Episodes
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The Balkans: The Birth and Death of Yugoslavia
Misha Glenny returns to the Balkans to report on the birth and death of Yugoslavia. With contributions from Lea Ypi, Radina Vucetic, Ivan Veyvoda, Tim Heneage, Jelena Dureinovic, plus former soldier turned writer Faruk Sehic in Sarajevo. Includes archive of Fitzroy Maclean and Steed Wickham, plus...
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The Balkans: The Birth and Death of Yugoslavia
Misha Glenny returns to the Balkans to report on the birth and death of Yugoslavia. With contributions from Lea Ypi, Radina Vucetic, Ivan Veyvoda, Tim Heneage, Jelena Dureinovic, plus former soldier turned writer Faruk Sehic in Sarajevo. Includes archive of Fitzroy Maclean and Steed Wickham, plus...
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The Balkans: Episode 2
Churchill may have said that the Balkans produce more history than it can consume, but in this episode Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head out to discover if it's true. This is a road trip through Bosnia, Belgrade and northern Greece. The aim? To explore the collapse of the Ottoman empire and see…
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The Balkans: Episode 2
Churchill may have said that the Balkans produce more history than it can consume, but in this episode Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head out to discover if it's true. This is a road trip through Bosnia, Belgrade and northern Greece. The aim? To explore the collapse of the Ottoman empire and see…
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The Balkans: What Are the Balkans?
June 28 1914 - a young Bosnian on a street corner in Sarajevo fired a shot that triggered World War One. Why is this region so unstable, and what lessons can we learn from that event. Misha Glenny was a famous reporter during the wars of the 1990s, well-placed to find answers in a region he's...
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The Balkans: What Are the Balkans?
June 28 1914 - a young Bosnian on a street corner in Sarajevo fired a shot that triggered World War One. Why is this region so unstable, and what lessons can we learn from that event. Misha Glenny was a famous reporter during the wars of the 1990s, well-placed to find answers in a region he's...
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Hungary: Two World Wars and One Failed Revolution
It's easy to forget how entwined Hungary has been in some of the worst events of the last 100 years – losers in the first world war, the country initially sided with the Nazis in the second, tried to change its mind, was invaded by the Germans then taken over by the Soviets, then tried to kick…
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Hungary: Two World Wars and One Failed Revolution
It's easy to forget how entwined Hungary has been in some of the worst events of the last 100 years – losers in the first world war, the country initially sided with the Nazis in the second, tried to change its mind, was invaded by the Germans then taken over by the Soviets, then tried to kick…
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Hungary: The Butcher and the Poet
"Brussels is abusing its power," said Victor Orban, "just as Vienna once did." The date, March 15 2025 - this year - but the reference was to March 1848 when Hungary rose up against its Austrian overlords, a great moment for many Hungarians today. Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde were in...
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Hungary: The Butcher and the Poet
"Brussels is abusing its power," said Victor Orban, "just as Vienna once did." The date, March 15 2025 - this year - but the reference was to March 1848 when Hungary rose up against its Austrian overlords, a great moment for many Hungarians today. Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde were in...
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Hungary: Hungary and Mohacs 500
Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde travel from Vienna to Budapest and beyond to find out how Hungarian hardman Viktor Orban stays in power. With an election coming up next year, now seemed a good time to find out how he uses history in his campaigns, beginning with a battle his country lost to...
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Hungary: Hungary and Mohacs 500
Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde travel from Vienna to Budapest and beyond to find out how Hungarian hardman Viktor Orban stays in power. With an election coming up next year, now seemed a good time to find out how he uses history in his campaigns, beginning with a battle his country lost to...
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Taiwan
At the beginning of this year the president of the Chinese People's Republic, Xi Jinping, claimed that people living on both sides of the Taiwan Straits should reunite "and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". But is Taiwan really a part of China, and could this question...
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China: The Life and Times of Chairman Mao
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel east to tell the story of China - what it is and where it came from. "Twentieth century China is the most extraordinary place, and Mao is at the heart of nearly all of it." With the help of Tania Branigan, Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's...
