Russia and the USSR

Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution

The story of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin over the 245 days that brought them to power. As the history unfolds, writers and historians deba...

03: 1917: Red Flag | People's Century

The October Revolution brings forth a new Marxist Leninist society in what becomes the Soviet Union. Its people, now freed from feudal ...

The Soviets: 02: Bolshevik Russia | History File

This programme looks at the Bolsheviks.

Lenin's Secret Files | Timewatch

Stored deep underground by Soviet authorities, secret files documenting the life of Lenin were hidden away for decades in a labyrinth of vau...

Lenin calls for insurrection | Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution

Lenin persuades the central committee of the Bolshevik Party to vote in favour of violent insurrection.

Lenin's letters | Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution

Lenin's letters from hiding in Finland.

July Days | Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution

An investigation of the July Days and Lenin in Razliv.

April Crisis | Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution

An investigation of the April Crisis and Lenin's speech in Petrograd.

05: Lenin and the Great Ungluing | The Age of Uncertainty

JK Galbraith examines WWI as an instrument in changing the old social order, and especially Lenin, who spent most o...

03: Hadrian's Wall: Life on the Frontier | The Flying Archaeologist

Ben Robinson flies over Hadrian's Wall to reveal a landscape of hundreds of sites of human occupation sug...

The Cold War: 01: Berlin 1945-48 | History File

Compilation of secondary schools programme about the Cold War, featuring Berlin Crisis, Hungarian Uprising, rise of Soviet le...

The Cold War: 02: Hungary 1956 | History File

Compilation of secondary schools programme about the Cold War, featuring Berlin Crisis, Hungarian Uprising, rise of Soviet lead...

The Cold War: 04: Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 | History File

Compilation of secondary schools programme about the Cold War, featuring Berlin Crisis, Hungarian Uprising, rise o...

What Happened at Chernobyl | What Happened at..?

Jordan Dunbar travels to Chernobyl to explore events that caused the world's worst nuclear disaster and to understand what w...

01: Comrades: 1917-1945 | Cold War

Both the United States and the Soviet Union drifted apart after the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War and the Paris Peace ...

Learning Zone | Strange Days: Cold War Britain

A version made specially for schools of the BBC Two history series on Britain and the Cold War. Presented by Dominic Sandbrook.

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster | Surviving Disaster

In April 1986 a blast at a Soviet nuclear plant emits 400 times more radiation than the bomb at Hiroshima-the UN claims it ha...

S02E09: Cold War Spies: 1960 U-2 incident | Days That Shook the World

This program focuses on the shooting down of the US U-2 spy plane in 1960.

The Looking Glass War | Strange Days: Cold War Britain

Dominic Sandbrook examines the Cold War years, looking at the frontline of the conflict as consumerism was pitched aga...

The Cold War: 03: U2 and the Arms Race 1956-60 | History File

Compilation of secondary schools programme about the Cold War, featuring Berlin Crisis, Hungarian Uprising, ris...

08: Sputnik: 1949-1961 | Cold War

As a consequence of the atomic spies, the Soviet Union joined the nuclear club, and the two superpowers compete to develop their nuclear ar...

Two Tribes | Strange Days: Cold War Britain

Dominic Sandbrook examines the Cold War years. In the 1970s and '80s, as the end of the world seemed a real possibility, everythi...

The Cold War: 05: Evil Empire 1980's | History File

Compilation of secondary schools programme about the Cold War, featuring Berlin Crisis, Hungarian Uprising, rise of Sovie...

The Soviets: 04: Life Under Stalin | History File

This programme looks at the Cold War.

Moscow 1980: The Cold War Olympics

Steve Cram recalls how the Moscow Olympics of 1980 came to symbolise the intensity of the Cold War. As politics and sport collided head on...

21: Spies: 1944-1994 | Cold War

Throughout the Cold War both sides sought intelligence about their opponents using spies, satellites and other means. For political reasons, ...

Red Dawn | Strange Days: Cold War Britain

Historian Dominic Sandbrook examines the Cold War. He looks at the first chilling years of the conflict, when the opposing ideologi...

01: Educating Rita | Comrades

Rita Tikhonova is 21; she lives in Moscow, sharing a small flat about a mile from the Kremlin. She spent last year training to be a teacher. Th...

S02E06: Yuri Gagarin's Flight | Days That Shook the World

Yuri Gagarin's journey as the first man in space.

S03E04: The Two Winstons | A History of Britain by Simon Schama

Examining the 20th century through the lives of Winston Churchill and George Orwell, who both wrote about the...

Stalin: Inside the Terror

Documentary that uncovers the private and family life of the Soviet dictator. Using reconstructions, it also attempts to discover Stalin's motives ...

How the Holocaust Began

Historian James Bulgin reveals the origins of the Holocaust in the German invasion of the Soviet Union, exploring the mass murder, collaboration and ...

Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution

The story of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin over the 245 days that brought them to power. As the history unfolds, writers and historians deba...

