0:00:03 > 0:00:07I'm embarking on a new railway adventure that will take me
0:00:07 > 0:00:10across the heart of Europe.
0:00:10 > 0:00:15I'll be using this, my Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide,
0:00:15 > 0:00:20dated 1913, which opened up an exotic world of foreign travel
0:00:20 > 0:00:21for the British tourist.
0:00:21 > 0:00:26It told travellers where to go, what to see, and how to navigate
0:00:26 > 0:00:30the thousands of miles of tracks crisscrossing the continent.
0:00:30 > 0:00:31Now, a century later,
0:00:31 > 0:00:37I'm using my copy to reveal an era of great optimism and energy
0:00:37 > 0:00:42where technology, industry, science and the arts were flourishing.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47I want to rediscover that lost Europe that in 1913 couldn't know
0:00:47 > 0:00:52that its way of life would shortly be swept aside by the advent of war.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16On this journey I follow my guidebook further than
0:01:16 > 0:01:19it's ever taken me - to the vast country of Russia.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22At the time of my guide,
0:01:22 > 0:01:24Britain and Russia were linked by kinship
0:01:24 > 0:01:26with the British king George V's cousin,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Tsar Nicholas II, on the imperial throne.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34I learn from Bradshaw's that his regime is autocratic
0:01:34 > 0:01:35and bureaucratic,
0:01:35 > 0:01:38and there have recently been strikes,
0:01:38 > 0:01:41mutinies and civilian massacres.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45Yet travellers to Russia in 1913 would have visited cities
0:01:45 > 0:01:49that were modern and vibrant, while trade and industry were growing.
0:01:49 > 0:01:55Russia was an enigma, poised between reform and revolution.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02I'll be covering a fraction of Russia's vast
0:02:02 > 0:02:04six and a half million square miles,
0:02:04 > 0:02:06starting south of Moscow
0:02:06 > 0:02:08in the industrial city of Tula.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11I'll then head north towards the country's capital
0:02:11 > 0:02:16before travelling over 400 miles to St Petersburg.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19An excursion recommended in my guide
0:02:19 > 0:02:21will take me on to Tsarskoe Selo
0:02:21 > 0:02:24before I return to St Petersburg.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32Along the way, I'll learn how one of Russia's most famous writers
0:02:32 > 0:02:34escaped royal retribution.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38- Was he prosecuted?- He wasn't.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43Alexander III, our emperor, used to say, "Don't touch my Tolstoy.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45"Don't make a sufferer out of him."
0:02:48 > 0:02:50I'll be taught to clean up my act.
0:02:50 > 0:02:51LOUD THWACKING
0:02:51 > 0:02:55We'll teach you British man how to wash!
0:02:58 > 0:03:02And amongst the palaces of St Petersburg I'll hear how,
0:03:02 > 0:03:04at the beginning of the 20th century,
0:03:04 > 0:03:06revolution was in the air.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08People were being executed, people were being shot,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11and the deaths got into the hundreds, probably the thousands,
0:03:11 > 0:03:13over the next couple of years.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34Tourists following my guidebook found Russia in the midst of change.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36Industrial revolution had come late
0:03:36 > 0:03:39but its effects were by now dramatic.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42Urban populations swelled as thousands of peasants
0:03:42 > 0:03:46moved to the cities to work in the expanding factories.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48According to Bradshaw's,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51about five and three-quarter million people belong to
0:03:51 > 0:03:56the military class and one million are hereditary and personal nobles.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00Now, that leaves out tens of millions of people
0:04:00 > 0:04:03who had until very recently been feudal serfs.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07I'm now approaching the town of Tula.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10Bradshaw's tells me it's an industrial town with an iron works,
0:04:10 > 0:04:14which doesn't easily explain why it attracted
0:04:14 > 0:04:18droves of tourists at the beginning of the 20th century.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34Tourists would have been struck by the variety of domed churches
0:04:34 > 0:04:36that make up Tula's skyline.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Today, many that were destroyed during the Soviet era
0:04:49 > 0:04:51are being restored.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54Bradshaw's tells me
0:04:54 > 0:04:58that within the Kremlin at Tula there are two cathedrals.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Now, I always thought that the Kremlin was a place in Moscow,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05but it turns out you can find them in many Russian cities.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08And inside here there are indeed two cathedrals,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12and of course also the centre of political power,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15as though you could distinguish between the two, because
0:05:15 > 0:05:18for example, the Tsar appointed the leaders of the Orthodox Church
0:05:18 > 0:05:24and both the state and the church demanded obedience.
0:05:32 > 0:05:37The people believed that the Tsar was anointed by God,
0:05:37 > 0:05:42and until the revolution of 1917, church and state ruled hand in hand
0:05:42 > 0:05:44over a vast population,
0:05:44 > 0:05:49more than four-fifths of whom lived in abject poverty on the land.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02I imagine how these icons would have spoken directly
0:06:02 > 0:06:06to people even if they were illiterate peasants.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09How powerful would have been this image of the last judgment,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13the moment when souls are divided between those that go to heaven
0:06:13 > 0:06:15and those that go to hell.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17For decades after the revolution,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20churches like this stood empty and neglected.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Now they're being restored.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28Fresh paint - the icons speak again.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31THEY CHANT IN HARMONY
0:06:40 > 0:06:42At the turn of the 20th century,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44it wasn't the city's numerous churches
0:06:44 > 0:06:47that drew travellers to Tula.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Then there were three places in Russia that had to be visited -
0:06:50 > 0:06:54Moscow, St Petersburg and here.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56This is Yasnaya Polyana,
0:06:56 > 0:06:58the estate of Lev Tolstoy,
0:06:58 > 0:07:03a genius to rank alongside Cervantes and Dickens.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05I was drawn to his novel Anna Karenina,
0:07:05 > 0:07:07a story of extramarital love,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09because it begins with a railway accident
0:07:09 > 0:07:12and ends with a railway suicide.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17Such sorrow over sin, such sadness, so Russian.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22The estate, close to Tula,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24had been the family home since the early 1800s.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Tula was expanding rapidly
0:07:27 > 0:07:30and after the arrival of the railway in 1867,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34Tolstoy, his wife and their 13 children
0:07:34 > 0:07:38found their rural Russian idyll had become much more accessible.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42I'm meeting the estate's head of research, Galina Alexeeva.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Galina, I've come here with my Bradshaw's guide.
