0:00:02 > 0:00:05I'm travelling through Russia
0:00:05 > 0:00:08to learn about the most powerful European royal family
0:00:08 > 0:00:10since medieval times.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15The Romanovs.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20I've seen how the victories of Peter the Great won him control
0:00:20 > 0:00:25of the Baltic Sea, placing Russia firmly on the world stage.
0:00:25 > 0:00:31At home, Peter built the magnificent city of St Petersburg.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35And he dragged his country, kicking and screaming,
0:00:35 > 0:00:37into the 18th century.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42Peter the Great was a hard act to follow.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45But in the century following his death,
0:00:45 > 0:00:48two of his successors would bring Russia glory
0:00:48 > 0:00:50that Peter could only have dreamt of.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57The era was dominated by Catherine the Great,
0:00:57 > 0:01:00possibly the most powerful woman in history.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05She was super-bright and super-ambitious
0:01:05 > 0:01:09and Russia would enjoy a golden age during her reign.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14Famed for her collections, both of art and of lovers...
0:01:15 > 0:01:19..Catherine's military success transformed Russia
0:01:19 > 0:01:21into a major European power.
0:01:21 > 0:01:26Not bad for a ruler without a single drop of Russian blood.
0:01:28 > 0:01:33Catherine's grandson, Alexander I, was forced to defend her legacy
0:01:33 > 0:01:35when Europe collapsed into turmoil.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39But Alexander would save the continent
0:01:39 > 0:01:43from the mightiest military leader of the age - Napoleon.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49And he'd even lead Russian forces onto the streets of Paris.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53But these extraordinary achievements took place
0:01:53 > 0:01:55against a turbulent backdrop.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00There were rebellions and murders and military disasters.
0:02:00 > 0:02:05This is the story of the second great age of the Romanovs -
0:02:05 > 0:02:07an age of extremes.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38This is the 18th-century palace of Peterhof,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41overlooking the Gulf of Finland.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45It was founded by Peter the Great -
0:02:45 > 0:02:49one of only two Romanov monarchs to have been given that title.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54The other was Catherine the Great.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59She inherited the palace when she seized the throne in 1762,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03nearly 40 years after Peter's death.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07But I bet Catherine never did what I'm about to do.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10- Let's go.- Thank you. Are we going to hold hands all the way?
0:03:10 > 0:03:11Just this place.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14- Very gallant. I like it. - Be careful.- Uh-huh.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17'I'm going not just behind the scenes, but beneath them.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21'And I'm not sure that I've dressed appropriately.'
0:03:21 > 0:03:26- Down that hole?- Yes.- That's really quite small and wet?- Yes.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28- OK.- Be careful. Be careful.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31- Watch your head.- This is good.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Hey, hey, hey!
0:03:35 > 0:03:38'Peterhof has one of the biggest sets of fountains in the world.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42'Remarkably, all of them powered by natural springs and gravity.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44'Not by pump, as I'd expected.'
0:03:44 > 0:03:49BOTH: Five, four, three, two, one.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52- Go!- GO!
0:04:15 > 0:04:20There are 100 fountains here, just in the cascade area,
0:04:20 > 0:04:22and I think my favourite is this golden frog.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30Catherine first saw Peterhof and its fountains in 1744.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36At the time, Peter the Great's daughter Elizabeth was on the throne.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39Russia was enjoying an economic boom...
0:04:40 > 0:04:44..partly due to the lucrative Baltic trade routes
0:04:44 > 0:04:45that Peter had opened up.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56So Elizabeth had lots of money to indulge her taste for splendour.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01She had a tame architect, an Italian called Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03And here, at the Palace of Peterhof,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06she set him off on a major rebuilding project.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15The Romanovs wanted palaces that rivalled
0:05:15 > 0:05:19the finest French royal buildings, like Versailles.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31The French were seen by Russia's elite
0:05:31 > 0:05:34as the standard setters for taste and art.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37But this strikes me as being slightly too lavish.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39Almost gaudy?
0:05:40 > 0:05:44You can't help sensing the chip on the Romanovs' shoulder,
0:05:44 > 0:05:47their need to convince foreign diplomats that Russia was
0:05:47 > 0:05:53a sophisticated European country, not some backward Eastern despotism.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Rastrelli created a series of grand palaces for the Romanovs.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06There was the magnificent Winter Palace in St Petersburg -
0:06:06 > 0:06:08now home of the Hermitage Museum.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15The Catherine Palace was named after Elizabeth's mother,
0:06:15 > 0:06:18who'd succeeded Peter the Great to the throne.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23But who was going to inherit all this Baroque bling
0:06:23 > 0:06:26when Elizabeth was gone?
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Elizabeth never married.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35There were rumours of illegitimate children, given away to be
0:06:35 > 0:06:40brought up by servants but she never had an acknowledged son or daughter.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43So she exercised her Russian sovereign's right
0:06:43 > 0:06:45to choose her own successor.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50She alighted upon her nephew - the only trouble was,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54he was a 14-year-old German boy who'd never set foot in Russia.
0:06:59 > 0:07:05His name was Karl Peter Ulrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08He was a grandson of Peter the Great through his mother.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Elizabeth now needed to find young Peter a bride.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21She settled on a minor, but well-connected, German princess
0:07:21 > 0:07:25called Sophie Friederike Auguste of Anhalt-Zerbst.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30So in 1744, Sophie came to Russia
0:07:30 > 0:07:34and adopted a Russian name, Yekaterina -
0:07:34 > 0:07:36or Catherine.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44But this teenage union quickly became an unhappy one.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47Peter was disfigured by smallpox,
0:07:47 > 0:07:51yet still managed to embarrass his wife by having a mistress.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54Catherine claimed that he was a twisted voyeur
0:07:54 > 0:07:56who even tortured animals.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03When she came to write her memoirs, Catherine said how long and dismal
0:08:03 > 0:08:06the summers had been at the palace of Peterhof.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10She didn't get on with her aunt-in-law, the Empress Elizabeth,
0:08:10 > 0:08:13nor her husband, who was only interested in practising
0:08:13 > 0:08:17military drills with his very long-suffering entourage.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20So Catherine instead turned to reading,
0:08:20 > 0:08:25particularly the philosophers of the French Enlightenment,
0:08:25 > 0:08:27Diderot and Voltaire.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31This was heady stuff for a member of an autocratic ruling family.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37One of the most significant factors of Catherine's personality
0:08:37 > 0:08:40that came out when she was very young and throughout her life
0:08:40 > 0:08:43was she really believed in the self-improvement.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47She had this great urge to be educated
0:08:47 > 0:08:50and that, for a woman of her time, was unusual
0:08:50 > 0:08:54and the determination to find out for herself,
0:08:54 > 0:08:56for learning as much as she could.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01She enjoyed the sense of being at the forefront of European thought
0:09:01 > 0:09:05and bringing it to this rather... place she perceived rather backward.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11By her early 30s, Catherine had given birth to a son
0:09:11 > 0:09:13and to a short-lived daughter.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16And she'd started taking lovers of our own.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19He was just a warm-up. We'll pass over him.
