Peter the Great

Empire of the Tsars – Romanov Russia episode 3 – The Road to Revolution: Lucy Worsley concludes her history of the Romanov dynasty, investigating how the family’s grip on Russia unravelled in their final century. She shows how the years 1825-1918 were bloody and traumatic, a period when four tsars tried – and failed – to deal with the growing pressure for constitutional reform and revolution.     Lucy finds out how the Romanovs tried to change the system themselves – in 1861, millions of enslaved serfs were freed by the Tsar-Liberator, Alexander II. But Alexander paid the ultimate penalty […]

Empire of the Tsars – Romanov Russia episode 2 – Age of Extremes: This episode she examines the extraordinary reign of Catherine the Great, and the traumatic conflict with Napoleonic France that provides the setting for the novel War and Peace.     Lucy Worsley continues her journey through Russia in the footsteps of the Romanovs, the most powerful royal dynasty in modern European history. Lucy begins in the 18th century, when the great palaces of the Romanovs were built. But in Romanov Russia, blood was always intermingled with the gold – these splendid interiors were the backdrop to affairs,

Empire of the Tsars – Romanov Russia episode 1 – Reinventing Russia: Lucy Worsley travels to Russia to tell the extraordinary story of the dynasty that ruled the country for more than three centuries. It’s an epic tale that includes giant figures such as Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, the devastating struggle against Napoleon in 1812, and the political murders of Nicholas II and his family in 1918 which brought the dynasty to a brutal end.     In this first episode of Empire of the Tsars, Lucy investigates the beginning of the Romanovs’ 300-year reign in Russia.