0:07:47 > 0:07:48I think at the beginning of the 20th century
0:07:48 > 0:07:51there would have been lots of British visitors.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53Oh, yes, so many people were coming here,
0:07:53 > 0:07:58from Europe, Asia, North America and certainly from Britain.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01It was a kind of Mecca, cultural centre of the world,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04and people were dreaming about coming to Yasnaya Polyana
0:08:04 > 0:08:07and talking to Tolstoy, to the great Tolstoy.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12Tolstoy's fame had spread around the world but he held a special place
0:08:12 > 0:08:15in British hearts, thanks in part
0:08:15 > 0:08:18to his declared love for the work of Charles Dickens.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21Tourists and writers alike flocked here,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24hoping to get close to the literary genius.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30It is such a beautiful estate and such a wonderful house.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32Was Tolstoy actually born here?
0:08:32 > 0:08:35He was born here at Yasnaya Polyana but not in this house,
0:08:35 > 0:08:40but in a huge three-storeyed house, which had been sold in 1854.
0:08:40 > 0:08:46But he was born on this black sofa on the 28th August 1828.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49And this desk, did he write there?
0:08:49 > 0:08:53That writing desk belonged to his father, Count Nikolai Tolstoy,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56and Tolstoy wrote so many works on it,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59War and Peace and Anna Karenina in particular.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01Those great novels were written at this very desk?
0:09:01 > 0:09:03- Exactly.- Fantastic!
0:09:05 > 0:09:08To the delight of some and the disquiet of others,
0:09:08 > 0:09:09Tolstoy, though an aristocrat,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12wrote about the evils of serfdom and poverty.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16And living here in the country, what sort of attitudes
0:09:16 > 0:09:20did he form to the people living around him and under him?
0:09:20 > 0:09:24Tolstoy was greatly interested in the peasants' life
0:09:24 > 0:09:28and he spent hours and hours in the Yasnaya Polyana village
0:09:28 > 0:09:33and he suffered with all the pains the peasants survived and he always
0:09:33 > 0:09:38wanted to help and he was eager to help the Yasnaya Polyana peasants.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40At the end of the 19th century,
0:09:40 > 0:09:44to the poverty and injustices endured by those who tilled the land
0:09:44 > 0:09:47were added famine and disease.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50Over 400,000 peasants died.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Tolstoy used his fame to publicise the horrors, writing articles
0:09:54 > 0:09:57and pamphlets to denounce the government's inaction
0:09:57 > 0:10:00in the face of so much suffering.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04Now, presumably these articles about the condition
0:10:04 > 0:10:08of the people, these would have been highly political and controversial.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10Was he prosecuted?
0:10:10 > 0:10:14He wasn't. He was too famous, too great,
0:10:14 > 0:10:17and Alexander III, our emperor,
0:10:17 > 0:10:22used to say, "Don't touch my Tolstoy. Don't make a sufferer out of him."
0:10:22 > 0:10:26How did the peasants on whose behalf he was writing regard him?
0:10:26 > 0:10:28With great sympathy, with great love.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33The writing was so powerful that it was said there were
0:10:33 > 0:10:37two Tsars in Russia, the Tsar and Tolstoy.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40If Tolstoy was so unhappy at the way life was organised
0:10:40 > 0:10:44here in Russia, did he have a model of a better society?
0:10:44 > 0:10:46Since his childhood Tolstoy was greatly
0:10:46 > 0:10:50interested in the life of the ants and the life of the bees.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53For Tolstoy it was very symbolic.
0:10:53 > 0:10:54And this is the quote.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58I would like to show it to you, from Tolstoy's diary.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02"For a human being, before reaching the level of a commune of bees
0:11:02 > 0:11:07"and ants, it is necessary to learn how not to go to war,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11"how not to fight for a nuisance, not to quarrel, not to overeat,
0:11:11 > 0:11:13"not to fornicate,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16"and after that one has to reach consciously
0:11:16 > 0:11:19"the level of the bees and the ants."
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Such idealism!
0:11:25 > 0:11:30Beekeeping even features as a political analogy in War and Peace.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32For a deeply religious man like Tolstoy,
0:11:32 > 0:11:36the harmony and organisation found in the beehive
0:11:36 > 0:11:39provided the ideal Christian model for society.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46Just a little bellows with some smoke in the end.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48Just keeps them quiet.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51Tolstoy was an adept beekeeper,
0:11:51 > 0:11:55but for me, this is an unfamiliar experience!
