Moscow Brian Cox's Russia

It's 100 years since the Russian Revolution...

..and it all started here.

And it cut off Russia from the world for nearly 70 years.

But new DNA evidence suggests that 1 in every 600 Russians

has Scottish ancestry.

I'm discovering Scots

who made a massive impact on Russia's history.

Some made the former Empire their home,

and others fought and died there.

From those who helped to establish Russian football...

..to those, like me, who came to Russia

at a crucial time in their life.

They found Russia beautiful, captivating and quite exasperating.

This is from Scotland to Russia, with love.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

This programme contains some strong language.

I first went to Russia 30 years ago

to teach a series of Shakespeare workshops to young Russian actors.

It was my first experience of Russia and of being in a documentary.

You have to really keep this text,

it's tricky, but it's...

I'm now going back to find out about other Scots

who came to Russia and made the Empire their own.

Our journey starts here, in Leuchars, Fife,

with an intriguing link between Russia

and one of Scotland's most-respected regiments,

the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

This regiment is about as Scottish as they come.

But they have Russia in their hearts.

Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia.

In 1894, he was given the honorary title

of the regiment's first-ever Colonel in Chief.

What we've got here is a troop

in what we would call, and in the Tsar's day...

Taking up the story is commanding officer

Lieutenant Colonel Dominic Coombes.

So, we're in Fife and very happy to be here.

And, of course, we're talking about our relationship

with Tsar Nicholas and with Russia.

We wear these grey berets

which are the mark of the Scots Greys.

And the cap badge.

There's a black backing to it.

Yeah, I see that, yeah.

And common folklore and the internet

will tell you that we wear this in mourning for the Tsar.

The reality is, we've worked out,

actually, it was the black backing to put the silver badge,

-to show it off better against the grey beret.

-Right.

But the regiment's historical link with the Tsar is very real.

Corporal Bell here is holding this icon.

It's of Tsar Nicholas II.

-So, when Tsar Nicholas...

-May I?

-Yeah, absolutely.

This icon was a gift from the people of Russia.

Many in the regiment believe it gives them good luck.

It's been to Kosovo, it's been to Iraq twice,

it's been to Afghanistan twice, and anywhere we go in the future,

whenever we go on operations, that comes with us

and goes and sits next to me, wherever I am.

Even if you're on the front line?

-Yeah, anywhere.

-That's pretty impressive.

In Afghanistan, it went in various vehicles.

So, yeah, it's travelled.

-So, we take it with us everywhere.

-I love that.

-It's great, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's tremendous.

We look after it.

-We cherish it.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think it's a great link.

And now it's in Fife.

And now it's in Fife. In Leuchars, yeah.

-Very proud to have it here.

-Yeah, great.

Nicholas II was the last of the three-century-old Romanov dynasty.

That the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards carry this piece of history

wherever they go is truly amazing.

But first, we have to find out where it started.

Helping me understand the Russian connection

is Brigadier Mel Jameson,

chairman of the Scots Dragoon Guards Museum Trust.

What's the uniform he is wearing here?

-That's the Scots Greys uniform.

-That is the Scots Greys uniform.

Full dress of the Scots Greys.

-This is the Tsar?

-This is the Tsar again, on his royal yacht, Standart.

And the band played, the Scots Rose band played on the yacht for him.

I love this picture.

And I love this torch that has somehow gone down with it.

That picture still hangs in Buckingham Palace,

and Queen Victoria was so fond of her great-granddaughter, Alexei,

that she turned out at the front door to meet her,

and, as she called him, Nicky.

In 1896, the Tsar and his wife, Alexei,

granddaughter to Queen Victoria,

visited Balmoral.

This rare footage captures that moment.

The royal couple had been married two years,

a fairy-tale romance that Queen Victoria believed

would help create peace within Europe.

Tsar Nicholas,

Tsarevich Nicholas, actually, came over

because Queen Victoria had a review of her troops at Aldershot

and riding past one of the regimens was the Royal Scots Greys,

and he said to Queen Victoria, seeing all these grey horses

and scarlet tunics, "What a beautiful regiment."

Then there was a pause,

he got married the same year,

and Queen Victoria made him Colonel in Chief,

probably one of the first foreign monarchs

to be made Colonel in Chief of a British regiment.

Was that like a wedding present?

Indeed. That's the way I look at it, as a wedding present.

GUN FIRES

20 years later, Europe was in the grips of World War I.

