Tula to St Petersburg Great Continental Railway Journeys

I'm embarking on a new railway adventure that will take me

across the heart of Europe.

I'll be using this, my Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide,

dated 1913, which opened up an exotic world of foreign travel

for the British tourist.

It told travellers where to go, what to see, and how to navigate

the thousands of miles of tracks crisscrossing the continent.

Now, a century later,

I'm using my copy to reveal an era of great optimism and energy

where technology, industry, science and the arts were flourishing.

I want to rediscover that lost Europe that in 1913 couldn't know

that its way of life would shortly be swept aside by the advent of war.

On this journey I follow my guidebook further than

it's ever taken me - to the vast country of Russia.

At the time of my guide,

Britain and Russia were linked by kinship

with the British king George V's cousin,

Tsar Nicholas II, on the imperial throne.

I learn from Bradshaw's that his regime is autocratic

and bureaucratic,

and there have recently been strikes,

mutinies and civilian massacres.

Yet travellers to Russia in 1913 would have visited cities

that were modern and vibrant, while trade and industry were growing.

Russia was an enigma, poised between reform and revolution.

I'll be covering a fraction of Russia's vast

six and a half million square miles,

starting south of Moscow

in the industrial city of Tula.

I'll then head north towards the country's capital

before travelling over 400 miles to St Petersburg.

An excursion recommended in my guide

will take me on to Tsarskoe Selo

before I return to St Petersburg.

Along the way, I'll learn how one of Russia's most famous writers

escaped royal retribution.

-Was he prosecuted?

-He wasn't.

Alexander III, our emperor, used to say, "Don't touch my Tolstoy.

"Don't make a sufferer out of him."

I'll be taught to clean up my act.

LOUD THWACKING

We'll teach you British man how to wash!

And amongst the palaces of St Petersburg I'll hear how,

at the beginning of the 20th century,

revolution was in the air.

People were being executed, people were being shot,

and the deaths got into the hundreds, probably the thousands,

over the next couple of years.

Tourists following my guidebook found Russia in the midst of change.

Industrial revolution had come late

but its effects were by now dramatic.

Urban populations swelled as thousands of peasants

moved to the cities to work in the expanding factories.

According to Bradshaw's,

about five and three-quarter million people belong to

the military class and one million are hereditary and personal nobles.

Now, that leaves out tens of millions of people

who had until very recently been feudal serfs.

I'm now approaching the town of Tula.

Bradshaw's tells me it's an industrial town with an iron works,

which doesn't easily explain why it attracted

droves of tourists at the beginning of the 20th century.

Tourists would have been struck by the variety of domed churches

that make up Tula's skyline.

Today, many that were destroyed during the Soviet era

are being restored.

Bradshaw's tells me

that within the Kremlin at Tula there are two cathedrals.

Now, I always thought that the Kremlin was a place in Moscow,

but it turns out you can find them in many Russian cities.

And inside here there are indeed two cathedrals,

and of course also the centre of political power,

as though you could distinguish between the two, because

for example, the Tsar appointed the leaders of the Orthodox Church

and both the state and the church demanded obedience.

The people believed that the Tsar was anointed by God,

and until the revolution of 1917, church and state ruled hand in hand

over a vast population,

more than four-fifths of whom lived in abject poverty on the land.

I imagine how these icons would have spoken directly

to people even if they were illiterate peasants.

How powerful would have been this image of the last judgment,

the moment when souls are divided between those that go to heaven

and those that go to hell.

For decades after the revolution,

churches like this stood empty and neglected.

Now they're being restored.

Fresh paint - the icons speak again.

THEY CHANT IN HARMONY

At the turn of the 20th century,

it wasn't the city's numerous churches

that drew travellers to Tula.

Then there were three places in Russia that had to be visited -

Moscow, St Petersburg and here.

This is Yasnaya Polyana,

the estate of Lev Tolstoy,

a genius to rank alongside Cervantes and Dickens.

I was drawn to his novel Anna Karenina,

a story of extramarital love,

because it begins with a railway accident

and ends with a railway suicide.