0:11:57 > 0:11:59- Are you going to brush the bees off?- Yes, yes.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14So now we're going to take this and get some honey.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19So this is going to spin the honey out.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21The honey will go down there.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24This is the smooth, soothing production
0:12:24 > 0:12:26from the insects' communal work.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31So Tolstoy believed that in a society where everyone co-operated
0:12:31 > 0:12:36with each other like bees, life would be pure sweetness.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46Tolstoy used his novels as giant canvases
0:12:46 > 0:12:49on which to paint Russian politics and history
0:12:49 > 0:12:52and developed a radical Christian message.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55Tolstoy's tragic heroine, Anna Karenina,
0:12:55 > 0:13:00dies at a railway station, and in 1910, life imitated art.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04At the end of his life there was a catastrophic breakdown
0:13:04 > 0:13:07in the relationship between Tolstoy and his wife
0:13:07 > 0:13:11and he decided that he must escape her and his beloved home
0:13:11 > 0:13:13and he embarked upon a long train journey,
0:13:13 > 0:13:15during which he was taken ill.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17At the station of Astapavo
0:13:17 > 0:13:19the station master offered the man his bed,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22and it soon became clear that it would be his deathbed.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24The world's media gave chase
0:13:24 > 0:13:28and also the wife, chartering a special train,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31but she wasn't admitted to his presence
0:13:31 > 0:13:36and newsreel records how she ranted and raved on the platform outside
0:13:36 > 0:13:39while in the station master's bed the life of one of the great
0:13:39 > 0:13:42geniuses drew to its close.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50My 1913 guidebook steers me to my next stop
0:13:50 > 0:13:52and helpfully the stations are named
0:13:52 > 0:13:54after the main destination of the train.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56- Zdrastvitye. - Zdrastvitye.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59HE SPEAKS HALTING RUSSIAN
0:14:04 > 0:14:07Your wagon number five and your place number two.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09Thank you very much. Spasiba.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12- Have a nice trip.- Do svidaniya! Spasiba.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25There are just a few minutes to brush up on my Bradshaw's
0:14:25 > 0:14:28before my Moscow-bound train is ready to leave.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43I'll travel close to 130 miles towards the north,
0:14:43 > 0:14:48the tiniest fragment of Russia's 52,000 miles of railway.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56This train started in Makhachkala,
0:14:56 > 0:15:01which is a town in Dagestan, all the way down on the Caspian Sea,
0:15:01 > 0:15:03and it's ending up in St Petersburg.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07That is a distance of about 3,000 kilometres
0:15:07 > 0:15:10and so the people here in third class in all these bunks
0:15:10 > 0:15:15are on this train for 64 hours waking and sleeping.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21I'm not going as far as some of my fellow travellers,
0:15:21 > 0:15:23but my journey still takes around three hours,
0:15:23 > 0:15:25so there's plenty of time for a snack.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31Very nicely appointed restaurant car.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34And since this train began its journey in Dagestan,
0:15:34 > 0:15:36I'm wondering if they have any Dagestani food.
0:15:38 > 0:15:44THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN
0:15:55 > 0:15:58I love the fact that all this food is cooked fresh on the train.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04Local dishes are often a feature of the rural Russian train routes.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07This definitely beats a packet sandwich.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Now it's my turn.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27I saw her put a little flour on and roll it out like this.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN
0:16:36 > 0:16:40Usually filled with meat, these dumplings are called pelmeni
0:16:40 > 0:16:44and are a sort of cross between a stuffed pancake and ravioli.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53And then onto the grill.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57SHE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
0:16:59 > 0:17:01I think that's five points, maybe out of ten.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04Mine may not quite look the part,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06but as we know, it's all in the eating.
0:17:10 > 0:17:11SHE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
0:17:13 > 0:17:14Thank you.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19She's saying bon appetit. That's so nice of her.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26I'm going to eat this little dumpling with some sour cream.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Mm.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35Modesty ought to forbid me, but that is really very tasty.
0:17:45 > 0:17:50My next stop will be Moscow, which Bradshaw's tells me in Russian is,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53"Moskva, with a population of 1.5 million.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55"It was the old capital of the empire
0:17:55 > 0:17:58"before the removal to St Petersburg,
0:17:58 > 0:18:03"and its animated streets present many more characteristic features
0:18:03 > 0:18:06"of Russian life than the modern capital.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10"Moscow is held in great veneration."
0:18:17 > 0:18:20I'm arriving at Kursky Station.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23Built in 1896, this is one of nine stations receiving trains
0:18:23 > 0:18:26from across Russia and beyond.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43In Tula, in the provinces, the railway station felt as though
0:18:43 > 0:18:47it was locked in the imperial or soviet age,
0:18:47 > 0:18:50but now I've arrived in Moscow, there's advertising,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54there's businesses and there's neon signs and there are crowds.
0:18:54 > 0:18:59I've arrived in the capital, and I've arrived in the 21st century.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Although I've reached here on a glorious midsummer's evening,
0:19:09 > 0:19:10it's as bright as midday!
0:19:15 > 0:19:18I'm staying at the legendary Hotel National.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23Built in 1902, it's advertised in my Bradshaw's,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25and the views are enough to amaze any visitor.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32Well, the hotel is wonderfully near the Kremlin.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35In fact, the Kremlin was badly damaged during
0:19:35 > 0:19:37the October revolution of 1917.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41And this hotel became home of the first Soviet government,
0:19:41 > 0:19:46and this very room, number 107, was allocated to Lenin.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52I'm hoping for not too many revolutions in my night's sleep.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01Thank you.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Today, I'm heading to the centre where, my Bradshaw's says,
0:20:11 > 0:20:14"On a hill at the centre of the city, associated with much
0:20:14 > 0:20:17"that is held in deepest reverence by Russians,
0:20:17 > 0:20:21"the Kremlin is an assembly of churches, arsenals, barracks,
0:20:21 > 0:20:26"monuments enclosed in a brick wall about a mile and half in circuit."
0:20:29 > 0:20:32When I was a child, I used to see television pictures of this square,
0:20:32 > 0:20:37with all the tanks and the rocket launchers in the annual parade.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42And in those days we had nuclear weapons on a hair trigger
0:20:42 > 0:20:45pointed at this very place, pointed at the Kremlin.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49I never believed that in my lifetime I would be able to come here
0:20:49 > 0:20:53in peace as a tourist, and it's so exciting.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07Russia's economy has benefited from a substantial tourist industry.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18Did you ever dream that you'd be able to come to Moscow as a tourist?