In Russia, Tsar Nicholas II had been forced to abdicate,

after losing the support of his battle-weary army.

When the Bolsheviks took over in 1917,

Nicholas and his family were imprisoned.

A year later, an order, almost certainly from Lenin,

was given to execute the royal family.

Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexei,

five children and four servants were taken down to the cellar and shot.

The regiment must have been, then,

incredibly affected by the assassination

and what eventually happened to him.

Yes, the tragic death of the Tsar in 1918, from that moment on,

the one thing that happened and still happens today,

is that when we have a formal dinner in the officers' mess, we will play,

before the loyal toast and the National Anthem, God Save The Queen,

we will play the Imperial Anthem of Russia,

one verse, in memory of the Tsar.

MUSIC: Imperial Anthem of Russia by Alexie Lvov

It's done with us sitting down,

as we sit for the national anthem as well,

strangely, sitting at attention,

remembering the Tsar for that period of time,

and we take it very seriously.

As you can imagine, the occasional dinner got a bit rowdy,

rolls being thrown.

And there was never any damage to the Tsar.

The regiment has one more magnificent reminder of the Tsar,

their murdered Colonel in Chief.

He's very like King George V.

They were so alike, weren't they?

-So alike.

-Yeah, incredibly alike.

King George V and him, they could have been twins.

He had these eyes, these amazingly blue eyes.

I always felt with Nicholas II, he had tragedy written all over him.

But he's well remembered and revered in the regiment

and part of our wonderful history.

So, we have had everybody come and have a look at it,

Sotheby's and Christie's, and everybody is fascinated.

It's probably worth a few shillings.

A few bob, yeah.

We Scots certainly love...

..lost causes, and there's nothing more romantic or tragic

than the demise of the Russian Imperial family.

But there are many other links between Russia and us Scots.

Welcome to Russia.

Where I'm standing is arguably

the heart and soul of this great country,

and there is no better location to show Russia's turbulent past,

then here, in this very spot.

Krasnaya Ploschad, Red Square.

In the 15th century,

Red Square was little more than a shanty town of wooden huts

housing criminals, pedlars and drunks.

Now, from the iconic Saint Basil's Cathedral

to the Kremlin,

where leaders since Ivan the Terrible have ruled,

it's a tourist destination and the historic centre of Moscow.

But if you know where to look,

you will find the presence of we Scots everywhere.

The original clock in the Spasskaya Bashnya

was built by a Scot, Christopher Galloway,

in 1624.

Beside this beautiful Orthodox church

is the entrance to the grand Kremlin Palace.

It's a place that strikes fear in many,

but I have been given privileged access.

Citadel of the Tsars, it was once the very centre of the Soviet Union.

But even here, there is a mark of the Scots.

We come through these pair of extraordinary - ooh!-

gold doors.

Gold, real gold...

..into St Alexander Room.

Unbelievable.

I don't think we've got anything to match this.

It's hard to believe, but...

..during the Soviet period,

these rooms were treated in a utilitarian fashion.

There'd be huge tables here and desks

and lots of people buzzing around

and meetings, trying to ignore this absolute spectacle...

..pretend it wasn't here.

It must have been very, very distracting.

It's a magnificent piece of work, absolutely magnificent.

We come to the room...

..of our mutual patron saint.

And here we are.

The St Andrew's Room.

The throne room of the Tsars.

Gobsmackingly beautiful.

No people, just me.

Incredible.

If you look way up high, you can see a little St Andrew on his cross,

the saltire.

It's quite funny.

He's wearing what can only be best described

as a pair of wee white jockeys.

Good old St Andrew.

The St Andrew's Hall is one of five massive chambers within the Kremlin.

In 2012, it was chosen to host President Putin's inauguration.

So, here we have the three thrones.

The Tsar, his wife...

..and his mother.

Very evocative...

..in the midst of all this amazing splendour.

It's also such a strong reminder

that St Andrew, he's all over the place.

He's part of the Russian emblem,

the two-headed eagle,

and there's St Andrew crucified in the middle...

..and how

much that saltire has come to mean to us...

..so it's something we have in common.

Well, there's only so much gold a man fae Dundee can take.

It's time to leave the big city of Moscow.

I'm now travelling back in time

to the medieval town of Vyborg,

close to the border of Finland.

This re-enactment group come from all over Russia

to follow in the footsteps of Patrick Gordon from Aberdeen.

In the 1690s,

this Scottish soldier was the highest-ranking general

in the Russian army.

