Latest Episodes
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Episode 12: The First Rasputin. The Tale of Fotii (Spasskii)
As is well known, Grigorii Rasputin wielded a considerable and scandalous level of influence over Tsar Nicholas II. What is less well known is...
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Episode 11: The Great Fair of Nizhnii Novgorod. The Tale of Avgustin Betankur
In 1817, Agustín José Pedro del Carmen Domingo de Candelaria de Betancourt y Molina (known in Russian as Avgustin Betankur) surveyed the site of...
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Episode 10: From Servant to Empress. The Tale of Catherine I
In August 1702, the serving girl Marta came into the possession of a Russian general following a siege. Some twenty-two years later, she was...
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Episode 9: Moscow's Plague. The Tale of Dr Afanasii Shafonskii
Between 1770 and 1772, Moscow saw a virulent outbreak of the Black Death, one of the most feared diseases in European history: Dr Afanasii...
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Episode 8: Shriekers, Demons, and Witches. The Tale of Vasilisa Alekseeva
In the 1890s, the tiny village of Ashchepkovo in western Russia was struck by an epidemic of demonic possession. This episode attempts to understand...
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Episode 7: The Italian Job. The Tale of Raffaele Scassi
In the early nineteenth century, Raffaele Scassi, Genoese gambler and ne'er-do-well, found himself in the newly founded Black Sea port of Odessa. This was...