0:21:18 > 0:21:21- No.- Moscow was a different world altogether.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25It was miles away, never dreamt we would ever be able to get there.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27It was the Iron Curtain.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29How does it feel now that the Iron Curtain has fallen
0:21:29 > 0:21:32- and you're here in freedom? - Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39It excites me to linger in front of
0:21:39 > 0:21:42some of Russia's most iconic edifices.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47I find these buildings awe-inspiring today.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51Imagine how Russians must have felt 100 years ago
0:21:51 > 0:21:54as the family of Tsar Nicholas II,
0:21:54 > 0:22:00the Romanov dynasty celebrated three centuries of untrammelled power.
0:22:04 > 0:22:10In 1913, thousands of Russians and tourists alike journeyed to Moscow
0:22:10 > 0:22:13to mark the royal family's tercentenary year.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18I'm at the Belorussky Station, to meet historian
0:22:18 > 0:22:20Professor Oleg Budnitskii.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28What was the scene here at the Belorussky Station in Moscow,
0:22:28 > 0:22:31May, 1913, when the royal family visited?
0:22:31 > 0:22:35The royal family arrived to the station
0:22:35 > 0:22:39and a huge crowd of people were here at the square.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44Emperor Nicholas II took a horse.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49Empress, Queen Alexandra and their children took a carriage
0:22:49 > 0:22:52and they proceeded up Tverskaya Street to the Kremlin.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56Everyone greeted the royal family. It was a great day for Moscow.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58It was a great celebration.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01- This was a very big event for Moscow.- Yeah, of course.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06Because, you know, the Romanovs came from Moscow.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12The two-week-long imperial progress wound through the country by river
0:23:12 > 0:23:17and rail taking in key sites associated with the dynasty's past.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21All over the Russia people came to watch in their thousands.
0:23:21 > 0:23:27These large crowds, did they feel affectionate towards the Tsar?
0:23:27 > 0:23:32Yes, of course. They really loved the royal family.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36They admired the royal family. People were really religious.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39I believe the great majority of Russians were monarchists.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42They suppose that the emperor is their father
0:23:42 > 0:23:44who is taking care of them.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48The royal family sincerely considered...
0:23:48 > 0:23:53themselves as some kind of...
0:23:53 > 0:23:56parents to their people.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59With the benefit of hindsight, it's tempting to assume that
0:23:59 > 0:24:03the Russian royal family must have been unpopular before the Great War.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07Apparently in a deferential and religious Russia they were not.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16I'm now leaving the royal route and what better way to get to
0:24:16 > 0:24:19the heart of a city than by riding on its underground.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26The Moscow metro is built on a scale that bewilders me as a Londoner.
0:24:26 > 0:24:32With immensely long escalators and enormous ticket halls.
0:24:32 > 0:24:40Chandeliers and mosaics and frescoes and columns and marble upon marble.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48Plans for an underground were first conceived in 1902
0:24:48 > 0:24:51and envisaged 16km of tunnels.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54But the outbreak of the First World War delayed it,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57and it wasn't until 1935 that
0:24:57 > 0:25:00the first trains rumbled beneath Moscow's streets.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15It now serves nine million people a day across 186 stations.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30Michael Portillo.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50I'm getting off to explore one of the capital's oldest districts,
0:25:50 > 0:25:52old Arbat Street.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Edwardian tourists would have come here to soak up the atmosphere
0:26:03 > 0:26:05and visit the famous market.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08Well, I am a little peckish.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN
0:26:20 > 0:26:22That was definitely shopping in the dark.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26All I know is that it's typical and Russian, it's soft... Oh!
0:26:28 > 0:26:32Mm, it's a ginger biscuit and it's very good.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42For the evening ahead, I'm following my guidebook to one of the world's
0:26:42 > 0:26:44most famous cultural landmarks.
0:26:47 > 0:26:48As Bradshaw says,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51"The Bolshoi Theatre is one of the largest
0:26:51 > 0:26:56"and handsomest theatres in Europe and will hold 400 spectators."
0:26:56 > 0:26:59And for an opera and ballet lover like me,
0:26:59 > 0:27:05it is a thrill even to enter beneath its columned, hallowed portico.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18A theatre has stood on this site since the 18th century,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21established under the British director Michael Maddox.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24Today's Bolshoi, meaning the Big Theatre,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27was built in 1856.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29It survived two major fires
0:27:29 > 0:27:32and several reconstructions, and by the time of my guidebook
0:27:32 > 0:27:35housed one of the most famous companies in the world.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39I'm very excited as tonight,
0:27:39 > 0:27:42I'm allowed a rare glimpse behind the scenes.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59One of Russia's most performed operas, Boris Godunov,
0:27:59 > 0:28:01is being staged.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
0:28:08 > 0:28:10But this isn't quite what I had in mind.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14It's quite a small brush, you know.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22I think this is the Bolshoi's version of being sent to Siberia.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26Dispatched to clean the stage with a tiny brush.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29And only a few minutes before the performance.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37Happily, it seems that my work has paid off as I'm allowed into
0:28:37 > 0:28:39the theatre's inner sanctum.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43Here we can see the audience entering the auditorium.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46Here we have a view of the orchestra.
0:28:46 > 0:28:51This is the control tower. This is where everything is managed from.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57A backstage team of 250 facilitates each performance,
0:28:57 > 0:28:59and tonight I'm one of them.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02BELL RINGS
0:29:05 > 0:29:08Ladies and gentlemen, performance for the first act.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12Please be so kind as to take your places onstage.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17MAN TRANSLATES IN RUSSIAN
0:29:21 > 0:29:23That's what I meant to say.
0:30:01 > 0:30:06Written around 1870, the opera deals with themes of Tsarist conflict
0:30:06 > 0:30:09and the roles of church and state.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13It's around four hours long and the music is certainly rousing.
0:30:48 > 0:30:49APPLAUSE
0:30:56 > 0:31:01A new day dawns on my Russian adventure, and after a decadent
0:31:01 > 0:31:04traditional breakfast of caviar and champagne...