They're led by Boris Migorsky.

I thought you behaved in a very commanding way just now.

-Yes, see those stripes?

-Yes.

-It means I am a sergeant.

Ah, sergeant.

For the last 14 years, Boris and his group

have been researching Patrick Gordon's regiment.

What are you going to show me?

We will perform the drill manual of late 17th, early 18th century.

With flintlock muskets, this is

more or less what Patrick Gordon taught his troops.

These roots lie in Patrick Gordon.

Yes. The words of command, all the motions,

we can be sure that they are more or less authentic.

In the middle of the 17th century,

Russia's army was largely made up of villagers,

defending the motherland.

In 1661...

..Patrick Gordon began to professionalise the army.

This drill is an example of the ones taught by Patrick Gordon.

There's the sense of, you know, firing in volley.

When 100 muskets fire...

..it will look like everybody fired.

-Yeah.

-But when you look at individuals...

Yeah.

Do you take them to task if they don't fire properly?

Yeah, of course.

THEY LAUGH

What do you do?

-That's all I can do.

-Wag your finger!

-It's a habit.

-Yeah.

I want to find out more about Patrick Gordon,

and why he came to Russia in the first place.

In Scotland, few have heard of him, yet, here, he's not just remembered,

he's revered.

How this man became like a father to the Tsar

is as long and as deep as the Russian Metro itself.

Maybe he was in the right place at the right time.

It's a common sight.

You'll see people touching the dog for good luck.

And so they have a good day.

And you can see it's quite worn away here.

In fact, that's what the metal would have been...

Ah!

See?

To find out more, I'm going to meet Dr Dmitry Fedosov -

a historian who has been researching Patrick Gordon

for the last 20 years.

Patrick Gordon's diaries are here in the military archive

of the Lefort Palace. He kept a detailed, vivid account of his life,

even in the middle of battle.

So, let me understand.

There was this little boy from Aberdeen...

-Yes.

-..who ends up going to Poland at the age of...

At the age of 16.

16? And the idea was to send a son to Poland.

Yes, but the thing is, as he himself writes,

he was a younger son of a younger brother, of a younger house.

So he had nothing to hope for in terms of inheritance back home.

And as so many other Scots, all over the world,

he just followed the track of wonder in Europe, to seek employment.

Military employment. You'll see,

as he puts it in this very first volume here.

The explanation for his leaving the country, is...

..here. "I resolved, I say, to go to some foreign country,

"not caring much on what pretence, or to which country I should go,

"seeing I had no known friend in any foreign place."

That's fascinating.

Patrick Gordon was fighting for the Polish Army

when he was captured by the Russians.

But luck was on his side.

One of his captors was a fellow Scot.

So there were these bunch of Scots lads, they said,

"Listen, you've got to come and join us."

Yes. This is exactly what happened.

"You know, you're going to be among your own kind."

So he was quite critical, wasn't he, of the Russians?

Initially. Let's see if I can...

I love the way you know these books, seemingly by heart.

Well, I've been...

And you can go straight to the source.

-It's incredible.

-"The people being..."

Now listen to this.

"..morose, avaricious, niggard, deceitful, false,

"insolent and tyrannous, where they have command,

"and being under command,

"submissive and even slavish, sloven and base,

"and yet overweening and valuing themselves above all other nations."

In 1682, the new Tsar took over the throne.

Pyotr Alexeyevich.

Better known in the west as Peter the Great.

From a young age, Peter the Great was fascinated with toy soldiers.

What happened was that Peter was, as indeed young boys tend to be,

was very keen on things military from very early on.

So he started with toy soldiers in wood, and perhaps other materials,

but increasingly, he was into re-enactments.

As the Tsar grew older, he was given his own real soldiers to play with,

a bodyguard of 100 men.

Patrick Gordon trained them up for the young Tsar,

and they were nicknamed The Toy Soldiers,

or Play Men.

You've also got, in here, I've noticed some amazing drawings.

That's true. This is volume three, which is the smallest, but, perhaps,

the most military of them all, with...action.

In 1695, Patrick Gordon had a reputation as a formidable soldier.

The siege of Azov, where Russia fought the Ottoman Empire

for access to the Black Sea, would make him a legend.

So, amazingly, they managed to hold out with some, like,

10,000 men against...

being outnumbered by ten to one

by the Turks and Cathars for over a month.

One diary entry sums up what Gordon faced.