0:09:19 > 0:09:24But this is Stanislaw Poniatowski, the future king of Poland.
0:09:24 > 0:09:29He was witty and charming and everything that her husband wasn't.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34By 1761, though, she'd moved on to Grigori Orlov.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37He was a dashing young artillery officer.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40It was said that he would dance gigantic dances
0:09:40 > 0:09:43and make gigantic love.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46His relationship with Catherine got very serious.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50It started to go beyond just a romantic intrigue.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55Catherine and Orlov agreed that Peter just wasn't up to the job
0:09:55 > 0:09:57of ruling the country.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02But in 1761, Peter succeeded to the throne, following Elizabeth's death.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05He was now the emperor.
0:10:06 > 0:10:12What he didn't know, though, was that his empress was plotting against him.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15When Peter actually did succeed,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19um, it quickly became clear he wasn't going to survive.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23He annoyed people - the military, the church -
0:10:23 > 0:10:26and he was a disaster from the start.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29What one is aware of with Catherine
0:10:29 > 0:10:32is that she had an enormous self belief.
0:10:32 > 0:10:33Having educated herself,
0:10:33 > 0:10:37she was quite sure that she could run this enormous country
0:10:37 > 0:10:38and she could improve it.
0:10:40 > 0:10:45The intrigue came to a head on the morning of 28 June, 1762.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51Catherine was woken in her bed at Peterhof with the news
0:10:51 > 0:10:53that a coup was already under way.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58Now events began to move at headlong speed.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Catherine came racing through these palace grounds
0:11:01 > 0:11:04to get to her carriage, to be taken to St Petersburg.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06She didn't even pause to get ready.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10She had to have her hair done in the coach on the way.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14When she got to St Petersburg, she was declared sovereign
0:11:14 > 0:11:18and her husband Peter - well, he was caught napping.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21When he got to hear about what was going on, it was too late.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23He'd lost his crown.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27In tears, Peter stepped down.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30He'd reigned for just six months.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34Within a few days, he was rather conveniently dead.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Officially the reason was haemorrhoidal colic
0:11:39 > 0:11:41but it was more likely murder.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46The nature, if any, of Catherine's involvement remains a mystery.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53Catherine was now the most powerful woman in the world.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57She was the sole ruler of Russia.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59And despite all of her intellectual interest,
0:11:59 > 0:12:03she had shown utter ruthlessness in grabbing the throne.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07But don't forget that she wasn't a real Russian.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09She'd only married into the Romanov family.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12It was going to be a considerable challenge
0:12:12 > 0:12:15for her to hold on to her power.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Catherine ensured that she had a formal coronation
0:12:21 > 0:12:24as soon as possible, to seal her legitimacy.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32In the magnificent Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg,
0:12:32 > 0:12:35once home to Catherine's personal art collection,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39there's a portrait by the Danish artist, Vigilius Eriksen,
0:12:39 > 0:12:43that captures the new empress in all her coronation finery.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51Catherine had a new crown and orb designed for the coronation.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56And she's sporting these rather wonderful robes
0:12:56 > 0:12:59embroidered with the emblem of Imperial Russia -
0:12:59 > 0:13:01the double-headed eagle.
0:13:08 > 0:13:13What do you think can have been going through her mind at her coronation?
0:13:13 > 0:13:18On the one hand, she was an impostor. She was German, after all.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22It was only through sleight of hand that she had that crown on her head.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27On the other hand, there's something very attractively modern
0:13:27 > 0:13:29about this 18th-century woman
0:13:29 > 0:13:33so relentlessly pursuing power and success.
0:13:33 > 0:13:39And this meant relentlessly managing every single aspect of her brand.
0:13:43 > 0:13:49Catherine was brilliant at using her clothes to create her personal image.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53She managed to convey all the different things that people expected
0:13:53 > 0:13:56of a modern female Russian sovereign,
0:13:56 > 0:14:01as you can see in her surviving dresses at the Hermitage Museum.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06Nina, when did Catherine the Great wear this dress?
0:14:06 > 0:14:12Catherine the Great wore it during the festivals of the Guard regiments
0:14:12 > 0:14:16because she was a Chief of Guards regiment.
0:14:17 > 0:14:23It is uniform because of colour, because of numbers of buttons.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29- Ah, the officers have the same number of buttons?- The same number, yes.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34- The shape of collar is also...- Ah, it has the collar of a man's uniform?
0:14:34 > 0:14:36Yes, like in men's uniform.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38Um...
0:14:38 > 0:14:42And in the back, you can see very interesting details.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48- Ah, so this shape... - The shape of the back...
0:14:48 > 0:14:50- That's like a man's coat.- Yes.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54- And two details decorated with the braids.- Yes.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58Also like a man's uniform.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02It's also the dress of a woman who looks to Europe, isn't it?
0:15:02 > 0:15:03Yes, of course.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05The French influence
0:15:05 > 0:15:09is in the shape of the sleeves.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12- Yes.- You can see.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14- And, of course, panniers. - Oh, the panniers.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17They're shaped like that? Yes, yes, I see that.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20- And is the silk French? - No, the silk is Russian.