Such sorrow over sin, such sadness, so Russian.

The estate, close to Tula,

had been the family home since the early 1800s.

Tula was expanding rapidly

and after the arrival of the railway in 1867,

Tolstoy, his wife and their 13 children

found their rural Russian idyll had become much more accessible.

I'm meeting the estate's head of research, Galina Alexeeva.

Galina, I've come here with my Bradshaw's guide.

I think at the beginning of the 20th century

there would have been lots of British visitors.

Oh, yes, so many people were coming here,

from Europe, Asia, North America and certainly from Britain.

It was a kind of Mecca, cultural centre of the world,

and people were dreaming about coming to Yasnaya Polyana

and talking to Tolstoy, to the great Tolstoy.

Tolstoy's fame had spread around the world but he held a special place

in British hearts, thanks in part

to his declared love for the work of Charles Dickens.

Tourists and writers alike flocked here,

hoping to get close to the literary genius.

It is such a beautiful estate and such a wonderful house.

Was Tolstoy actually born here?

He was born here at Yasnaya Polyana but not in this house,

but in a huge three-storeyed house, which had been sold in 1854.

But he was born on this black sofa on the 28th August 1828.

And this desk, did he write there?

That writing desk belonged to his father, Count Nikolai Tolstoy,

and Tolstoy wrote so many works on it,

War and Peace and Anna Karenina in particular.

Those great novels were written at this very desk?

-Exactly.

-Fantastic!

To the delight of some and the disquiet of others,

Tolstoy, though an aristocrat,

wrote about the evils of serfdom and poverty.

And living here in the country, what sort of attitudes

did he form to the people living around him and under him?

Tolstoy was greatly interested in the peasants' life

and he spent hours and hours in the Yasnaya Polyana village

and he suffered with all the pains the peasants survived and he always

wanted to help and he was eager to help the Yasnaya Polyana peasants.

At the end of the 19th century,

to the poverty and injustices endured by those who tilled the land

were added famine and disease.

Over 400,000 peasants died.

Tolstoy used his fame to publicise the horrors, writing articles

and pamphlets to denounce the government's inaction

in the face of so much suffering.

Now, presumably these articles about the condition

of the people, these would have been highly political and controversial.

Was he prosecuted?

He wasn't. He was too famous, too great,

and Alexander III, our emperor,

used to say, "Don't touch my Tolstoy. Don't make a sufferer out of him."

How did the peasants on whose behalf he was writing regard him?

With great sympathy, with great love.

The writing was so powerful that it was said there were

two Tsars in Russia, the Tsar and Tolstoy.

If Tolstoy was so unhappy at the way life was organised

here in Russia, did he have a model of a better society?

Since his childhood Tolstoy was greatly

interested in the life of the ants and the life of the bees.

For Tolstoy it was very symbolic.

And this is the quote.

I would like to show it to you, from Tolstoy's diary.

"For a human being, before reaching the level of a commune of bees

"and ants, it is necessary to learn how not to go to war,

"how not to fight for a nuisance, not to quarrel, not to overeat,

"not to fornicate,

"and after that one has to reach consciously

"the level of the bees and the ants."

Such idealism!

Beekeeping even features as a political analogy in War and Peace.

For a deeply religious man like Tolstoy,

the harmony and organisation found in the beehive

provided the ideal Christian model for society.

Just a little bellows with some smoke in the end.

Just keeps them quiet.

Tolstoy was an adept beekeeper,

but for me, this is an unfamiliar experience!

-Are you going to brush the bees off?

-Yes, yes.

So now we're going to take this and get some honey.

So this is going to spin the honey out.

The honey will go down there.

This is the smooth, soothing production

from the insects' communal work.

So Tolstoy believed that in a society where everyone co-operated

with each other like bees, life would be pure sweetness.

Tolstoy used his novels as giant canvases

on which to paint Russian politics and history

and developed a radical Christian message.

Tolstoy's tragic heroine, Anna Karenina,

dies at a railway station, and in 1910, life imitated art.