"On the bridge I did meet five or six Turks,

"with their drawn scimitars,

"and of the heads of Christians in their left hands.

"At these, firing my pistol, I break through,

"and run to the right hand on the top of the dam.

"I got out also.

"And then made as much haste as possible

"to the laager, to the Russian camp."

So he survived by a hair's breadth.

It was really a miraculous salvation.

That's an amazing escape.

Patrick Gordon served the Tsar until his death in 1699.

Peter attended him several times, almost constantly,

when Gordon was on his deathbed,

again, here, in this part of Moscow.

In November 1699, indeed Peter closed his eyes.

And, of course, the funeral was lavish.

I think no Gordon,

not even any Duke of Gordon was ever buried with such pomp and grandeur

as Patrick here in Moscow,

because the Tsar himself was in the procession,

at the head of his regiment.

To sum up, Dmitry, would you say, I mean, apart from Peter...

..who was the Great,

that he was probably one of the most important men in Russia?

Definitely.

Certainly. In Russia, and I would say more,

he was one of the more important men

of the Scottish diaspora worldwide.

After speaking to Dmitry,

Patrick Gordon's story has come alive for me.

I'm about to fire my first musket.

Well, I'm not actually sure if it's my first musket.

I think it is.

So, what do I do?

God, they're heavy, aren't they?

Put that back, yes.

-You shoot, open.

-Open.

Ah.

OK. In here?

All right, OK. Do you hold it there?

There?

OK. Hold it back.

OK. Is that it?

There's an interesting postscript to this tale.

The Toy Soldiers, or Play Men...

..disappeared after the revolution...

..when the Imperial family, whom they guarded, were murdered.

And just three years ago, Putin decided to reinstate them.

And now they are the official guard of the Kremlin.

Time to meet my chauffeur for the day.

-Nice to meet you.

-It's moving.

-Welcome to Russia.

-Is it OK?

It's OK.

-Power in motion.

-Power in motion?

So, Sergei, what do I do with this seat belt?

Well, actually, you can forget about it.

I don't think our police will give me a fine for an abroad actor.

I see. But...

Normally, you should put it under the leg.

Put it under the leg. This is so Soviet.

-Yes.

-This is what they used to do in the Soviet times.

-So, how old are you?

-I'm 26.

So, 26, that means you were born in 1990?

-'89.

-'89.

To be fair, I'm really proud

I was born in the Soviet Union, not Russia.

When I was here in 1988, there was a great optimism,

because there was perestroika, there was glasnost,

everything was changing, Mikhail Gorbachev,

everything was possible.

You know, it was a great, great time.

They offered new opportunities.

Back then the city was drab, but unique.

Looking around now at the luxury shops, it feels less distinctive.

How do you feel about Gorbachev?

He is the man who fucked up my country.

He was...to me, he seems a weak leader.

I feel sorry that we live in different countries

with Ukraine, Belarus, it's one nation for me, and, you know...

I'm really sorry we are separate nowadays.

And you think that was Gorbachev who fucked up the country?

Yeah. Probably.

But at the same time, he allowed for changes to happen.

I like the changes, but I don't like there is

some hate between the nations which were brothers.

We're heading north on the trail of our next Scottish connection.

This is Serednikovo.

In the 19th-century, one of Russia's most famous poets,

and one of my favourite novelists, Mikhail Lermontov, lived here.

And, ancestrally at least, he's a Scot.

Here to meet me is a direct descendant of Lermontov,

and Moscow's only expert on Scots Gaelic, Mhari Koralova.

-Mhari.

-Hello, Brian.

-Ciamar a' tha thu?

-Oh! Tha mi gu math.

You have Gaelic?

Mm. Ochen' plokha.

I see. Welcome to Serednikovo,

the home where Lermontov stayed

during his younger years as a teenager.

-Let's go upstairs.

-And this was his grandmother's home?

Yes, it was. His grandmother's home.

Mikhail was cut off from his father,

and brought up by his aristocratic granny.

The Lermontov dynasty began in Scotland.

In the 16th century, a Scottish soldier, George Learmonth,

left Fife to seek his fortune.

He settled in Russia and changed his name to Yuri Lermontov.

Mikhail would be born nearly two centuries later.

So these are all the famous Learmonths.

And over here we have, is this...?

This is, this is...

This is Mikhail, yes?

-No. This is Mikhail.

-This is Mikhail.

This one is his cousin, I believe.

Lermontov remains one of the most-loved writers in Russia.