0:15:20 > 0:15:26Catherine the Great ordered to use only Russian silk
0:15:26 > 0:15:30in the costumes of the Russian Imperial Court.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32So, Nina, this is a fantastic dress.
0:15:32 > 0:15:37It's the dress of an empress, also of a male army officer,
0:15:37 > 0:15:41also of somebody who's very elegant, who loves Europe,
0:15:41 > 0:15:43but also the dress of a true Russian.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45- Yes.- All in one!- All in one!
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Back in the Peterhof Palace, Catherine can be seen
0:15:59 > 0:16:04wearing the Royal trousers in another portrait by Vigilius Eriksen.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10But although Catherine's military uniforms were purely ceremonial,
0:16:10 > 0:16:14she knew that her reputation, both in Russia and abroad,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16would be earned by military success.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22Her first great test came just six years into her reign.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33In 1768, Turkey declared war, threatening Russia from the south.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37On land, Russian troops could match the Turks,
0:16:37 > 0:16:39but Russia lacked naval power
0:16:39 > 0:16:43in the crucial Mediterranean and Black Sea regions.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48Russia's only fleet was the one Peter the Great had built
0:16:48 > 0:16:53in the Baltic more than 1,000 miles away from where it was now needed.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59Catherine's lover and closest adviser, Grigory Orlov,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02now made a bold but risky proposal.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07Catherine gave it the go-ahead.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11The Russian fleet was to be cut in two
0:17:11 > 0:17:14and one part of it was to go south, down through the Baltic,
0:17:14 > 0:17:17then all around western France and Spain
0:17:17 > 0:17:19and in through the Strait of Gibraltar.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22Then it would become, by very definition,
0:17:22 > 0:17:25Russia's Mediterranean fleet.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31In August 1769,
0:17:31 > 0:17:34the breakaway fleet left Russia on its epic journey.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42Finally, nearly a year later, in June 1770,
0:17:42 > 0:17:47the Russian ships, under the command of Grigory Orlov's brother, Alexis,
0:17:47 > 0:17:52took the Turkish fleet by surprise off the coast of Anatolia.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58The Battle of Chesma Bay became
0:17:58 > 0:18:03one of the most famous military engagements in Russian history.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08The Russians wiped out the Turkish fleet.
0:18:09 > 0:18:159,000 Turkish sailors were killed, but the Russians lost only 30.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE
0:18:25 > 0:18:27Russia's staggering victory
0:18:27 > 0:18:31was the public relations coup of a lifetime for Catherine.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37Now, in paintings like this one by Heinrich Buchholz,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40she could present herself as the true heir
0:18:40 > 0:18:44to the man who had built Imperial Russia.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52This picture celebrates a triumph by her fleet over the Turks.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54Here are the boats in the boat yards
0:18:54 > 0:18:57and here are some very unhappy Turks
0:18:57 > 0:19:00being marched through Saint Petersburg.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03And over here in the corner is Peter the Great himself
0:19:03 > 0:19:06being asked to admire this image
0:19:06 > 0:19:10of Catherine being carried through the skies by Fame.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14And he certainly is admiring her. Look what he's doing with his hands.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18He's saying, "Wow, Catherine! Haven't you done well?"
0:19:20 > 0:19:23And while Catherine never led armies into battle,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27she found other ways to lead from the front.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33Because the Russian people faced an even deadlier threat than Turkey.
0:19:33 > 0:19:40This enemy was ravaging Europe and it spared neither peasant nor monarch.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43It was smallpox.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47Catherine was rightly terrified that she or her son, Paul,
0:19:47 > 0:19:49might catch the disease.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56But word reached her that an English physician, Thomas Dimsdale,
0:19:56 > 0:20:00was achieving unprecedented success with a controversial method
0:20:00 > 0:20:02of smallpox inoculation.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06The method is called variolation
0:20:06 > 0:20:11and it involves scratching the skin, opening up the skin, and inserting
0:20:11 > 0:20:14some part of the disease.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18So effectively, you are infecting the patient with smallpox.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20And that, of course, makes it very risky.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25It's one of the reasons why it divided the enlightened world.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27Many mathematicians, for example,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29objected to on the grounds of probability theory.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31They thought that, sooner or later,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34people are going to die from this operation.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39Catherine decided that the risk was worth taking.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42Dimsdale was invited to St Petersburg.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45There, he found a suitable sample of smallpox
0:20:45 > 0:20:48with which to inoculate the empress.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52But it was all very hush-hush.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58Late one night, Dimsdale was brought into the palace
0:20:58 > 0:21:03through a secret door, and in Catherine's rooms, he inoculated her.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06Now, a lot of her contemporaries would have thought
0:21:06 > 0:21:07that she was mad to do this.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10She could have been infected, she could have died.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12But she'd looked at the scientific evidence
0:21:12 > 0:21:14and she was happy to run the risk.
0:21:14 > 0:21:19She even had Orlov and her son Paul inoculated too.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22And when it became clear that everything had gone well,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26the news was proclaimed. Other people started doing it.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30Inoculation caught on and countless lives were saved.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38Her smallpox inoculation shows Catherine behaving
0:21:38 > 0:21:43like a true enlightened monarch, embracing science,
0:21:43 > 0:21:48banishing superstition, improving the lot of her people.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53And this room in the Russian Museum in St Petersburg
0:21:53 > 0:21:58is almost a shrine to Catherine, the great progressive.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06These well-turned-out young ladies on the walls were pupils
0:22:06 > 0:22:11at the rather wonderfully named Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15which Catherine founded in 1764.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21Its stated purpose was to raise "educated women, good mothers,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25"and useful members of family and society".