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China: Imperial Collapse
"You could do a whole programme on why you shouldn't build a capital in Beijing. It's a Mongolian camel camp." Paul French Beijing means capital of the north, and was first used by the Ming to distinguish it from Nanjng, capital of the south. Home to the Forbidden City where the emperors lived…
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China: To Kowtow or Not Kowtow
Britain was late in its contacts with China and the Qing dynasty - the Portuguese, the Dutch and the Spanish had all headed east long before Lord McCartney's embassy tried to establish a formal relationship in 1792/3. Although it failed, this mission is famous for one thing - whether the British...
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China: To Kowtow or Not Kowtow
Britain was late in its contacts with China and the Qing dynasty - the Portuguese, the Dutch and the Spanish had all headed east long before Lord McCartney's embassy tried to establish a formal relationship in 1792/3. Although it failed, this mission is famous for one thing - whether the British...
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China: The First Emperor
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel east to tell the story of China - what it is and where it came from. "The empire long united must divide, long divided must unite. Thus it has ever been." The opening lines of a fourteenth century novel about the rise and fall of China's multiple dynasties,...
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China: The First Emperor
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel east to tell the story of China - what it is and where it came from. "The empire long united must divide, long divided must unite. Thus it has ever been." The opening lines of a fourteenth century novel about the rise and fall of China's multiple dynasties,...
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Turkey: Ottoman or Turk
A bonus episode with Hannah Lucinda Smith, Christopher de Bellaigue and Misha Glenny.
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Turkey: A Balancing Act
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde take a ride over the Bosphorus to see the old Hyderpasha railway station - the Asian bulkhead of the Berlin to Baghdad railway which opened in 1909. The Ottoman alliance with Germany had implications for the Middle East that are still being felt to this day. "This was…
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Turkey: A Balancing Act
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde take a ride over the Bosphorus to see the old Hyderpasha railway station - the Asian bulkhead of the Berlin to Baghdad railway which opened in 1909. The Ottoman alliance with Germany had implications for the Middle East that are still being felt to this day. "This was…
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Turkey: The Military
On September 12 1683, an army led by Kara Mustafa Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman empire, lined up on a hill just outside Vienna. The Ottomans had been besieging the city for almost two months. This wasn’t the first time they’d threatened Vienna. Europe’s fate appeared to hang in the balance...
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Turkey: The Military
On September 12 1683, an army led by Kara Mustafa Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman empire, lined up on a hill just outside Vienna. The Ottomans had been besieging the city for almost two months. This wasn’t the first time they’d threatened Vienna. Europe’s fate appeared to hang in the balance...
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Turkey: The Ottomans: East or West
When Mehmet the Conqueror arrived in Constantinople, now Istanbul, he turned the main cathedral into a mosque and threatened to move much further west. Christian Europe was terrified. Misha Glenny travels to Istanbul to reveal how Mehmet's empire expanded over the next 100 years - to Iran, to...
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Turkey: The Ottomans: East or West
When Mehmet the Conqueror arrived in Constantinople, now Istanbul, he turned the main cathedral into a mosque and threatened to move much further west. Christian Europe was terrified. Misha Glenny travels to Istanbul to reveal how Mehmet's empire expanded over the next 100 years - to Iran, to...
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Russia: The Sacred Song of War
Misha Glenny's final programme on Russia looks at the country's attitude to war, and in particular the great patriotic wars against Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte. With contributions from Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad; Robert Service, author of the Last Tsar, Kateryna Khinkulova of BBC...
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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…
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Russia: The Empire Strikes Back
Russia's empire was not like that of Britain or France. It was built by expanding across the land, so much more like the United States of America. Presenter Misha Glenny speaks to James Hill of the New York Times about travelling to the edges, and also to Janet Hartley, author of Siberia: A…
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Russia: A Tale of Two Ivans
Countries look so cohesive on the map - sturdy borders, familiar shapes. Don't be misled; they didn't always look like this. This is the story of Russia, biggest contiguous country on the planet, told from the time when it was very small. "In my producer's history textbook it says here, page 18,...
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Russia: The Sacred Song of War
Misha Glenny's final programme on Russia looks at the country's attitude to war, and in particular the great patriotic wars against Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte. With contributions from Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad; Robert Service, author of the Last Tsar, Kateryna Khinkulova of BBC...
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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…
more -
Russia: The Empire Strikes Back
Russia's empire was not like that of Britain or France. It was built by expanding across the land, so much more like the United States of America. Presenter Misha Glenny speaks to James Hill of the New York Times about travelling to the edges, and also to Janet Hartley, author of Siberia: A…
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Russia: A Tale of Two Ivans
Countries look so cohesive on the map - sturdy borders, familiar shapes. Don't be misled; they didn't always look like this. This is the story of Russia, biggest contiguous country on the planet, told from the time when it was very small. "In my producer's history textbook it says here, page 18,...