He devolved a very clear language which became, some people say,

probably the best prose,

the best prose for Russia is written by Lermontov

because his language is very clear.

And there's an element of self-hatred that comes through

-in a lot of the characters.

-There is a dictionary where they

list all the most frequent words of each writer,

and the most frequent word of Lermontov is no.

-No.

-No.

-Nyet, nyet.

-Yes.

"So I grew envious, I was ready to love the whole world,

"but no-one understood me.

"And I learned to hate.

"My cheerless youth passed in conflict, and with myself and society.

"And fearing ridicule, I buried my finest feelings deep in my heart,

"and there, they died."

'Lermontov wrote these words when he was 24 years old.'

You can see the roots of that in his childhood.

You can see the roots of that in the fact that he was not able to...

..create, you know, be a part of a family.

You know, with his dad.

Anybody who...

I mean, I lost my father when I was very little,

so I know what that's like.

And I know what that does to you.

That sense of alienation.

You know, not having a father.

And I could feel that.

I could feel that empathy with him.

Yes. And that's why, I think,

Lermontov always dreamt about his ancestors.

He was really fascinated by his ancestors.

Sadly, Lermontov wasn't long for this world.

At the age of 26,

he got involved in an argument with a friend in the Caucasus.

He was probably considered to be a friend of his but he, probably,

he was jealous because Lermontov was so talented.

He challenged him to a duel?

He challenged him to a duel,

yes, and that's how his life ended.

There's lots of speculation whether it was intentional or unintentional.

He thought it was a joke right until the end.

Because didn't he fire his gun in the air?

Yes. And Martynov just fired straight...

-Straight at him.

-Yes.

Shall we go down to the lake?

Yes, let's do that. I'll show you

the place where Yearning was written.

This is so beautiful.

In 1831, when Mikhail was just 16 years old,

he wrote one of his most celebrated poems, The Yearning.

-It looks like Scotland. It could be one of your Scottish lochs.

-Yes.

'It shows how important his Scottish roots were to him.'

"To the west, to the west, I'll be gone in an hour.

"To the land where my forefathers flowered."

SHE RECITES POEM IN RUSSIAN

'Lermontov never made it to Scotland, his ancestral home.'

But he could never fulfil his dream during his lifetime.

So my idea was to bring that monument to Scotland,

so that we could finally, after 200 years, fulfil his dream.

And I'm sure that his spirit now rests happily.

And that he is very, very welcome in the land of his ancestor.

He is among his kin.

I'm sure he's very happy.

"Westwards, ever westwards would I fly.

"Where flourish the lands of my forebears.

"Where, in an empty castle,

"on mist-clad mountains rest their forgotten remains."

That sculpture now lies here

in the village of Earlston in the Scottish Borders.

Today is the anniversary of his birth.

It's a Russian tradition to give flowers to the monument.

So we have a little posy of red roses,

and thistles to represent Scotland,

the Scottish people. And it's tied with the Flower of Scotland ribbon.

APPLAUSE

Friday night in Moscow.

I love this city.

I mean, it's hard not to, but the traffic, oh, my God!

It's bad.

So bad that the uber-rich put on flashing lights and sirens

and pretend that they are ambulances just to get through the traffic.

I'm heading to Russia's first Caledonian club,

a place for Scotophiles to meet wandering Scots like me.

Extraordinary.

Russian fusion. Scottish fusion.

It's run by President Vitaly Myranov.

Vitaly has an amazing claim to fame.

In 2007 he brought Edinburgh's famous Military Tattoo to Red Square.

Over 1,000 musicians from nine countries took part,

with a combined audience of over 35,000 people.

It's now one of the most important annual cultural events in Moscow.

For Vitaly, it's not just about tourism.

Give people opportunity to understand each other better,

because... Because, sorry to interrupt, my friend,

but because, you see, I strongly believe that what politicians are doing now,

this is horrible thing.

All politicians around the world.

They're thinking instead of us, they live in a plastic world.

In a world which they create for themselves.

But we ordinary people, we don't need to follow this.

We need to create our own world.

And speak with each other.

We need... Our people need to see ordinary people from Scotland.

Ordinary people from the Western countries.

And not follow Russian propaganda.

Because from both sides, it's propaganda.

There is a lot of propaganda.

This is where I feel there's a real disconnection

between peoples because of the politics.

Because we need to understand.

We need to make a real connection.

Now it's the right time to do it, because you see what's happening in the world.

-Absolutely.