0:22:25 > 0:22:29It was the first proper educational establishment for women in Russia.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34Catherine was so proud of her girls that she had these portraits
0:22:34 > 0:22:38by Dmitry Levitzky commissioned to show them off.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43This statue presents Catherine in the guise of Minerva,
0:22:43 > 0:22:48the Roman goddess of wisdom and icon of the Enlightenment.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52A horn of plenty overflows.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58Her hand rests on an open book of legislation,
0:22:58 > 0:23:03and the sculptor, Fedot Shubin, has tucked Catherine's crown,
0:23:03 > 0:23:06the conventional symbol of royal power,
0:23:06 > 0:23:08discreetly away round the back.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11But none of this disguises the fact
0:23:11 > 0:23:15that for all of her enlightened leanings,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19Catherine still had the absolute power of a despot.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21And she was in no hurry to give it up.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25I don't think Catherine would have seen
0:23:25 > 0:23:28a contradiction between Enlightenment values and her powers.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31For a start, she would dispute that she was a despot.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36She considered that her absolute power was tempered
0:23:36 > 0:23:39by laws within Russia, by institutions within Russia,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43which prevented Russia from succumbing to arbitrary rule.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45And as an absolute ruler, I think
0:23:45 > 0:23:48she thought that she was in the best position to implement laws
0:23:48 > 0:23:51which would be in the spirit of the Enlightenment.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58In 1767, just five years into her reign,
0:23:58 > 0:24:02Catherine embarked on an ambitious nationwide attempt
0:24:02 > 0:24:06to turn Enlightenment principles into actual laws.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12She convened a special legislative commission
0:24:12 > 0:24:16with representatives ranging from nobles to peasants,
0:24:16 > 0:24:18drawn from all across the country.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23Catherine herself wrote the commission
0:24:23 > 0:24:27a lengthy set of instructions, known in Russian as the Nakaz.
0:24:29 > 0:24:34She declared that all citizens should be equal before the law,
0:24:34 > 0:24:36that torture should be banned,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39liberty was her central theme.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47For a while, Catherine looked more forward thinking than
0:24:47 > 0:24:50any of her European counterparts
0:24:50 > 0:24:52and she made sure that they knew it.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56The Nakaz was translated into French and German.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01But actually, Catherine had already watered down
0:25:01 > 0:25:03her original plans for the Nakaz.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07In particular, the reform of serfdom.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11In her first draft of the Nakaz,
0:25:11 > 0:25:14her great instruction to the legislative commission,
0:25:14 > 0:25:17in 1767, there was a chapter which implied
0:25:17 > 0:25:20that serfs ought to be freed,
0:25:20 > 0:25:22or at least, some of them ought to be freed, gradually.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25And this, when it was read by her advisers, was just thought
0:25:25 > 0:25:28far too revolutionary, and Catherine was, I think,
0:25:28 > 0:25:31genuinely surprised that even some of her closest friends,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34some of the most enlightened people in the empire,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37were so reluctant to do anything about serfdom. It took her aback.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40But it made her realise the extent to which serfdom
0:25:40 > 0:25:43just underpins everything in the Russian Empire.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49Catherine's failure to address the continuing existence of serfdom
0:25:49 > 0:25:52meant that millions of people remained
0:25:52 > 0:25:54little better than the slaves of landowners.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00Their plight now helped fuel the greatest domestic threat
0:26:00 > 0:26:02to Catherine's reign.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08In 1773, a Cossack called Emelian Pugachev
0:26:08 > 0:26:10sparked a provincial revolt.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13It spread...quickly.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19Pugachev's idea was to pretend to be the deposed tsar,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22Peter III, Catherine's late husband.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26His line was that he'd just been away, he'd been in Egypt,
0:26:26 > 0:26:28but now, he was back.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31He very quickly gathered around him
0:26:31 > 0:26:34a massive movement of Russia's disenfranchised.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37Pugachev said that as the true tsar,
0:26:37 > 0:26:41he would grant the serfs all kinds of new rights
0:26:41 > 0:26:45and that they should rise up against their evil landlords.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47They did this.
0:26:47 > 0:26:52And in the resulting bloodbath, more than 1,500 nobles were killed,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54half of them, women and children.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Panic now gripped St Petersburg.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04Catherine was forced to find a military solution
0:27:04 > 0:27:05to a civilian problem.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10Soldiers and top commanders were switched from fighting Turks
0:27:10 > 0:27:13to fighting their fellow Russians in rebellious areas.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19It was nearly two years before the revolt was finally quashed.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24Pugachev was taken to Moscow in a cage.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27Then he was hanged and his body quartered,
0:27:27 > 0:27:30which in Russia means that the limbs were lopped off.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33The immediate threat was over.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36But how was Catherine going to respond to this rebellion?
0:27:36 > 0:27:39With reform or with repression?
0:27:42 > 0:27:45The Pugachev revolt was a great shock to Catherine
0:27:45 > 0:27:49and particularly the sense that this could happen in this country,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52that so much of it was out of her control.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57And her response was to try to spread her control
0:27:57 > 0:28:01and so she brought in various local government reforms and wanted...
0:28:01 > 0:28:04Again, it's this great desire to educate.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08The fact that people could believe that this man was the Tsar
0:28:08 > 0:28:10that had come back to life...
0:28:11 > 0:28:17She was horrified and so her urge was to spread her control,
0:28:17 > 0:28:19to improve education,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22to make sure that local government was properly reformed.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25It certainly wasn't to abolish serfdom.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31Catherine had sacrificed the rights of the serfs
0:28:31 > 0:28:33to keep the nobility on her side,
0:28:33 > 0:28:37in spite of her professed Enlightenment values.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41And nowhere were the contradictions of her reign more evident
0:28:41 > 0:28:44than at the summer palaces of the wealthiest nobles.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51The Kuskovo Palace and estate, near Moscow,
0:28:51 > 0:28:53belonged to the Sheremetev family.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58By the late 18th century,
0:28:58 > 0:29:02they were the most important patrons of the arts outside St Petersburg.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08Taking their lead from Catherine herself,
0:29:08 > 0:29:12the Sheremetevs filled their palace with European treasures,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15like these Flemish tapestries.
0:29:15 > 0:29:20But it was the concerts and operas staged here that made Kuskovo famous,
0:29:20 > 0:29:25bringing the arts to a wider audience than just the elite.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29Ludmila, what was it like in the 1770s,
0:29:29 > 0:29:33when Count Sheremetev had his big concerts?