At the end of his life there was a catastrophic breakdown

in the relationship between Tolstoy and his wife

and he decided that he must escape her and his beloved home

and he embarked upon a long train journey,

during which he was taken ill.

At the station of Astapavo

the station master offered the man his bed,

and it soon became clear that it would be his deathbed.

The world's media gave chase

and also the wife, chartering a special train,

but she wasn't admitted to his presence

and newsreel records how she ranted and raved on the platform outside

while in the station master's bed the life of one of the great

geniuses drew to its close.

My 1913 guidebook steers me to my next stop

and helpfully the stations are named

after the main destination of the train.

-Zdrastvitye.

-Zdrastvitye.

HE SPEAKS HALTING RUSSIAN

Your wagon number five and your place number two.

Thank you very much. Spasiba.

-Have a nice trip.

-Do svidaniya! Spasiba.

There are just a few minutes to brush up on my Bradshaw's

before my Moscow-bound train is ready to leave.

I'll travel close to 130 miles towards the north,

the tiniest fragment of Russia's 52,000 miles of railway.

This train started in Makhachkala,

which is a town in Dagestan, all the way down on the Caspian Sea,

and it's ending up in St Petersburg.

That is a distance of about 3,000 kilometres

and so the people here in third class in all these bunks

are on this train for 64 hours waking and sleeping.

I'm not going as far as some of my fellow travellers,

but my journey still takes around three hours,

so there's plenty of time for a snack.

Very nicely appointed restaurant car.

And since this train began its journey in Dagestan,

I'm wondering if they have any Dagestani food.

THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

I love the fact that all this food is cooked fresh on the train.

Local dishes are often a feature of the rural Russian train routes.

This definitely beats a packet sandwich.

Now it's my turn.

I saw her put a little flour on and roll it out like this.

THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

Usually filled with meat, these dumplings are called pelmeni

and are a sort of cross between a stuffed pancake and ravioli.

And then onto the grill.

SHE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

I think that's five points, maybe out of ten.

Mine may not quite look the part,

but as we know, it's all in the eating.

SHE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

Thank you.

She's saying bon appetit. That's so nice of her.

I'm going to eat this little dumpling with some sour cream.

Mm.

Modesty ought to forbid me, but that is really very tasty.

My next stop will be Moscow, which Bradshaw's tells me in Russian is,

"Moskva, with a population of 1.5 million.

"It was the old capital of the empire

"before the removal to St Petersburg,

"and its animated streets present many more characteristic features

"of Russian life than the modern capital.

"Moscow is held in great veneration."

I'm arriving at Kursky Station.

Built in 1896, this is one of nine stations receiving trains

from across Russia and beyond.

In Tula, in the provinces, the railway station felt as though

it was locked in the imperial or soviet age,

but now I've arrived in Moscow, there's advertising,

there's businesses and there's neon signs and there are crowds.

I've arrived in the capital, and I've arrived in the 21st century.

Although I've reached here on a glorious midsummer's evening,

it's as bright as midday!

I'm staying at the legendary Hotel National.

Built in 1902, it's advertised in my Bradshaw's,

and the views are enough to amaze any visitor.

Well, the hotel is wonderfully near the Kremlin.

In fact, the Kremlin was badly damaged during

the October revolution of 1917.

And this hotel became home of the first Soviet government,

and this very room, number 107, was allocated to Lenin.

I'm hoping for not too many revolutions in my night's sleep.

Thank you.

Today, I'm heading to the centre where, my Bradshaw's says,

"On a hill at the centre of the city, associated with much

"that is held in deepest reverence by Russians,

"the Kremlin is an assembly of churches, arsenals, barracks,

"monuments enclosed in a brick wall about a mile and half in circuit."

When I was a child, I used to see television pictures of this square,

with all the tanks and the rocket launchers in the annual parade.

And in those days we had nuclear weapons on a hair trigger

pointed at this very place, pointed at the Kremlin.