-It's terrible.

It's terrible. So we need to do something.

Ordinary people. Everything depends on us.

From one ordinary Russian person...

But who am I? I'm just head of the Moscow Caledonian club.

I have three lovely kids.

I met my wife while I was in Scotland, you know?

So I like this country. I like this world. I like this life.

Your wife's not Scottish, though, is she?

-No, she's Russian. But she used to be a dancer.

-Oh, really?

And I met her in Edinburgh in 1988.

At Edinburgh Military Tattoo, actually.

THEY LAUGH

# I spent all my money on whisky and beer... #

'But for Dmitri, co-founder of the Cally club,

'it's a chance to let his hair down.'

# And I swear I'll play the wild rover no more

# No nay never

# No nay never no more

# And I'll play the wild rover

# No never no more. #

Never more!

But every time come back in Moscow Cally Club!

The next Scot we're about to meet is a man who was so obsessed with communism

he even made his name onto a Soviet stamp, and yet he was never,

ever allowed to visit the country.

John Maclean, the great Bolshevik defender, a man who sums up,

very neatly, where the word "bolshy" comes from.

This is the old Bowhill mining colliery in Fife.

'Here to tell us about John Maclean

'is my friend, writer and broadcaster, Billy Kay.'

Thank you.

Billy!

Mr Cox, welcome to the Little Moscows of West Fife.

Little Moscows of West Fife?

Bowhill, Cardenden...

'Nearly a century ago, John Maclean and his fellow comrades

'orchestrated a strike here over low pay and poor working conditions.'

The great John Maclean, his stronghold was North Lanarkshire,

Glasgow and West Fife.

Born in 1879, John Maclean grew up in Glasgow.

Graduating from Glasgow University to become a primary school teacher.

At the same time,

he was beginning to make a name for himself as a political agitator.

Although he was not a strong religious man, he reminds me -

what went on then - a bit like some of the religious revivals.

He had the ability to communicate

communist and Marxian ideology to the ordinary man.

And that was a great, great ability at that time,

because the ordinary man wanted something that would take him out of himself,

and make him think that there was a better world around the corner.

Some vision of the future?

And that's what Maclean did.

John Maclean became increasingly angry at what was happening

to the Scottish working-class.

He saw Glasgow, the second city of the Empire,

had become an industrial lynchpin in the war effort.

In 1915,

the Munitions Of War Act suspended trade union rights for workers.

Thousands of working-class Scots were being massacred in the trenches.

Maclean began campaigning against the war.

A year later, he was imprisoned for comments against conscription

under The Defence Of The Realm Act.

Do you like John Maclean?

I do. Because I've always responded to that phrase

"all hail the Scottish workers' Republic."

Right.

Maclean saw the Russian Revolution as an inspiration.

The working classes could overthrow the elite.

The very thing the British government feared.

"Arise you starvlings from your slumbers.

"Arise you criminals of want.

"For reason and revolt now thunders.

"And at last ends the age of can't.

"Away with all your superstitions, servile masses, arise, arise!

"We'll change forthwith with the old conditions

"and spurn the dust to win the prize."

In 1919,

estimates of up to 100,000 men and women filled Glasgow's George Square

to protest for better rights.

The Government feared a British Bolshevik uprising.

They sent in 12,000 troops and snipers to attack the protesters.

He was an enemy of the state.

He was regarded as such and he was regarded -

in later years, the correspondence from that period -

he was regarded as the most dangerous man in Britain.

-Right.

-He was the man who could cause a revolution.

The biggest irony of all this was

that he never actually visited Russia.

-He never got there.

-He never got there. Did he ever intend to go?

I think he would have wanted to go, but he just was unable.

I mean, from the Russian Revolution onwards, he was in prison.

Something like in about a three-year period,

he was in prison for about 20 months or something.

He was, say, arrested under the Defence Of The Realm Act,

he went to Peterhead, he was force-fed at times in Peterhead.

He eventually came out, but he died of pneumonia in 1923.

On his death, more than 20,000 people came out

to pay their respects.

Now Maclean has been recognised as the Scottish Lenin,

and rightfully remembered as the champion of the working classes.

This is a real treasure.

It's a stamp with the face of...

..John Maclean.

Only ten years later, Russia was under the grip of Josef Stalin.

Very few foreigners travelled to Russia,

or knew what was happening there,

but one extraordinary Scot was an exception to the rule.