Growth of Stalin's terror | Stalin: Inside the Terror

After Lenin's death, Stalin seizes control of the funeral and uses the occasion to sideline Trotsky, consolidating his ...

09: Stalingrad | The World at War

After initial successes, Hitler's invasion of Russia is decisively stopped at Stalingrad.

Hitler, Stalin and Mr Jones | Storyville

An investigation into the mysterious death of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who revealed the starvation deaths of millions in 1930s...

S02E03: The Home Front | Rise of the Nazis

Facing defeat on the Eastern Front, Hitler retreats, and his inner circle vies for power. The resistance gets a student voice, and...

The Soviets: 04: Life Under Stalin | History File

This programme looks at the Cold War.

The Soviets: 03: Stalin Takes Control | History File

This programmeramme covers Stalin.

Gulag

Documentary examining Stalin's Gulag. Between the October Revolution and Stalin's death in 1953, millions of people died in the camps. The film explores the Gulag lega...

01: Stalin and the Modernisation of Russia | Twentieth Century History

A schools feature about the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, who turned Russia into an industrial powerh...

The Soviets: 05: Stalin and the Bomb | History File

This programme looks at the Cold War.

S02E02: Stalingrad | Rise of the Nazis

The Nazis have lost in Moscow. Hitler and Stalin take charge of their armies - with no-one to hold them back. In Stalin, Hitler has me...

01: High Hopes | War of the Century

A four-part breakdown of the reasons behind, and course of, the bloody war between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union, which resu...

Who Killed Stalin? | Timewatch

Russia's brutal dictator fell into a coma in 1953. Many wanted him dead. So who was responsible? Simon Sebag Montefiore visits Moscow to meet ...

Mr Jones

In 1933, suspicious of Russia's miraculous resurgence under Stalin, Gareth Jones escapes Moscow's decadence and discovers Ukraine's desperation. However, it is not ...

05: Stalin | Walden on Villains

A look at Joseph Stalin , leader of Soviet Russia and the biggest mass murderer in history, who ordered the deaths of 22 million people but w...

03: Learning to Win | War of the Century

An examination of the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the most horrific engagements in the history of warfare where, in 1942, the exhau...

04: Vengeance | War of the Century

Summer 1944: the seeds of Soviet victory are sown when Germany suffers huge casualties against Stalin's troops in Byelorussia. When, in Ap...

02: Spiral of Terror | War of the Century

First-hand testimony recalls the bloodshed of the Battle for Moscow, where many Soviet citizens perished as a result of their own l...

Bloody Sunday | Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

In 1905, 150,000 workers protested at the winter palace and after a year of revolution, Nicholas II ins...

S01E05: The Murder of the Romanovs | Days That Shook the World

This program examines events marking the beginning and end of communism in Eastern Europe, including the execu...

The Soviets: 01: The Fall of Tsarism | History File

This programme at fall of Tsarism.

03: The Road to Revolution | Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

Lucy investigates how the Romanov family's grip on Russia unravelled in their final centur...

Tsar Nicholas II | Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

Lucy describes Tsar Nicholas II's rise to power and how his faith and attention to detail distracted...

The October Revolution | Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution

The events of the October Revolution.

01: Reinventing Russia | Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

Lucy looks at the beginning of the Romanovs' reign, from Mikhail to Peter the Great, the tsar ...

Rasputin | Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

Nicolas II's son was a haemophiliac, and despite being on deaths door, Rasputin was able to heal him.

The Winter Palace | Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution

The assault on the Winter Palace.

Nicholas' abdication | Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

After the hardships of WWI, the people were hungry and poor, and the soldiers refused to carry o...

02: Age of Extremes | Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

The story of the dynasty that ruled Russia for more than three centuries. Lucy examines the reign...

Lenin and Tsar Nicholas | Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

Lenin was the antidote to the Romanov rule and in 1917, his Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Pal...

After the revolution | Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution

The impact of the October Revolution on Russia to the present.

03: Smashing the Mould | The Art of Russia

Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of Russian art. He examines political revolution and how art was at the forefront of throwing ...

02: Roads to Revolution | The Art of Russia

Andrew Graham-Dixon follows the history of Russian art. Here, he looks at how art was affected by Russia's change from a feudal n...

01: Out of the Forest | The Art of Russia

Critic Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of Russian art. He explores the origins of the Russian icon and visits a monastery found...

02: The World Turned Upside Down | Russia's Lost Princesses

The last four years of the sisters' lives saw war, revolution, imprisonment and murder.

01: The Gilded Cage | Russia's Lost Princesses

The story of Tsar Nicholas II's four daughters. As they grew up, the sisters attracted frenzied press attention and grew close...

Rasputin's demise | Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

Lucy explores how WWI influenced Nicolas II's leadership and encouraged Rasputin's fame to quickly ...

02: Rasputin | The Last Days of...

Rasputin: Writers, thinkers and historians explore the downfall and legacy of Rasputin, the Siberian peasant who rose from obscurity to th...