I never believed that in my lifetime I would be able to come here

in peace as a tourist, and it's so exciting.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,

Russia's economy has benefited from a substantial tourist industry.

Did you ever dream that you'd be able to come to Moscow as a tourist?

-No.

-Moscow was a different world altogether.

It was miles away, never dreamt we would ever be able to get there.

It was the Iron Curtain.

How does it feel now that the Iron Curtain has fallen

-and you're here in freedom?

-Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

It excites me to linger in front of

some of Russia's most iconic edifices.

I find these buildings awe-inspiring today.

Imagine how Russians must have felt 100 years ago

as the family of Tsar Nicholas II,

the Romanov dynasty celebrated three centuries of untrammelled power.

In 1913, thousands of Russians and tourists alike journeyed to Moscow

to mark the royal family's tercentenary year.

I'm at the Belorussky Station, to meet historian

Professor Oleg Budnitskii.

What was the scene here at the Belorussky Station in Moscow,

May, 1913, when the royal family visited?

The royal family arrived to the station

and a huge crowd of people were here at the square.

Emperor Nicholas II took a horse.

Empress, Queen Alexandra and their children took a carriage

and they proceeded up Tverskaya Street to the Kremlin.

Everyone greeted the royal family. It was a great day for Moscow.

It was a great celebration.

-This was a very big event for Moscow.

-Yeah, of course.

Because, you know, the Romanovs came from Moscow.

The two-week-long imperial progress wound through the country by river

and rail taking in key sites associated with the dynasty's past.

All over the Russia people came to watch in their thousands.

These large crowds, did they feel affectionate towards the Tsar?

Yes, of course. They really loved the royal family.

They admired the royal family. People were really religious.

I believe the great majority of Russians were monarchists.

They suppose that the emperor is their father

who is taking care of them.

The royal family sincerely considered...

themselves as some kind of...

parents to their people.

With the benefit of hindsight, it's tempting to assume that

the Russian royal family must have been unpopular before the Great War.

Apparently in a deferential and religious Russia they were not.

I'm now leaving the royal route and what better way to get to

the heart of a city than by riding on its underground.

The Moscow metro is built on a scale that bewilders me as a Londoner.

With immensely long escalators and enormous ticket halls.

Chandeliers and mosaics and frescoes and columns and marble upon marble.

Plans for an underground were first conceived in 1902

and envisaged 16km of tunnels.

But the outbreak of the First World War delayed it,

and it wasn't until 1935 that

the first trains rumbled beneath Moscow's streets.

It now serves nine million people a day across 186 stations.

Michael Portillo.

I'm getting off to explore one of the capital's oldest districts,

old Arbat Street.

Edwardian tourists would have come here to soak up the atmosphere

and visit the famous market.

Well, I am a little peckish.

THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

That was definitely shopping in the dark.

All I know is that it's typical and Russian, it's soft... Oh!

Mm, it's a ginger biscuit and it's very good.

For the evening ahead, I'm following my guidebook to one of the world's

most famous cultural landmarks.

As Bradshaw says,

"The Bolshoi Theatre is one of the largest

"and handsomest theatres in Europe and will hold 400 spectators."

And for an opera and ballet lover like me,

it is a thrill even to enter beneath its columned, hallowed portico.

A theatre has stood on this site since the 18th century,

established under the British director Michael Maddox.

Today's Bolshoi, meaning the Big Theatre,

was built in 1856.

It survived two major fires

and several reconstructions, and by the time of my guidebook

housed one of the most famous companies in the world.

I'm very excited as tonight,

I'm allowed a rare glimpse behind the scenes.

One of Russia's most performed operas, Boris Godunov,

is being staged.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

But this isn't quite what I had in mind.

It's quite a small brush, you know.

I think this is the Bolshoi's version of being sent to Siberia.

Dispatched to clean the stage with a tiny brush.

And only a few minutes before the performance.

Happily, it seems that my work has paid off as I'm allowed into

the theatre's inner sanctum.

Here we can see the audience entering the auditorium.

Here we have a view of the orchestra.

This is the control tower. This is where everything is managed from.