So, Fitzroy Maclean crisscrossed Russia's vast empire

in the late 1930s,

attending the purge trials of the great Russian intellectuals

such as Bukharin.

Soldier, diplomat, author, spy...

Some say that he was even the inspiration

for Ian Fleming's James Bond.

Born in Cairo in 1911,

Fitzroy Maclean was educated at Eton and Cambridge.

In his 20s he joined the diplomatic service.

He'd later go on to be one of the founding members of the SAS.

Today I'm meeting his son Charles at Fitzroy's family home in Argyll.

So, Charles, tell me,

what was it that brought your father to Russia in the first place?

Well, he was third secretary

at the embassy in Paris in the early '30s,

and was living a life of luxury, really.

When the opportunity arose,

he decided, after about three years of living this good life,

that he wanted to go to Russia,

that he asked to be what was then regarded as a punishment post,

he asked, "Can I go to the Moscow embassy?"

He had a downstairs flat,

but it looked directly across to the Kremlin,

and I think the view of the Kremlin...

Yeah, here it is, here.

That's what he took from his flat.

There it is all. And there was a red star that flashed at night,

and the red flag was illuminated, and he said,

you could hear in the middle of the night,

you would be woken by the screams of people being dragged away

by the NKVD and tossed into the river or the Lubyanka.

So it was, he said, it was a terrifying time to be there.

Fitzroy arrived in 1937, two years before the Second World War.

He returned much later in a BBC documentary.

I remember the first time I arrived in Moscow at this station.

It was a gloomy February afternoon.

Dark, snow everywhere,

crowds on the streets, all huddled in their sheepskin.

Not a very cheerful outlook.

Fitzroy witnessed the beginnings of Stalin's purges,

including the show trials of key figures within the Communist Party.

I sat listening to the speeches and taking notes,

and in the intervals I did that ten hours a day for ten days.

Pretty exhausting, especially as you went on to two or three in the morning quite often.

In those days, Stalin liked staying up late

and he kept the country up late too.

Well, that's rather like Nuremberg, isn't it?

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

'Proceedings were filmed right through as far as I remember...'

I never realised that they were filmed.

-No?

-I've never seen this.

Extraordinary.

There was one extraordinary episode during the trial,

when the man, poor man, who was operating the arc lights,

let it get out of control.

And it shot right up,

threw its loud beam of light onto this little middle window up there.

And through the dark glass we could recognise the features of Stalin,

gloating over his former colleagues.

It was very dramatic indeed.

-Brilliant.

-It's astonishing.

-Astonishing.

-Absolutely, I mean, to witness that,

to witness that incredible moment of history,

and of course it must have had a very profound effect on his life.

It must have had a very profound effect, certainly on his thinking...

I think it did. I think he was horrified, actually.

In the run-up to war,

Fitzroy heard rumours about a possible pact between Russia

and Nazi Germany.

If it was true, it would change the world.

Fitzroy's source was someone deep within the German Embassy.

He actually was feeding stories about what was going on in Germany

with regard to the certainty of war.

If he'd been caught, he would have been executed immediately,

so it was a really very serious and dangerous thing.

So, this was information that your father was getting?

-That he was getting.

-And certainly very useful in terms of his position?

And he was relaying back to London.

-Exactly.

-How much people were listening, debatable.

But certainly...

You see, we didn't have any...

We didn't have any spies in Russia.

There was nobody kind of able to penetrate at that point.

So, that now comes to my next question, the inevitable one.

Ian Fleming was working for naval intelligence.

He also came out to Moscow and hung out with these guys

at the dacha and everything.

So, that is where the notion,

that James Bond connection might come about?

Yes, that's right. I think there was a moment,

and I could tell you exactly when it was. 1940.

The Germans were about to occupy Paris.

And he, Bruce Lockhart, Ian Fleming and Fitzroy Maclean

all had lunch together.

That's astonishing!

-I know.

-Because Bruce Lockhart is supposed to be the other possible

-influence for James Bond.

-That's right. But they were all there.

And of course, 007 is the official dialling code for Russia.

That I didn't know. That's very funny.

Fitzroy died in 1996, after a life of action and achievement.

In his later years he had what many Scots would see as a dream job.

He created his very own malt whisky.

And it would be rude not to try it.

Brian, have a seat. I'm going to introduce you to the MacPhunn.

-The MacPhunn?

-Yeah.

Now, this is the first bottle of a new...

A hogshead which we have just bottled.

So we are trying something new here, in the sense that...