0:29:33 > 0:29:36SHE ANSWERS IN RUSSIAN
0:29:50 > 0:29:52But the performers, they weren't
0:29:52 > 0:29:56the sort of professional actors and musicians that we think of today.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22So the serf children were taken at seven or eight from their families?
0:30:46 > 0:30:51The Sheremetevs' star performer was Praskovia Kovalyova.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53Despite her serf origins,
0:30:53 > 0:30:56she became one of the most celebrated opera singers in Russia.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02Catherine the Great herself heard Praskovia perform at Kuskovo.
0:31:05 > 0:31:10Praskovia also won the heart of Count Sheremetev's son, Nikolai.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13After a long affair, they secretly married.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22These mounds are all that remain of the open-air theatre,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25where Praskovia and her fellow serfs performed.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34Now, you might think this sounds awfully romantic.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37The beautiful Praskovia standing here on the stage,
0:31:37 > 0:31:42singing a heartfelt aria to the Count, her secret lover,
0:31:42 > 0:31:44in the audience over there.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46But it isn't romantic, it's creepy,
0:31:46 > 0:31:50when you consider where the balance of power between them lay.
0:31:50 > 0:31:55Count Sheremetev owned Praskovia and her entire family,
0:31:55 > 0:31:59along with the rest of his 200,000 other serfs.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01In a world where serfdom existed,
0:32:01 > 0:32:04there were so many opportunities for exploitation,
0:32:04 > 0:32:08particularly sexual exploitation of the female serfs.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11It hardly bears thinking about.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23Of course, performers, artists and musicians made up
0:32:23 > 0:32:26just a tiny fraction of Russia's serf population.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34Most of them continued to work in the fields, driving the Russian economy.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38And they made up the bulk of the Russian army,
0:32:38 > 0:32:42fuelling the expansion of Catherine's empire,
0:32:42 > 0:32:47an expansion that was extraordinary in both its speed and scale.
0:32:52 > 0:32:57Catherine annexed large stretches of Belarus and Lithuania.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01Poland became a Russian dependency.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04And crucially, she seized the Crimea.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07Just as Peter the Great founded St Petersburg
0:33:07 > 0:33:09to secure access to the Baltic,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12Catherine now founded the major ports
0:33:12 > 0:33:17of Sevastopol and Odessa to guarantee Russia access to the Black Sea.
0:33:22 > 0:33:27Countless Russian and foreign lives were lost in the process,
0:33:27 > 0:33:31but Catherine doesn't seem to have been much troubled by this.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35But the other great powers of Europe WERE troubled.
0:33:35 > 0:33:40They knew that Russia had now become a key player in world affairs.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Catherine had to be courted.
0:33:45 > 0:33:46She had to be feared.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54Here's a British satirical print from 1791 called
0:33:54 > 0:33:57An Imperial Stride!
0:33:57 > 0:34:01And it shows Catherine the Great of Russia striding from Russia
0:34:01 > 0:34:03right over to Constantinople.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06Look, she's got her toe on the tip of a crescent moon.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10Meanwhile, all the European great powers are understandably
0:34:10 > 0:34:12worried about Russia's expansion.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14But they're also taking the opportunity
0:34:14 > 0:34:16to look up Catherine's skirt.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19Here's King George III of Great Britain, for example,
0:34:19 > 0:34:24and he's saying, "What?! What?! What a prodigious expansion!"
0:34:26 > 0:34:28"Never saw anything like it,"
0:34:28 > 0:34:30says Louis XVI of France.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33While the Sultan of Turkey declares,
0:34:33 > 0:34:36"The whole Turkish army wouldn't satisfy her."
0:34:39 > 0:34:42I think it's inevitable that Catherine, as a powerful woman,
0:34:42 > 0:34:45was targeted with sexual slanders.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49And it is true that she had quite a lot of lovers.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53Although he shouldn't be here,
0:34:53 > 0:34:57there isn't any truth to the rumours of her and the horse.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00Though they are quite persistent. But she had no time for horses.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03She was just too busy with all these men.
0:35:04 > 0:35:11In 1774, she began an affair with a Guards officer, Grigori Potemkin.
0:35:11 > 0:35:17Catherine called him "My colossus, my golden cockerel, my tiger".
0:35:17 > 0:35:21He rose to be the commander in chief of the Russian army
0:35:21 > 0:35:23and effectively, her co-ruler.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28Potemkin was the love of Catherine's life.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31It's even possible that they had a secret marriage.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35And his influence endured even as she took other lovers.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39As she got older, they tended to be Guards officers,
0:35:39 > 0:35:41much younger than she was.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45When she was 60, she took a last lover, Platon Zubov.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47He was 21.
0:35:47 > 0:35:49Go, Catherine!
0:35:52 > 0:35:56It's amazing that she still began each relationship
0:35:56 > 0:35:59with massive hope that this was the one
0:35:59 > 0:36:01and there was that romantic,
0:36:01 > 0:36:04not necessarily sexual sense, as she got old,
0:36:04 > 0:36:08but very romantic - this person, I can love, he's going to love me.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12There's also increasingly the sense
0:36:12 > 0:36:15that they're largely for companionship.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18She used to love walking through her art collection,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21going through her collection of cameos, poring over them,
0:36:21 > 0:36:23cataloguing them together.
0:36:23 > 0:36:28And so, you get a sense of platonic enjoyment,
0:36:28 > 0:36:30that brief time in her day
0:36:30 > 0:36:35when she could relax and feel that she could be herself.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37But constantly, that need to be loved.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46Catherine's other great passion was her palaces.
0:36:46 > 0:36:51But unlike the grand statements of the Winter Palace and Peterhof,
0:36:51 > 0:36:54her own commissions have a more tranquil atmosphere.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58The Catherine Palace, south of St Petersburg,
0:36:58 > 0:37:02was originally built by the Empress Elizabeth in a Baroque style.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07But Catherine employed a Scottish architect, Charles Cameron,
0:37:07 > 0:37:11to add on a beautiful, classically inspired annexe,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14more in tune with her own tastes.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28Although the rooms are inspired by classical architecture,
0:37:28 > 0:37:32they're constructed with a whole rainbow of Russian materials,
0:37:32 > 0:37:34like the marble...