A backstage team of 250 facilitates each performance,

and tonight I'm one of them.

BELL RINGS

Ladies and gentlemen, performance for the first act.

Please be so kind as to take your places onstage.

MAN TRANSLATES IN RUSSIAN

That's what I meant to say.

Written around 1870, the opera deals with themes of Tsarist conflict

and the roles of church and state.

It's around four hours long and the music is certainly rousing.

APPLAUSE

A new day dawns on my Russian adventure, and after a decadent

traditional breakfast of caviar and champagne...

..there's another famous custom that I shouldn't miss.

The Russian bath.

Yuri Burtorin has worked at Moscow's famous Sanduny public baths

for over ten years.

Yuri, this is the most exquisite interior.

It's like a gothic banqueting hall or something.

Is the bath a very important part of Russian life?

It's not like an important part of Russian,

it's an integral part of Russian life because everybody goes to banya.

From his childhood to his becoming old man.

What I'm saying that, among the old world and European people,

-the Russians were the most clean in the world.

-Really?

-They had that reputation?

-Yes, of course.

You remember the plague that raged in all of Europe? Historians say

the plague stopped on the borders where the banyas were built.

The banyas have always played an important role in Russian

social life and are still used today to meet friends and to gossip.

In banya, there is no difference whether you are rich man or poor man.

You get undressed,

nobody sees that you a general or a carpenter.

So time to take off the clothes that distinguish us as rich or poor,

where do I change?

-Choose any cabin you like.

-Thank you.

The Sanduny public baths opened in 1806,

although the building I'm in today was remodelled in 1896.

At Russia's oldest public baths

one must adhere strictly to Russian bathing tradition.

So, Yuri, I've got my mini skirt, like you, and I've got my toga.

I'm a bit worried about my hat.

There are several ways to wear the hat.

This is the most common one, it's called rookie style.

Another way is to turn it into the Robin Hood.

Why do we wear a hat?

The hat is used to prevent your head from overheating

whilst inside the steam room.

My head may be protected,

but I'm more concerned about the rest of me.

Ah!

Ah!

Ah!

The birch sticks are supposed to open my pores.

Which then should be closed again with a dose of cold water.

Next, it's time for a thorough rub down.

-You're going to wash me?

-Yes, of course.

This is very friendly.

We'll teach you, British man, how to wash.

Well, I don't think there are any scaly bits of skin left now.

I wonder whether George Bradshaw

went to such lengths in his investigations?

You might have warned me!

YURI CHUCKLES

After being scrubbed, pummelled and beaten...

..one final rinse and I'm ready.

At last, as clean as a Russian.

My time in Moscow is up

and I'm following my vintage guidebook on to my next destination.

Passengers bound for North Russia have been travelling through

Leningradsky Station,

or St Petersburg Station as it was known, since 1851.

I'm following my Bradshaw's to St Petersburg,

but the vehicle is not one any Edwardian tourist would recognise.

Well, this train was not exactly my image of Russia.

A magnificent new high speed train of the sort that run in France,

in Italy and in Germany. This is going to be fun.

The sleek Sapsan trains have been running since 2009.

Rail tracks don't look very different today from a century ago,

but the trains are unrecognisable.

We're now cruising along at 200kph.

CHATTERING IN ITALIAN

Italian?

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

This is the Italian carriage. Ciao.

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

Wow. This isn't like being in Russia at all.

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

Chance encounters with travellers are one of the joys of any journey.

But I've arranged a meeting to learn how the railways shaped Russia

in the 19th century from rail historian Sergei Dorozhkov.

-Hello, Sergei.

-Hello.

-Good to see you.

-Glad to meet you.

I am trying to imagine what the vast Russian empire before railways.

How was it run? How was it governed?

Actually, it wasn't. The situation was catastrophic.

Imagine that Russia is about 6,000 miles from end to end,

and even for mail, for post, it was impossible to reach

Vladivostok from St Petersburg, so everything was very difficult

and everything depended on transportation.