0:31:05 > 0:31:08..there's another famous custom that I shouldn't miss.
0:31:08 > 0:31:09The Russian bath.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18Yuri Burtorin has worked at Moscow's famous Sanduny public baths
0:31:18 > 0:31:20for over ten years.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26Yuri, this is the most exquisite interior.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30It's like a gothic banqueting hall or something.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33Is the bath a very important part of Russian life?
0:31:33 > 0:31:36It's not like an important part of Russian,
0:31:36 > 0:31:40it's an integral part of Russian life because everybody goes to banya.
0:31:40 > 0:31:45From his childhood to his becoming old man.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49What I'm saying that, among the old world and European people,
0:31:49 > 0:31:52- the Russians were the most clean in the world.- Really?
0:31:52 > 0:31:55- They had that reputation? - Yes, of course.
0:31:55 > 0:32:00You remember the plague that raged in all of Europe? Historians say
0:32:00 > 0:32:04the plague stopped on the borders where the banyas were built.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09The banyas have always played an important role in Russian
0:32:09 > 0:32:13social life and are still used today to meet friends and to gossip.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18In banya, there is no difference whether you are rich man or poor man.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20You get undressed,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24nobody sees that you a general or a carpenter.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28So time to take off the clothes that distinguish us as rich or poor,
0:32:28 > 0:32:29where do I change?
0:32:29 > 0:32:31- Choose any cabin you like.- Thank you.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36The Sanduny public baths opened in 1806,
0:32:36 > 0:32:41although the building I'm in today was remodelled in 1896.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43At Russia's oldest public baths
0:32:43 > 0:32:46one must adhere strictly to Russian bathing tradition.
0:32:48 > 0:32:53So, Yuri, I've got my mini skirt, like you, and I've got my toga.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55I'm a bit worried about my hat.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58There are several ways to wear the hat.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03This is the most common one, it's called rookie style.
0:33:05 > 0:33:10Another way is to turn it into the Robin Hood.
0:33:15 > 0:33:16Why do we wear a hat?
0:33:16 > 0:33:20The hat is used to prevent your head from overheating
0:33:20 > 0:33:22whilst inside the steam room.
0:33:24 > 0:33:25My head may be protected,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28but I'm more concerned about the rest of me.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34Ah!
0:33:38 > 0:33:40Ah!
0:33:45 > 0:33:47Ah!
0:33:47 > 0:33:49The birch sticks are supposed to open my pores.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00Which then should be closed again with a dose of cold water.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09Next, it's time for a thorough rub down.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13- You're going to wash me? - Yes, of course.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16This is very friendly.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19We'll teach you, British man, how to wash.
0:34:23 > 0:34:28Well, I don't think there are any scaly bits of skin left now.
0:34:28 > 0:34:30I wonder whether George Bradshaw
0:34:30 > 0:34:33went to such lengths in his investigations?
0:34:35 > 0:34:36You might have warned me!
0:34:36 > 0:34:38YURI CHUCKLES
0:34:40 > 0:34:43After being scrubbed, pummelled and beaten...
0:34:44 > 0:34:46..one final rinse and I'm ready.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54At last, as clean as a Russian.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01My time in Moscow is up
0:35:01 > 0:35:05and I'm following my vintage guidebook on to my next destination.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14Passengers bound for North Russia have been travelling through
0:35:14 > 0:35:16Leningradsky Station,
0:35:16 > 0:35:20or St Petersburg Station as it was known, since 1851.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29I'm following my Bradshaw's to St Petersburg,
0:35:29 > 0:35:33but the vehicle is not one any Edwardian tourist would recognise.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41Well, this train was not exactly my image of Russia.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45A magnificent new high speed train of the sort that run in France,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48in Italy and in Germany. This is going to be fun.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01The sleek Sapsan trains have been running since 2009.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04Rail tracks don't look very different today from a century ago,
0:36:04 > 0:36:07but the trains are unrecognisable.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12We're now cruising along at 200kph.
0:36:14 > 0:36:15CHATTERING IN ITALIAN
0:36:15 > 0:36:17Italian?
0:36:17 > 0:36:19THEY SPEAK ITALIAN
0:36:19 > 0:36:22This is the Italian carriage. Ciao.
0:36:22 > 0:36:27THEY SPEAK ITALIAN
0:36:27 > 0:36:30Wow. This isn't like being in Russia at all.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32THEY SPEAK ITALIAN
0:36:40 > 0:36:44Chance encounters with travellers are one of the joys of any journey.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49But I've arranged a meeting to learn how the railways shaped Russia
0:36:49 > 0:36:54in the 19th century from rail historian Sergei Dorozhkov.
0:36:54 > 0:36:59- Hello, Sergei.- Hello. - Good to see you.- Glad to meet you.
0:36:59 > 0:37:04I am trying to imagine what the vast Russian empire before railways.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07How was it run? How was it governed?
0:37:07 > 0:37:11Actually, it wasn't. The situation was catastrophic.
0:37:11 > 0:37:19Imagine that Russia is about 6,000 miles from end to end,
0:37:19 > 0:37:25and even for mail, for post, it was impossible to reach
0:37:25 > 0:37:29Vladivostok from St Petersburg, so everything was very difficult
0:37:29 > 0:37:31and everything depended on transportation.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37Before the railways, bad roads made trade inside Russia difficult.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42Those who worked the land did so for subsistence,
0:37:42 > 0:37:46making them vulnerable to crop failure and drought.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49Russia lagged behind industrialised Europe.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53So the route between Moscow and St Petersburg, when was that built?
0:37:53 > 0:37:56The railways from St Petersburg to Moscow was
0:37:56 > 0:37:58the first serious railway,
0:37:58 > 0:38:02designed primarily for freight traffic and this became
0:38:02 > 0:38:08the longest double track railway in the world when it was built in 1851.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16But in extreme temperatures and over such distances,
0:38:16 > 0:38:19railway building in Russia took decades longer
0:38:19 > 0:38:22than other industrialised nations.
