will try to respond as soon as I can.

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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 France

Having said that Paul, as you would probably expect, does manage to get involved and do some Paul-like things 

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After featuring in 36 episodes, Catherine who had transformed Russia has departed the scene. 

Which means that the 42 year old, father of 8, Pavel or Paul Petrovich Romanov is now the emperor of all the Russias.

Today, we’ll be taking a look a look back at what made Paul the man he was and we’ll also be covering the first couple of years of his reign to see how he dealt with his mother’s legacy 

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This week we are covering three items - Russia’s further consolidation of its Alaskan territory, Catherine’s, post- Potemkin love life.and then finally, we’ll witness three deaths, one which in the great scope of things was pretty insignificant, another which would be sadly almost pathetically tragic and a third which would genuinely mark the end of an era.

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Today we are going to zoom in on that period just after the dust had settled — roughly 1792 onwards — and have a look at what Russia looked like from a geopolitical standpoint

We'll also be talking about a man, sadly for the last time, who had become one of the titans of Russian History. Grigory Potemkin. (in a way I'm glad because for some strange reason my pronunciation of his name was inconsistent to say the least)

And then we'll be spending some time with a general who, if you remember from the last episode, had won every major battle that he had been involved in - Alexander Suvorov. Which for the Polish/Lithuanian commonwealth would spell even more disaster. 

And finally, we’ll take a quick peek at what was going on in France where the Ancien Regime was being turned upside down and what Catherine’s thought about it all.

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After a decade of calmness in Russia with not much happening, the late 1780's suddenly exploded into action with wars against both the Ottomans and the Swedes and we also witness the death of another major European player.

Oh and don't be alarmed but for this epsiode only, I've changed things - musically.

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This time around we’ll be looking at, in general, more calmness and I’ll be concentrating on just four things that will take us up to the mid 1780s

Further Russian territorial expansion and a touch more provincial reform 

We’ll follow that with one or two family matters (not mine I hasten to add, but Catherine’s)

And then in the second part of the episode we’ll look at a  European geopolitical shift and the deaths of two of our major players. 

And then we’ll end up with the facts or rumours (you decide) that were doing the rounds regarding Grigory Potemkin

Oh and as usual, there will be the odd interjection from our avian friends.

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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 Century

A 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.

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