So in today’s episode we’ll be taking another break from the chronological narrative and looking instead at mainly, the last three decades and a bit, at what went on in Russia from a commercial and business perspective. And …
In this week’s episode ware going to look at four main items A short appraisal of Peter’s reign, a longer appraisal of Elizabeth’s time in charge, a look at the recent coup’s winners and losers and then finally, how Catherin…
A longer than usual episode which provides an overall look at the world in 1762 - just at the point when Catherine was starting her reign in Russia. Britannia ruled the waves (or was starting to) and he age of enlightenment …
Whilst the new regime is finalising it's coup, over at Oranienbaum, a blissfully ignorant Peter has just drilled his Holstein guards and is now on his way to Peterhof to celebrate his name day. But when he get's there, Cathe…
This time around we’ll be looking at the latest events in the Seven Years War, Peter’s Danish campaign, how becoming Tsar had affected his relationship with his wife Catherine and finally, and as the episode title in a fairl…
This time around we’ll be looking at the events that unfolded in the years 1761 and 1762 which, as the title suggests, sadly involves the end of the line for the Empress Elizabeth. But, in an age when Russia had no clearly d…
This time around we’ll be covering the years 1759 and 1760. Years in which the Grand Duchess Catherine and Frederick the Great will be taking stock of their own respective situations and enacting plans to safeguard their own…
It's Spring 1758 and Grand Duchess Catherine is attempting to extricate herself from yet another difficult situation. Meanwhile, over in Prussia, Frederick the Great, despite having just won major battles against the French …
This week we’ll be putting the seven years war to one side whilst we concentrate instead on events that took place in Russia during 1757 and 1758 which, in no particular order, include the reasons for, and the political and …
It's 1757 and for the first time in a long time the Russian army gets to flex its muscles. Click on one of the links below to join the Boyar Duma where for a small monthly subscription you'll receive the following - Exclusiv…
In this episode we’ll be taking a closer look at the affair between Catherine and Poniatowsky and we’ll be checking in on yet another health scare. But as interesting as those subjects are, we'll be spending the majority of …
This time around there are Just two main items on the agenda - The Empress Elizabeth’s ongoing, and so-far frustrated efforts, to secure the Romanov succession and the political machinations and intrigues that would eventua…
This week, probably much to everyone's relief, we will be taking a break from the ceaseless round of court intrigue and instead we’ll be looking at what else was going on in Russia during the Elizabethan age. What else, apar…
This week, I'm afraid, it's more court based chicanery and Intrigue (hence the title). However to avoid just doing a rinse and repeat, I’m going to speed things up a bit and the aim will be to get from where we are now, whic…
This week we’ll be covering the years between 1745 and 1748 and looking at how Peter, Catherine and Elizabeth were all getting along through the events and outcomes related to yet another series of court intrigues and incide…
In this weeks episode we rejoin the main chronological narrative and take a look at the ups and downs of our key characters during 1744 and 1745.. On the up were the Empress Elizabeth, Sophie of Anhalt Zerbst, Maria Theresa…
In this episode we take a step back from the goings on at the Russian court and the war of the Austrian Succession and instead take a peek at the overall state of the Russian Empire and the overall state of Eliazabeth’s mind…
It's January 1744 and Peter Fyodorovich the heir to the Russian throne and his aunt Elizabeth have got some German visitors to entertain and one of them is the almost 15 year old Sophie Friederike Auguste of Anhalt-Zerbst. I…
This weeks episode is centered around the eponymous Lopukhina Conspiracy but who is doing the conspiring and who is being conspired against? Plus events in Sweden are brought to a head, George II, the King of England gets in…
Elizabeth has been busy putting her house in order which means that I have a number of loose ends to tie up.
Plus we get to meet a distant relative and we'll also see what's been going on with the Austrians, French and Prus…
Elizabeth Petrovna is the new empress of Russia. However, she's busy getting her house in order and there is a coronation to plan.
So whilst she's off doing that, we'll undertake a quick retrospective of Anna Ivanovna's reig…
Today in a slightly longer episode than normal we’ll be covering the period between October 1740 and December 1741 which is 15 months and not a year but I think you’ll agree that ‘The 15 months of living dangerously’ doesn’t…
In this episode, we’ll be concentrating on further events centred around the Russian court in St Petersburg, which taken as a whole, and as per the deliberately mysterious and enigmatic episode title, may or may not point to…
Diplomacy with with the Persians, war with the Ottomans, an outbreak of Bubonic Plague and reform on the home front - plus I pronounce 'L'Hermitage' in a really strange way...