It's quite powerful stuff, cos it's cask strength,

so this is it, full proof.

And sherried oak, single malt.

-Well...

-And if you like a little drop of water...

-Tiny, tiny.

-It releases the flavour.

That's fine, yeah.

That's great.

-You don't want to drown it.

-No.

That's great.

Well, na zdrowie.

Slainte. OK.

Ooh.

That's a bit good.

-A bit good?

-Yes!

It's a bit good!

So, I just want to raise our glass a little bit, MacPhunn, to your dad.

Yes. I'll join you with that.

-To your dad.

-Thanks. To my father.

By the 1980s, Russia was changing almost by the day.

Premier Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost,

which literally translates as "openness".

The old Empire began to disintegrate,

allowing Westerners like me to arrive.

I was teaching a group of students and having the time of my life.

Brian Cox!

I just have to say something for the viewers out there.

This is a trapped man.

I am trapped between two continents.

They have got me here and they ain't going to let me go.

They got me here under pretences - not false, but spurious.

I'm now on my way to my old stomping ground.

LAUGHTER

Look at you!

You haven't changed!

You look exactly the same.

THEY GREET EACH OTHER

This is my rock. This man was my rock, my absolute...

he was the rock.

What do you say "rock" in Russia?

-Rock.

-Rock. He was my rock.

'I haven't seen Aliona and Sergei since the late '80s.'

It's like visiting your childhood again, coming back.

Well, shall we go in here?

'The famous Moscow Arts Theatre has one of the oldest and most important drama schools in Russia,

'and I spent nearly two years of my life here.'

I love this space.

-Oh!

-Come here, I'll show you something.

It's one of the greatest spaces in the world.

It's just incredible.

'After a series of workshops,

'the production we finally worked on was Arthur Miller's The Crucible.'

'The play is an allegory of the McCarthy era,

'when the American government began purging supposed communists.'

We have to really keep this text.

It's tricky, but it's...

OK...

'I was worried that this play might be too on the nose

'for these young students whose country, after all,

'was right in the middle of a state of flux.'

But, you know, the extraordinary thing is, they got it right away.

SCREAMING AND YELLING

Do you remember this?

Yeah!

Remember that there?

'I wanted to open their world up even more.

'So I brought them to London.

'None of these guys have ever seen this footage.'

You were drunk.

And do you remember I took you around various houses,

to all the houses you stayed in?

I remember everything.

Yeah. Well, do you remember who you stayed with?

I remember, of course, in your flat.

Oh, you stayed with me!

THEY LAUGH

Ssh! We mustn't talk about that.

Yes! Yes, I'd forgotten.

So... I am now embarrassed.

Every one of these is a genius.

Every one of these is a genius.

WOMAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN

Seven geniuses.

See, you've got a completed circle here.

'The biggest surprise was how it changed me.

'At that time I was trying to work out

'who I was and who I wanted to be.'

You know, there is pre-Moscow and there is post-Moscow in my life.

And everything changed after that, because you guys,

you taught me so much about being,

you know, because you had very little,

you had nothing, but your imaginations -

you had the greatest imaginations I'd ever come across.

Fierce. I mean, it was just fierce what you imagined, what you could do.

And I was just... So that has never left me.

I still think of you and I think of you in rehearsal.

We are all keeping this fantastic experience.

-We all keep it.

-Yeah?

It's not left them, it's not left me,

and it's something that we'll carry with us to our dying days,

just there.

'At lunch with my old friend, Oleg Tabakov,

'who brought me to Russia.

'It's just...

'It's overwhelming.'

Are you OK?

'It's incredibly moving.'

And also that leaves you kind of bereft of

the right words to describe it.

MAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN

-MAN TRANSLATES:

-We ran ahead of time, Brian.

We were so free.

We've seen so much of the world.

You raised the curtain for us.

This is for you, and thank you so much.

You are my Sergei Korolev to Yuri Gagarin.

You selected us.

It's, um...

It's fantastic.

Next time on my Russian odyssey,

we go to the dream city of Peter the Great.

The jewel in the crown of Russian culture.

St Petersburg.

-They damaged the painting.

-Oh.

Poor Alexandra Feodorovna got the full might of the Bolshevik.

Oh! This is beautiful.

I wonder what the people of Leningrad made of this.

What is it about this place that gets under your skin?

I didn't want to say this cos you're my father,

but a lot of the time, of course, we were drunk.

Goodnight.

Spokoynoy nochi.