0:37:37 > 0:37:38..the jasper...
0:37:42 > 0:37:45..and the porphyry.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52Although they're small in scale, they are incredibly rich.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54When they were complete,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57Catherine walked through with her architect, Mr Cameron,
0:37:57 > 0:38:01admiring them, but she was also heard to sigh,
0:38:01 > 0:38:05"Oh, but the cost! The cost!"
0:38:12 > 0:38:17The gallery also offered Catherine the perfect vantage point
0:38:17 > 0:38:21to look out over her English-style landscape gardens,
0:38:21 > 0:38:25a fashion that swept Europe in the late-18th century.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32English garden design had become another of her passions.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36She tried to seduce the British royal gardener, Mr Capability Brown,
0:38:36 > 0:38:38to come over to Russia to work for her.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42She even shelled out a small fortune for a set of drawings
0:38:42 > 0:38:45of the gardens at Hampton Court Palace,
0:38:45 > 0:38:48under what was actually the mistaken impression
0:38:48 > 0:38:51that Capability Brown had designed them himself.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54But this was one of her failures.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58Capability Brown said, "Niet!" to Catherine the Great.
0:38:58 > 0:39:00He wasn't going to come to Russia.
0:39:01 > 0:39:06Catherine gave her young lover Platon Zubov apartments adjacent to her own.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10Her grandsons came here to play.
0:39:12 > 0:39:17Their father, the Grand Duke Paul, was a less frequent visitor.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21Like Peter the Great, Catherine had a troubled relationship
0:39:21 > 0:39:23with her own son.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27Paul's obsession with military ritual
0:39:27 > 0:39:30and his lack of interest in culture and ideas
0:39:30 > 0:39:33meant that he took after his father,
0:39:33 > 0:39:35whom Catherine had of course usurped.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40She found her eldest grandson Alexander
0:39:40 > 0:39:42much more of a kindred spirit.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48The classical annexe and its gardens
0:39:48 > 0:39:53offered a consoling ideal of order and rationality.
0:39:54 > 0:39:56But in Europe,
0:39:56 > 0:40:00the Enlightenment dream was turning into a darker reality.
0:40:01 > 0:40:07Catherine was horrified by the execution of Louis XVI in 1793...
0:40:08 > 0:40:10..following the French Revolution.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14To begin with, there's a sense
0:40:14 > 0:40:19that the seriousness of the French Revolution didn't dawn on Catherine.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22It seems she had never imagined that this could be the outcome
0:40:22 > 0:40:24of what she'd read in her youth.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26In a way, it was that split in her
0:40:26 > 0:40:29between what she liked intellectually
0:40:29 > 0:40:31and what she saw as possible for a ruler,
0:40:31 > 0:40:38and the idea that Voltaire and his free thinking had led to this,
0:40:38 > 0:40:42to the collapse of a monarchy, was utterly horrifying.
0:40:47 > 0:40:52Even in her old age, Catherine worked indefatigably.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56She rose at seven in the morning, she drank strong coffee,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59and then she wrote in her office till nine.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02She spent the morning listening to reports,
0:41:02 > 0:41:06the afternoon reading and going through her correspondence.
0:41:06 > 0:41:10For all her palace building and patronage of the arts,
0:41:10 > 0:41:14for all the diplomatic and military successes of her reign,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17it was in her commitment to the quiet, steady,
0:41:17 > 0:41:19backroom work of government
0:41:19 > 0:41:23that Catherine was perhaps at her greatest.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30A portrait of the empress with one of her beloved greyhounds,
0:41:30 > 0:41:35painted towards the end of her life, shows them out for a stroll.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47As she walked her dog in this park,
0:41:47 > 0:41:51Catherine could have looked back on a life of extraordinary achievements
0:41:51 > 0:41:56and there were tangible reminders of them in the monuments all about her.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14But poignantly, she had little faith in the future.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18Particularly under her son and successor, Paul.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23"My labour and care and warm concern for the good of the empire
0:42:23 > 0:42:26"will be in vain," she once wrote,
0:42:26 > 0:42:31"because my son hasn't inherited my frame of mind."
0:42:34 > 0:42:39On the 5th of November 1796, Catherine suffered a stroke.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43Hours later, she'd died.
0:42:44 > 0:42:45She was 67.
0:42:47 > 0:42:52That very morning, she'd risen early as usual and gone through her papers,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56working for the Russian Empire to the very end.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01But now, the throne went to her embittered son, Paul.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05The day he was crowned, he changed the law,
0:43:05 > 0:43:09so that no woman would ever sit on the Russian throne again.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13Catherine's suspicion of Paul
0:43:13 > 0:43:18and preference for his son Alexander looked to be well founded.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22Catherine could have disinherited Paul,
0:43:22 > 0:43:24but there were two problems with that.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27One is that any suggestion of doing that
0:43:27 > 0:43:30could have given rise to some sort of conspiracy,
0:43:30 > 0:43:32even a coup against herself.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35She of course had come to the throne by virtue of a coup.
0:43:35 > 0:43:40She was very sensitive to the fact that monarchs could be replaced
0:43:40 > 0:43:44by this method. That was one danger, I think, that she faced.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47The other one was, that if you're going to have a conspiracy,
0:43:47 > 0:43:49you've got to have a conspirator.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52And Alexander didn't show any willingness whatsoever,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55as far as one can tell, to take on that mantle
0:43:55 > 0:43:59and to take his father's place as Catherine's heir.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04As well as undermining his mother's legacy,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07Paul soon alienated the court
0:44:07 > 0:44:11by his fixation with religious and military ritual.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16Concerns also grew among the powerful Guards regiments
0:44:16 > 0:44:18about Paul's erratic foreign policy.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21While Catherine had commanded widespread affection,
0:44:21 > 0:44:25Emperor Paul knew full well that he was loathed,
0:44:25 > 0:44:28just as his father, Peter III, had been.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31And he knew how that had turned out.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42In the centre of St Petersburg,
0:44:42 > 0:44:47the increasingly paranoid Paul built the forbidding St Michael's Castle.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52It was surrounded by a moat and armed with cannons.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56Here, Paul could lock himself in every night,
0:44:56 > 0:44:59with his sons, Alexander and Constantine.