0:38:22 > 0:38:24I think of Russia now as being covered in railways.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27The great railway journeys of the world occur in Russia.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29When did all that happen?
0:38:29 > 0:38:33The full-scale boom came only in 1890s
0:38:33 > 0:38:36when much effort was given to construction of
0:38:36 > 0:38:38the Trans-Siberian Railway
0:38:38 > 0:38:42and when all Russia was covered with railways.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45The impact was great in every point,
0:38:45 > 0:38:48it became possible to really rule the country.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54The turning point came with new finance minister Sergei Witte.
0:38:54 > 0:39:00Between 1892 and 1903, he orchestrated an intense period
0:39:00 > 0:39:03of industrialisation and railway construction.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07By 1904, the Trans-Siberian linked Moscow to Vladivostok.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14As the political tensions in Europe grew, was there an impetus
0:39:14 > 0:39:17in Russia to build more railways for strategic reasons?
0:39:17 > 0:39:20Yes, in early 20th century
0:39:20 > 0:39:26Russia began to build strategic routes towards the borders.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29But we didn't do that in time.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32When the Great War came to Russia,
0:39:32 > 0:39:38Russian transport and railways were not fully prepared.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43A lack of standard gauge and poor connections cost the army
0:39:43 > 0:39:48crucial defeats as it failed to move troops and supplies quickly enough.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51But today, Russia's vast railway network
0:39:51 > 0:39:54includes some modernised lines.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57A journey that took around 15 hours at the time of my guidebook
0:39:57 > 0:39:59now takes less than four.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08I'll soon be arriving in St Petersburg.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12Bradshaw's tells me it has a population of 1.9 million,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15considerably bigger than Moscow at the time.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18"The splendid looking metropolis of the Russian empire is
0:40:18 > 0:40:21"situated on the river Neva.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25"The dead flat upon which the city stands was a morass,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28"Occupied by a few fishermen's huts
0:40:28 > 0:40:34"when Peter the Great began to build in 1703 a small hut for himself."
0:40:34 > 0:40:38The traveller in 1913 could reflect that the Romanov dynasty
0:40:38 > 0:40:43had foundations stretching back over three centuries.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46But perhaps it was built on boggy ground.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52At the turn of the 20th century,
0:40:52 > 0:40:54St Petersburg was the capital of Russia,
0:40:54 > 0:40:58but it was moved to Moscow in 1918.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02Known by turns as Sankt Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad
0:41:02 > 0:41:04and St Petersburg again,
0:41:04 > 0:41:09in 1913, from this city the entire Russian empire was ruled.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17British tourists following my guidebook
0:41:17 > 0:41:21would have found a thriving and not entirely unfamiliar place,
0:41:21 > 0:41:24this was known as Russia's most western city.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Bradshaw's has a beautifully illustrated advertisement
0:41:32 > 0:41:34for the Grand Hotel d'Europe.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36I suspect that the name would have reassured
0:41:36 > 0:41:39travellers from the Western part of the continent that they
0:41:39 > 0:41:41weren't after all coming to anywhere too foreign.
0:41:41 > 0:41:46Apparently it has, "Perfect English sanitary arrangements."
0:41:46 > 0:41:48It looks now as much as it did,
0:41:48 > 0:41:51but I suspect that it's been restored because after all
0:41:51 > 0:41:54Leningrad was massively destroyed during World War II.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58But I'm hoping that the welcome will be as warm as in 1913.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07Dmitri Shostakovich, George Bernard Shaw and Elton John
0:42:07 > 0:42:10have all stayed here.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13I join an illustrious company for a good night's rest
0:42:13 > 0:42:16before exploring St Petersburg tomorrow.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43Just a short walk from the hotel is an area attractive to
0:42:43 > 0:42:47Edwardian tourists following my guide and to modern travellers too.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52Bradshaw says, "From the east of the gardens in front of
0:42:52 > 0:42:56"the Admiralty Tower the great Nevsky Prospekt runs off."
0:42:56 > 0:43:00A magnificent thoroughfare crowded with sights and it leads us
0:43:00 > 0:43:03towards the river Neva and the port.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14On the way to the port is the spectacular Winter Palace,
0:43:14 > 0:43:18which was the royal family's home for almost 200 years.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22Bradshaw tells me, it's also home to the Hermitage Museum
0:43:22 > 0:43:25with around 2,000 paintings.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30Today, the collection numbers more than three million works of art.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36But now to orientate myself, I'm bound for the river.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40As I think the best way to explore this city is not on foot...
0:43:41 > 0:43:42..but by boat
0:43:52 > 0:43:56Few people more deserve the title The Great than Peter
0:43:56 > 0:44:00who in a generation after he became Tsar at the end of the 17th century
0:44:00 > 0:44:04changed Russia. In particular he modernised it,
0:44:04 > 0:44:08having spent quite a long time studying abroad
0:44:08 > 0:44:11including a period in Holland,
0:44:11 > 0:44:16which led him to found this city St Petersburg based on Amsterdam,
0:44:16 > 0:44:23with its lovely canals bisecting the buildings.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25Now built on 42 islands.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29And St Petersburg, with its magnificent port,
0:44:29 > 0:44:31opened Russia to the world.