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Return to Spain
With Sir John Eliot, plus exciting news.
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Poland: Stalin on One Side, Hitler From the Left
Misha Glenny on the extraordinary history of Poland - includes the Miracle on the Vistula in 1920, the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and how Solidarity set in motion the Soviet Union's collapse. Recorded on location in Warsaw, Krakow and Zamosc, with contributions from Professor Norman Davies and Olesya...
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Poland: Stalin on One Side, Hitler From the Left
Misha Glenny on the extraordinary history of Poland - includes the Miracle on the Vistula in 1920, the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and how Solidarity set in motion the Soviet Union's collapse. Recorded on location in Warsaw, Krakow and Zamosc, with contributions from Professor Norman Davies and Olesya...
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Poland: A Nation Without a State
"The last king of Poland was arrested, put in chains and marched off to Russia." Professor Norman Davies. Between 1795 and 1918 there was no Poland, but the idea of Poland remained extremely strong. Travelling by bus and train around the south east, Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde go in...
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Poland: A Nation Without a State
"The last king of Poland was arrested, put in chains and marched off to Russia." Professor Norman Davies. Between 1795 and 1918 there was no Poland, but the idea of Poland remained extremely strong. Travelling by bus and train around the south east, Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde go in...
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Poland: Obliterated From the Map
Long before Putin tried it on, long before the Soviet Union as well, Ukraine was controlled by somebody else - the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the first of a new series, Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel to eastern Poland to find out more. It's a tale of terrifying power politics…
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Poland: Obliterated From the Map
Long before Putin tried it on, long before the Soviet Union as well, Ukraine was controlled by somebody else - the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the first of a new series, Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel to eastern Poland to find out more. It's a tale of terrifying power politics…
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The Birth of Bangladesh
Not many people recall the Dominion of Pakistan. It was set up after the British left India in 1947, and there were two territories a thousand miles apart, East and West Pakistan. The only thing connecting them was religion. “We don’t even look the same,” says Qasa Alom, a Birmingham born British...
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Scandinavia: The Narcissism of Small Differences
This is the story of how Norway threw off its patronising title of 'little brother' and emerged as the richest Scandinavian nation of all. In 1814 - just as Napoleon's rampage across Europe was drawing to a close - Sweden took control of Norway. They did this with the permission of the other…
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Scandinavia: The Narcissism of Small Differences
This is the story of how Norway threw off its patronising title of 'little brother' and emerged as the richest Scandinavian nation of all. In 1814 - just as Napoleon's rampage across Europe was drawing to a close - Sweden took control of Norway. They did this with the permission of the other…
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Scandinavia: The Viking Inheritance
The Swedes are very proud that they have not fought in a war since 1814, but they have not always been the knitwear pacifists they are today. Following a traumatic moment in their history - the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520 - they set off on a two century rampage fuelled by religion and military...
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Scandinavia: The Viking Inheritance
The Swedes are very proud that they have not fought in a war since 1814, but they have not always been the knitwear pacifists they are today. Following a traumatic moment in their history - the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520 - they set off on a two century rampage fuelled by religion and military...
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Scandinavia: The Bridge
In a brief September window, Misha Glenny and Miles Warde flew into Copenhagen to begin work on a new Invention of ... series. The plan - find out why Denmark, Sweden and Norway had responded to the pandemic in such different ways. Denmark was one of the first countries in Europe to lock down....
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Scandinavia: The Bridge
In a brief September window, Misha Glenny and Miles Warde flew into Copenhagen to begin work on a new Invention of ... series. The plan - find out why Denmark, Sweden and Norway had responded to the pandemic in such different ways. Denmark was one of the first countries in Europe to lock down....
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Ireland: Escalation
Declan Lawn talks to Micha Glenny about the differences between the north and the south and, in particular, the border.
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Ireland: Plantation and Conflict
Dr Joan Redmond talks to Misha Glenny about Ireland, England and the early seeds of war.
About this show
When did countries become countries? Misha Glenny on the borders, the stories and the people of countries worldwide.
Hosted by
BBC Radio 4
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