Before the railways, bad roads made trade inside Russia difficult.

Those who worked the land did so for subsistence,

making them vulnerable to crop failure and drought.

Russia lagged behind industrialised Europe.

So the route between Moscow and St Petersburg, when was that built?

The railways from St Petersburg to Moscow was

the first serious railway,

designed primarily for freight traffic and this became

the longest double track railway in the world when it was built in 1851.

But in extreme temperatures and over such distances,

railway building in Russia took decades longer

than other industrialised nations.

I think of Russia now as being covered in railways.

The great railway journeys of the world occur in Russia.

When did all that happen?

The full-scale boom came only in 1890s

when much effort was given to construction of

the Trans-Siberian Railway

and when all Russia was covered with railways.

The impact was great in every point,

it became possible to really rule the country.

The turning point came with new finance minister Sergei Witte.

Between 1892 and 1903, he orchestrated an intense period

of industrialisation and railway construction.

By 1904, the Trans-Siberian linked Moscow to Vladivostok.

As the political tensions in Europe grew, was there an impetus

in Russia to build more railways for strategic reasons?

Yes, in early 20th century

Russia began to build strategic routes towards the borders.

But we didn't do that in time.

When the Great War came to Russia,

Russian transport and railways were not fully prepared.

A lack of standard gauge and poor connections cost the army

crucial defeats as it failed to move troops and supplies quickly enough.

But today, Russia's vast railway network

includes some modernised lines.

A journey that took around 15 hours at the time of my guidebook

now takes less than four.

I'll soon be arriving in St Petersburg.

Bradshaw's tells me it has a population of 1.9 million,

considerably bigger than Moscow at the time.

"The splendid looking metropolis of the Russian empire is

"situated on the river Neva.

"The dead flat upon which the city stands was a morass,

"Occupied by a few fishermen's huts

"when Peter the Great began to build in 1703 a small hut for himself."

The traveller in 1913 could reflect that the Romanov dynasty

had foundations stretching back over three centuries.

But perhaps it was built on boggy ground.

At the turn of the 20th century,

St Petersburg was the capital of Russia,

but it was moved to Moscow in 1918.

Known by turns as Sankt Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad

and St Petersburg again,

in 1913, from this city the entire Russian empire was ruled.

British tourists following my guidebook

would have found a thriving and not entirely unfamiliar place,

this was known as Russia's most western city.

Bradshaw's has a beautifully illustrated advertisement

for the Grand Hotel d'Europe.

I suspect that the name would have reassured

travellers from the Western part of the continent that they

weren't after all coming to anywhere too foreign.

Apparently it has, "Perfect English sanitary arrangements."

It looks now as much as it did,

but I suspect that it's been restored because after all

Leningrad was massively destroyed during World War II.

But I'm hoping that the welcome will be as warm as in 1913.

Dmitri Shostakovich, George Bernard Shaw and Elton John

have all stayed here.

I join an illustrious company for a good night's rest

before exploring St Petersburg tomorrow.

Just a short walk from the hotel is an area attractive to

Edwardian tourists following my guide and to modern travellers too.

Bradshaw says, "From the east of the gardens in front of

"the Admiralty Tower the great Nevsky Prospekt runs off."

A magnificent thoroughfare crowded with sights and it leads us

towards the river Neva and the port.

On the way to the port is the spectacular Winter Palace,

which was the royal family's home for almost 200 years.

Bradshaw tells me, it's also home to the Hermitage Museum

with around 2,000 paintings.

Today, the collection numbers more than three million works of art.

But now to orientate myself, I'm bound for the river.

As I think the best way to explore this city is not on foot...

..but by boat

Few people more deserve the title The Great than Peter

who in a generation after he became Tsar at the end of the 17th century

changed Russia. In particular he modernised it,

having spent quite a long time studying abroad

including a period in Holland,

which led him to found this city St Petersburg based on Amsterdam,

with its lovely canals bisecting the buildings.

Now built on 42 islands.

And St Petersburg, with its magnificent port,

opened Russia to the world.