0:44:59 > 0:45:00But when the end came,
0:45:00 > 0:45:04all his attempts at security counted for nothing.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08One night in March 1801,
0:45:08 > 0:45:12conspirators forced their way into the royal bed chamber
0:45:12 > 0:45:14and a grim farce followed.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18Emperor Paul tried to hide behind a fire screen,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21but he left his feet sticking out and they got spotted.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25The conspirators tried to arrest him and then a fight broke out.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29The emperor got bashed over the head with a lethal weapon.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31It was a snuff box.
0:45:31 > 0:45:33A few moments later, he was dead.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36So the conspirators went to wake up Paul's son, Alexander,
0:45:36 > 0:45:38a few bedrooms away.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42Alexander was horrified about what had happened,
0:45:42 > 0:45:44so the conspirators said to him,
0:45:44 > 0:45:47"Man up, Alexander! Stop whimpering!
0:45:47 > 0:45:49"It's time for you to rule!"
0:45:49 > 0:45:53Catherine had seen her grandson as her true heir,
0:45:53 > 0:45:56a future Russian Alexander the Great.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01Alexander had the typical male Romanov love
0:46:01 > 0:46:04of uniforms and military etiquette.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06But he shared Catherine's reforming instincts,
0:46:06 > 0:46:10although he did lack her independence of mind.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14Alexander came to the throne
0:46:14 > 0:46:18at a time when Napoleon Bonaparte was upending Europe.
0:46:18 > 0:46:23Russia joined Austria and Britain in a coalition against Napoleon
0:46:23 > 0:46:28and Alexander soon faced him on the battlefield.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35Napoleon was a military man who fancied himself as an emperor,
0:46:35 > 0:46:39but Alexander was an emperor who fancied himself as a military man.
0:46:39 > 0:46:45But it all went wrong for Alexander in 1805 at the Battle of Austerlitz.
0:46:45 > 0:46:47he'd taken command of the army himself,
0:46:47 > 0:46:50but he'd asked them to attack prematurely.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52It was disastrous.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05Many of the Russians and their allies, the Austrians, were killed.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09Alexander realised that this had been his own fault.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12He was so upset about it that he burst into tears
0:47:12 > 0:47:15and he had to be sedated with opium.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18He also had to make peace with Napoleon.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24Alexander was summoned to Tilsit in Prussia.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29Napoleon had two major demands.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32Russia was to join the economic blockade of Britain,
0:47:32 > 0:47:35the so-called Continental System.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39And France was to get control of Russia's neighbour, Poland.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43The two emperors signed their peace treaty
0:47:43 > 0:47:46on a barge in the middle of a river.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49A wobbly setting for a wobbly deal.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54On the surface, the Treaty of Tilsit was the meeting of two equals.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57The reality was, though, that these were not equals.
0:47:57 > 0:47:58Napoleon was the boss.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02Why did Tilsit break down?
0:48:02 > 0:48:05Well, it broke down because that sort of imbalance
0:48:05 > 0:48:07always has to be an unstable treaty.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10In economic terms, it proved almost impossible for Russia
0:48:10 > 0:48:13to continue to be a member of the Continental System,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16but much more important than that, it was quite intolerable
0:48:16 > 0:48:19for Alexander and for Russia for Napoleon to control Poland.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21That was never going to be acceptable.
0:48:23 > 0:48:25Behind Napoleon's back,
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Alexander resumed trade with France's great enemy, Britain.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33By 1812, Napoleon had had enough.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37He decided that he could bend Alexander to his will
0:48:37 > 0:48:39by invading Russia.
0:48:39 > 0:48:40Or so he thought.
0:48:40 > 0:48:45Napoleon was now facing an Alexander who was older and wiser.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48Alexander wasn't going to make the same mistake
0:48:48 > 0:48:50as at Austerlitz in 1805.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54This time, he left the command of his army to the professionals.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02Rather than meet Napoleon's mighty army head on,
0:49:02 > 0:49:06the Russian commanders drew the French deeper and deeper
0:49:06 > 0:49:09inside the country, stretching their supply lines.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17Meanwhile, from the safety of St Petersburg,
0:49:17 > 0:49:21Alexander tried to govern his empire and rally his people.
0:49:23 > 0:49:28On September 7th, 1812, the Russians, under General Kutuzov,
0:49:28 > 0:49:33finally confronted Napoleon at Borodino, near Moscow.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39For Napoleon, it was now or never.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43His forces and resources were at their limit.
0:49:45 > 0:49:51Borodino was a huge battle, involving a quarter of a million troops.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55And it was commemorated in this huge panoramic painting
0:49:55 > 0:49:57by the artist Franz Roubaud.
0:49:58 > 0:50:04115 metres long, it's housed in a purpose-built museum in Moscow.
0:50:05 > 0:50:10And what tricks has it used to bring it alive, as a painter?
0:50:10 > 0:50:12Well, for example, do you see
0:50:12 > 0:50:16- the Russian cavalry, which are attacking the French positions?- Yes.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19The troopers' heads are much more numerous than the heads of horses.
0:50:21 > 0:50:22So he's made it look like a mass,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25by doing lots and lots of heads and not so many bodies.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27Well, it was most important for the painter
0:50:27 > 0:50:30- to give the impression of cavalry in attack.- Yes.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33Which was furious and very quick and very exciting.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47So are we right at the front line here?
0:50:47 > 0:50:50These are the Russians coming up to meet the French?
0:50:50 > 0:50:52Yes, and they are starting
0:50:52 > 0:50:55a counter-attack against the French troops.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03Also a column of French infantry is attacking the Russian position.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10Also, French cannons are firing at the Russian position.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26Hang on, haven't we missed out Napoleon?
0:51:26 > 0:51:30- Well, Napoleon...- Where is he?- Well, you've missed Napoleon already.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32Is that Napoleon on the white horse?
0:51:32 > 0:51:35Yes, this is Napoleon and these are some of his bodyguards.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38Now, this is said to have been
0:51:38 > 0:51:42the most deadly single day of fighting in history.