0:44:38 > 0:44:42Peter was the first Tsar to expose Russia to Europe.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44St Petersburg's position on the Baltic
0:44:44 > 0:44:47provided the perfect gateway.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02Fittingly, I'm here on Navy Day,
0:45:02 > 0:45:05which marks St Petersburg's long maritime history.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28St Petersburg may have been known as the country's European city,
0:45:28 > 0:45:31but I want to experience something truly Russian.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37I'm heading to the 19th century Nikolaevsky Palace.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45Please, sir. Please, sir. This way.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54Good start.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59LIVELY MUSIC PLAYS
0:46:02 > 0:46:07Traditional Russian folk music was popular with tourists 100 years ago,
0:46:07 > 0:46:09and still delights the crowds today.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20The dances feature Russian characters,
0:46:20 > 0:46:22from Cossacks to peasant women.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26The music and steps date back to the 18th century.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38It seems that audience participation is a must.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46The Kadril is a very courteous couples' dance
0:46:46 > 0:46:48and, luckily for me,
0:46:48 > 0:46:51it's also supposed to be funny!
0:46:57 > 0:46:59LAUGHTER
0:47:01 > 0:47:03Oop!
0:47:13 > 0:47:16CHEERING
0:47:31 > 0:47:33It's my final day in Russia
0:47:33 > 0:47:36and I'm following my guidebook out of the city.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45I'm on my way now to the number one excursion from St Petersburg,
0:47:45 > 0:47:48recommend in my Bradshaw's Guide,
0:47:48 > 0:47:50towards a pleasant town
0:47:50 > 0:47:53where there are two palaces, several churches, hospitals,
0:47:53 > 0:47:55benevolent institutions, barracks
0:47:55 > 0:47:58and, in the wide streets, many villas.
0:47:58 > 0:48:03I'm going towards the so called Tsar's Village - Tsarskoye Selo.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13I'm meeting guide Tatyana Alexeyeva.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18It was from here that Russia's first ever train departed in 1837,
0:48:18 > 0:48:23carrying day-trippers and sightseers to the royal summer destination
0:48:23 > 0:48:25of Tsarskoye Selo.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32This is the most superb railway station.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35But why music in a railway station?
0:48:35 > 0:48:39Because when the first railway was built in 1837,
0:48:39 > 0:48:42people were afraid to take the train - they thought it was too fast.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46So the concerts were organised first to attract people
0:48:46 > 0:48:50and to entertain people and then they were invited to take the train.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54Many famous musicians performed there, and Johann Strauss
0:48:54 > 0:48:58performed for five seasons in the concert hall of Pavlovsk.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06This station was remodelled in 1902,
0:49:06 > 0:49:09and by the turn of the 20th century,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13the railways had become a part of everyday life for many.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36Around 1913, would Tsar Nicholas II and his family
0:49:36 > 0:49:40- have been going backwards and forwards by train?- Yes, that's true.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44In the 19th century, the tracks were used by everybody
0:49:44 > 0:49:46but at the end of the 19th century,
0:49:46 > 0:49:51a special third track was built for Nicholas II and his family,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54and they had their own train to go from Saint Petersburg
0:49:54 > 0:49:57to the summer residence, to Tsarskoye Selo.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12By 1913 the royal family was regularly using the railway
0:50:12 > 0:50:17to escape to the calm welcome retreat of the Tsar's Village.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21And tourists would take the train to admire their palaces.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32Did Tsar Nicholas II and his family make a lot of use of this palace?
0:50:32 > 0:50:36Yes. Originally this was just a summer residence,
0:50:36 > 0:50:41but in 1904, Nicholas II and the family moved to Alexander Palace
0:50:41 > 0:50:44and it became their home residence for 12 years.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47Why did they like it so much?
0:50:47 > 0:50:49You know, the family, they had four girls
0:50:49 > 0:50:54and they were waiting for the boy, and finally the boy was born
0:50:54 > 0:50:57but it turned out that the boy had haemophilia.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59Which was kept in secret.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03So the family decided to move away from the city.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09The family's move was highly controversial,
0:51:09 > 0:51:13not just because they sought the seclusion of their Alexander Palace,
0:51:13 > 0:51:16but because there was a new addition to their inner circle -
0:51:16 > 0:51:19Grigori Rasputin.
0:51:19 > 0:51:24He had a talent of hypnosis, so he had a talent to stop bleeding.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28That's why Rasputin was invited to the Russian court,
0:51:28 > 0:51:31to the royal family,
0:51:31 > 0:51:36as he was kind of the only person who could save the heir of the throne.
0:51:36 > 0:51:41Despite his healing abilities, Rasputin, a Siberian holy man,
0:51:41 > 0:51:45was known as a hard-drinking womaniser.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48His less-than-holy reputation did the Romanovs no favours.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54The royal family was always like a sacred family in Russia.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57On the other hand, most people couldn't understand why
0:51:57 > 0:52:00Rasputin had such strong influence on the royal family.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03But there were people in the court who really praised him
0:52:03 > 0:52:06because he was kind of a magic person.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11He was a healer, he had talent over influencing people.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21While the Tsar and Tsarina tried to protect their family here,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24St Petersburg was seething with grievances.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27Just months after the Tsar left the city,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30tensions in the capital produced an explosion.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57Back in St Petersburg, I'm meeting former BBC Moscow Correspondent,
0:52:57 > 0:53:00Martin Sixsmith, at the Winter Palace.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03I want to understand more about events that were so recent
0:53:03 > 0:53:05for tourists following my guidebook.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13Martin, people talk about a revolution in 1905, what happened?
0:53:13 > 0:53:17Well, it wasn't a revolution in the classical sense that it resulted in
0:53:17 > 0:53:21a change in the people in power, cos the Tsar stayed in power,
0:53:21 > 0:53:24but it was are a wake up call for Tsar Nicholas II
0:53:24 > 0:53:27that things were not well in his empire.
0:53:27 > 0:53:29What were the events?