Peter was the first Tsar to expose Russia to Europe.

St Petersburg's position on the Baltic

provided the perfect gateway.

Fittingly, I'm here on Navy Day,

which marks St Petersburg's long maritime history.

St Petersburg may have been known as the country's European city,

but I want to experience something truly Russian.

I'm heading to the 19th century Nikolaevsky Palace.

Please, sir. Please, sir. This way.

Good start.

LIVELY MUSIC PLAYS

Traditional Russian folk music was popular with tourists 100 years ago,

and still delights the crowds today.

The dances feature Russian characters,

from Cossacks to peasant women.

The music and steps date back to the 18th century.

It seems that audience participation is a must.

The Kadril is a very courteous couples' dance

and, luckily for me,

it's also supposed to be funny!

LAUGHTER

Oop!

CHEERING

It's my final day in Russia

and I'm following my guidebook out of the city.

I'm on my way now to the number one excursion from St Petersburg,

recommend in my Bradshaw's Guide,

towards a pleasant town

where there are two palaces, several churches, hospitals,

benevolent institutions, barracks

and, in the wide streets, many villas.

I'm going towards the so called Tsar's Village - Tsarskoye Selo.

I'm meeting guide Tatyana Alexeyeva.

It was from here that Russia's first ever train departed in 1837,

carrying day-trippers and sightseers to the royal summer destination

of Tsarskoye Selo.

This is the most superb railway station.

But why music in a railway station?

Because when the first railway was built in 1837,

people were afraid to take the train - they thought it was too fast.

So the concerts were organised first to attract people

and to entertain people and then they were invited to take the train.

Many famous musicians performed there, and Johann Strauss

performed for five seasons in the concert hall of Pavlovsk.

This station was remodelled in 1902,

and by the turn of the 20th century,

the railways had become a part of everyday life for many.

Around 1913, would Tsar Nicholas II and his family

-have been going backwards and forwards by train?

-Yes, that's true.

In the 19th century, the tracks were used by everybody

but at the end of the 19th century,

a special third track was built for Nicholas II and his family,

and they had their own train to go from Saint Petersburg

to the summer residence, to Tsarskoye Selo.

By 1913 the royal family was regularly using the railway

to escape to the calm welcome retreat of the Tsar's Village.

And tourists would take the train to admire their palaces.

Did Tsar Nicholas II and his family make a lot of use of this palace?

Yes. Originally this was just a summer residence,

but in 1904, Nicholas II and the family moved to Alexander Palace

and it became their home residence for 12 years.

Why did they like it so much?

You know, the family, they had four girls

and they were waiting for the boy, and finally the boy was born

but it turned out that the boy had haemophilia.

Which was kept in secret.

So the family decided to move away from the city.

The family's move was highly controversial,

not just because they sought the seclusion of their Alexander Palace,

but because there was a new addition to their inner circle -

Grigori Rasputin.

He had a talent of hypnosis, so he had a talent to stop bleeding.

That's why Rasputin was invited to the Russian court,

to the royal family,

as he was kind of the only person who could save the heir of the throne.

Despite his healing abilities, Rasputin, a Siberian holy man,

was known as a hard-drinking womaniser.

His less-than-holy reputation did the Romanovs no favours.

The royal family was always like a sacred family in Russia.

On the other hand, most people couldn't understand why

Rasputin had such strong influence on the royal family.

But there were people in the court who really praised him

because he was kind of a magic person.

He was a healer, he had talent over influencing people.

While the Tsar and Tsarina tried to protect their family here,

St Petersburg was seething with grievances.

Just months after the Tsar left the city,

tensions in the capital produced an explosion.

Back in St Petersburg, I'm meeting former BBC Moscow Correspondent,

Martin Sixsmith, at the Winter Palace.

I want to understand more about events that were so recent

for tourists following my guidebook.

Martin, people talk about a revolution in 1905, what happened?

Well, it wasn't a revolution in the classical sense that it resulted in

a change in the people in power, cos the Tsar stayed in power,

but it was are a wake up call for Tsar Nicholas II

that things were not well in his empire.