0:51:42 > 0:51:43It probably was.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47In what league of casualties are we talking?
0:51:47 > 0:51:50Both sides lost about 20,000 troops.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54Many more were wounded and many more died after the battle.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58Did anybody on the day actually know who had won?
0:51:58 > 0:52:01Well, Napoleon claimed that he won the battle
0:52:01 > 0:52:04and Kutuzov also said that he defeated Napoleon himself.
0:52:04 > 0:52:09Leo Tolstoy said that the Russian side scored a moral victory
0:52:09 > 0:52:13because the Russian army are many soldiers which were inexperienced,
0:52:13 > 0:52:16fought on equal terms with a very strong army,
0:52:16 > 0:52:18which was made up of best European troops.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21Before the battle, Russian troops were preparing for death.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26They didn't want to give up Moscow.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32- So it was a victory for the French, really?- Not exactly.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34If you were French, would you still tell me
0:52:34 > 0:52:37- that this wasn't a victory for Napoleon?- Perhaps not.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46What mattered was that Napoleon had failed to destroy
0:52:46 > 0:52:49the Russian forces at Borodino.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54He realised that this was an unwinnable campaign.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59But he found a consolation prize near to hand.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07The Russians were too weakened to defend Moscow.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11The city was left wide open for Napoleon to take.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16This should have been a terrific moment for Napoleon.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20After all, St Petersburg may have been the country's official capital,
0:53:20 > 0:53:22but Moscow was still its spiritual heart.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26Tsars were still crowned in the Kremlin just there.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29But the Russians weren't going to give Napoleon
0:53:29 > 0:53:33the satisfaction of officially surrendering their city to him.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37Instead, the just abandoned it, leaving it barely governable.
0:53:40 > 0:53:42Looting quickly broke out,
0:53:42 > 0:53:44and far more deadly - fire.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52Whether they were caused by accident or arson,
0:53:52 > 0:53:56the flames devastated a city still largely built of wood.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01More than three-quarters of Moscow was destroyed.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06For Alexander, the struggle against Napoleon
0:54:06 > 0:54:09now took on divine proportions.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17He declared that the salvation of his own soul rested on
0:54:17 > 0:54:21whether he could save Europe from ruin.
0:54:29 > 0:54:34At ten o'clock on the morning of March 31st, 1814,
0:54:34 > 0:54:37nearly a year and a half after the burning of Moscow,
0:54:37 > 0:54:41Paris resounded to the arrival of a victorious army.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47But it wasn't the French returning home in triumph.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50It was the forces allied against them,
0:54:50 > 0:54:53and at their head was Alexander.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58No foreign conqueror had reached Paris
0:54:58 > 0:55:02since Henry V of England 400 years before.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05But Alexander was magnanimous.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09He presented himself more as a liberator than a conqueror.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12He even rode on a horse that the French themselves had given him
0:55:12 > 0:55:14five years before.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17And he promised them that they needn't worry about Paris.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20Unlike Moscow, their city would be safe.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24And on the very same day, he made a public declaration
0:55:24 > 0:55:31that the allies would recognise and guarantee a new French constitution.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36And while Parisians witnessed the exotic sight
0:55:36 > 0:55:39of Cossacks setting up camp on the Champs-Elysees,
0:55:39 > 0:55:44Alexander's great adversary, Napoleon, was packed off into exile.
0:55:46 > 0:55:51So, how had it all gone so wrong so quickly for Napoleon
0:55:51 > 0:55:53and so right for Alexander?
0:55:55 > 0:55:57Well, after the destruction of Moscow,
0:55:57 > 0:56:01Napoleon had ordered his grand army to withdraw from Russia,
0:56:01 > 0:56:06but on the way back, they got caught in a ferocious winter
0:56:06 > 0:56:08that devastated their ranks.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12Then, for more than a year, Russia and its allies
0:56:12 > 0:56:15had pursued Napoleon's weakened forces across Europe.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19Now, Paris was theirs.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24How Alexander must have savoured this moment.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29It was as glorious a moment as any Romanov had achieved
0:56:29 > 0:56:31in the history of the dynasty.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34Earlier Russian monarchs, like his grandmother,
0:56:34 > 0:56:39Catherine the Great, had aspired to French sophistication.
0:56:39 > 0:56:43But now, Alexander had the chance to show the French
0:56:43 > 0:56:45how things were done properly,
0:56:45 > 0:56:50how a truly civilised nation behaved in victory.
0:56:59 > 0:57:03Russian troops remained in Paris for several months.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07There's even a story that the very Parisian idea of a bistro
0:57:07 > 0:57:09dates back to 1814.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12The word in Russian means "quickly".
0:57:14 > 0:57:17And this cafe claims to be the first to take its name
0:57:17 > 0:57:20from hungry Russians shouting, "Food! Bistro!"
0:57:22 > 0:57:25But there was the whiff of something dangerous among the Russian troops.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28Especially some of the officers.
0:57:29 > 0:57:33The campaign in Europe had exposed the Russian officers to countries
0:57:33 > 0:57:37that didn't have the pernicious practice of serfdom,
0:57:37 > 0:57:40countries where the ruler didn't have unlimited powers.
0:57:40 > 0:57:42This was very exciting.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45You can imagine them sitting in Parisian cafes
0:57:45 > 0:57:50and saying to each other, "How come Tsar Alexander is going to let
0:57:50 > 0:57:55"the French have a new constitution, but he won't let us have one at all?"
0:57:55 > 0:57:57This meant that when they got home,
0:57:57 > 0:58:02some of them would be ready to call for unprecedented change.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05And quickly. Bistro! Bistro!
0:58:08 > 0:58:13Next time, the story of the Romanovs reaches its tragic endgame.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18As the tsars struggle to hold on to power,
0:58:18 > 0:58:21during the final century of the dynasty,
0:58:21 > 0:58:25they embrace reform, repression,
0:58:25 > 0:58:26and...
0:58:26 > 0:58:27Rasputin.
0:58:27 > 0:58:30And face their deadliest challenge -
0:58:30 > 0:58:32revolution.