0:53:29 > 0:53:32Russia had industrialised over the previous couple of decades,
0:53:32 > 0:53:35the railways had spread industry across the Russian empire,
0:53:35 > 0:53:39and the result of that was that there was a build-up of proletarian workers
0:53:39 > 0:53:42in the big cities like St Petersburg.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46On the 9th January 1905, hundreds of unarmed workers,
0:53:46 > 0:53:50protesting for better conditions, were shot by Tsarist troops.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54The event, recreated for cinema in the Soviet Era,
0:53:54 > 0:53:56became known as Bloody Sunday,
0:53:56 > 0:53:58sparking months of strikes and civil unrest.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02That was a real turning point
0:54:02 > 0:54:05because most Russians had supported the Tsar.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07But then they started to think,
0:54:07 > 0:54:10"If he's actually meeting us with bullets and with troops,
0:54:10 > 0:54:13"then perhaps he's not the right person to be ruling this country."
0:54:13 > 0:54:17- So 1905 puts some writing on the wall.- It undoubtedly did.
0:54:19 > 0:54:24Over the next 12 years, Nicholas failed to implement change.
0:54:24 > 0:54:29After 1914, Russia was locked into a costly war with Germany.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33By 1917, reformers sought the Tsar's abdication.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35He's away at the Front.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37He's commanding the Russian forces in the First World War
0:54:37 > 0:54:41and he's getting all these terrible messages about things falling apart,
0:54:41 > 0:54:45violence on the streets, people protesting, demanding his abdication.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48And he seems incredibly calm about this.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52And he just doesn't grasp the seriousness of the situation.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54But eventually he has to face it?
0:54:54 > 0:54:57He does, because a delegation from parliament comes out to meet him.
0:54:57 > 0:55:02He is convinced to get a train back from the Front back to Petrograd.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05And the Tsar argues and he argues and eventually they convince him
0:55:05 > 0:55:07that he has to go.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10And on the 3rd March he signs the abdication announcement
0:55:10 > 0:55:15and that's the end of 300 years of the Romanov dynasty,
0:55:15 > 0:55:18300 years coming to the end in a provincial railway siding.
0:55:18 > 0:55:23Germany allowed Lenin to cross its territory in a sealed train,
0:55:23 > 0:55:28like a Revolutionary virus, from Switzerland to St Petersburg.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31In October, his Bolshevik revolutionaries
0:55:31 > 0:55:36entered the Winter Palace in order to depose the provisional government
0:55:36 > 0:55:38led by Alexander Kerensky.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42This plaque is presumably commemorating that event?
0:55:42 > 0:55:44Well, yes, it's a Soviet Era plaque and it says,
0:55:44 > 0:55:47"In memory of the storming of the Winter Palace
0:55:47 > 0:55:51"by the Revolutionary workers, soldiers and sailors,
0:55:51 > 0:55:55"this staircase which opened their way into the palace
0:55:55 > 0:55:59"is now called the October Staircase."
0:56:04 > 0:56:07This is the Tsar's small dining room and eventually,
0:56:07 > 0:56:10around two o'clock in the morning,
0:56:10 > 0:56:14the Russians who had wandered into the Winter Palace ended up in here,
0:56:14 > 0:56:17and around this table - much to their surprise -
0:56:17 > 0:56:21they found about a dozen ministers of the provisional government
0:56:21 > 0:56:24sitting here, scribbling notes on the table, looking at each other,
0:56:24 > 0:56:26looking rather dejected.
0:56:28 > 0:56:30What happened to those ministers?
0:56:30 > 0:56:34Well, a sorry fate, as they were all - barring one -
0:56:34 > 0:56:37either executed or died in prison.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39But their leader, Alexander Kerensky,
0:56:39 > 0:56:43managed to escape. He went first to Paris and then to America
0:56:43 > 0:56:45and he lived to the ripe old age of 89,
0:56:45 > 0:56:48and he died in New York city in 1970.
0:56:48 > 0:56:50A very different fate for him.
0:56:56 > 0:56:58As the Revolutionaries took over the country,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02Nicholas appealed to his cousin, British King George V,
0:57:02 > 0:57:05for his family's asylum.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09Fearing that revolution might spread to Britain, George refused.
0:57:09 > 0:57:14In July 1918, the entire imperial family was murdered
0:57:14 > 0:57:20by its Bolshevik guards while under house arrest in Yekaterinburg.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22The royal dynasty was snuffed out
0:57:22 > 0:57:26and the long Communist chapter in Russia's history had begun.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30This excursion has taken me from Tolstoy,
0:57:30 > 0:57:32who died in a railway station,
0:57:32 > 0:57:37to Tsar Nicholas II, who abdicated in a railway siding.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40In 1913, nothing in Bradshaw's
0:57:40 > 0:57:43suggested the imminent First World War
0:57:43 > 0:57:47nor the murder of the Romanov royal family.
0:57:47 > 0:57:52Russia was then plunged into civil war, purges and liquidations.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56No train journey in history has had deeper consequences than that
0:57:56 > 0:58:01that brought Lenin to St Petersburg in 1917.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05I feel I have explored a new Russia.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07I've had many surprises,
0:58:07 > 0:58:09received a warm welcome,
0:58:09 > 0:58:11and had fun.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20'Next time, I'm exploring Italy's deep south.
0:58:20 > 0:58:23'I'll venture into the mighty Vesuvius...'
0:58:23 > 0:58:24I don't want to be nervous
0:58:24 > 0:58:27but I can't help noticing that there's a lot of vapour.
0:58:27 > 0:58:29'..learn about the true art of pizza...'
0:58:29 > 0:58:32- Do you know Picasso? - I do know Picasso.
0:58:32 > 0:58:34You make Picasso, please.
0:58:34 > 0:58:37'..confront death and destruction in Messina...'
0:58:37 > 0:58:41Modern estimates reckon that perhaps 60,000 or 80,000 were killed.
0:58:41 > 0:58:44'..and be all at sea on my train...'
0:58:44 > 0:58:46Quite alarming that we're actually sailing
0:58:46 > 0:58:48while the bow door is still coming down.
0:58:48 > 0:58:51'..before taking my own Roman holiday.'
0:58:51 > 0:58:53HE SPEAKS ITALIAN