What were the events?

Russia had industrialised over the previous couple of decades,

the railways had spread industry across the Russian empire,

and the result of that was that there was a build-up of proletarian workers

in the big cities like St Petersburg.

On the 9th January 1905, hundreds of unarmed workers,

protesting for better conditions, were shot by Tsarist troops.

The event, recreated for cinema in the Soviet Era,

became known as Bloody Sunday,

sparking months of strikes and civil unrest.

That was a real turning point

because most Russians had supported the Tsar.

But then they started to think,

"If he's actually meeting us with bullets and with troops,

"then perhaps he's not the right person to be ruling this country."

-So 1905 puts some writing on the wall.

-It undoubtedly did.

Over the next 12 years, Nicholas failed to implement change.

After 1914, Russia was locked into a costly war with Germany.

By 1917, reformers sought the Tsar's abdication.

He's away at the Front.

He's commanding the Russian forces in the First World War

and he's getting all these terrible messages about things falling apart,

violence on the streets, people protesting, demanding his abdication.

And he seems incredibly calm about this.

And he just doesn't grasp the seriousness of the situation.

But eventually he has to face it?

He does, because a delegation from parliament comes out to meet him.

He is convinced to get a train back from the Front back to Petrograd.

And the Tsar argues and he argues and eventually they convince him

that he has to go.

And on the 3rd March he signs the abdication announcement

and that's the end of 300 years of the Romanov dynasty,

300 years coming to the end in a provincial railway siding.

Germany allowed Lenin to cross its territory in a sealed train,

like a Revolutionary virus, from Switzerland to St Petersburg.

In October, his Bolshevik revolutionaries

entered the Winter Palace in order to depose the provisional government

led by Alexander Kerensky.

This plaque is presumably commemorating that event?

Well, yes, it's a Soviet Era plaque and it says,

"In memory of the storming of the Winter Palace

"by the Revolutionary workers, soldiers and sailors,

"this staircase which opened their way into the palace

"is now called the October Staircase."

This is the Tsar's small dining room and eventually,

around two o'clock in the morning,

the Russians who had wandered into the Winter Palace ended up in here,

and around this table - much to their surprise -

they found about a dozen ministers of the provisional government

sitting here, scribbling notes on the table, looking at each other,

looking rather dejected.

What happened to those ministers?

Well, a sorry fate, as they were all - barring one -

either executed or died in prison.

But their leader, Alexander Kerensky,

managed to escape. He went first to Paris and then to America

and he lived to the ripe old age of 89,

and he died in New York city in 1970.

A very different fate for him.

As the Revolutionaries took over the country,

Nicholas appealed to his cousin, British King George V,

for his family's asylum.

Fearing that revolution might spread to Britain, George refused.

In July 1918, the entire imperial family was murdered

by its Bolshevik guards while under house arrest in Yekaterinburg.

The royal dynasty was snuffed out

and the long Communist chapter in Russia's history had begun.

This excursion has taken me from Tolstoy,

who died in a railway station,

to Tsar Nicholas II, who abdicated in a railway siding.

In 1913, nothing in Bradshaw's

suggested the imminent First World War

nor the murder of the Romanov royal family.

Russia was then plunged into civil war, purges and liquidations.

No train journey in history has had deeper consequences than that

that brought Lenin to St Petersburg in 1917.

I feel I have explored a new Russia.

I've had many surprises,

received a warm welcome,

and had fun.

'Next time, I'm exploring Italy's deep south.

'I'll venture into the mighty Vesuvius...'

I don't want to be nervous

but I can't help noticing that there's a lot of vapour.

'..learn about the true art of pizza...'

-Do you know Picasso?

-I do know Picasso.

You make Picasso, please.

'..confront death and destruction in Messina...'

Modern estimates reckon that perhaps 60,000 or 80,000 were killed.

'..and be all at sea on my train...'

Quite alarming that we're actually sailing

while the bow door is still coming down.

'..before taking my own Roman holiday.'

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN