The Time of Troubles, or Smuta, was a period of political crisis in the Tsardom of Russia which began in 1598 with the death of Feodor I, the last of the Rurik dynasty, and ended in 1613 with the accession of Michael I of the House of Romanov. Millions would die and the entire thing makes game of thrones look tame.
Travel to Italy With Me here
Travel to Jap ... Show More
Aug 17
The Dog Meat General: Craziest Leader in Chinese History
Meet Zhang Zongchang—the warlord so unhinged, so chaotic, that his own soldiers called him "72-Cannon Zhang" while everyone else just called him the Dog Meat General. Standing nearly 6'6" in an era when most Chinese men were a foot shorter, this mountain of a man ruled China's Sh ... Show More
25m 32s
Oct 2023
90. The Russian Revolution: Overthrowing the Tsar
Russian politics is fast destabilising. Strikes, assassinations, and famines have made Russia increasingly turbulent at the turn of the century. Revolutionary politics is on the rise, as is dissatisfaction with the tsar. When compounded by the strains of the defeat in the Russo-J ... Show More
56m 1s
Mar 2022
161. Yeltsin, Economic Chaos and President Putin
[Episode 3 of 4]
'You certainly won't understand what ordinary Russians see in Vladimir Putin if you don't understand what happened in the 1990s. A time of utter, utter collapse.'
In part three of our Soviet Union, Russia and Putin series, Tom and Dominic drill down into the d ... Show More
37m 33s
Feb 2024
Ivan the Terrible | The Sources of Evil
<p>Two men stood in a large room shouting at one another, raging over family and war or accusing each other of incompetence and cowardice. A third man stood nearby, servant of one and friend to both. In a corner, a young woman cowered with her face bruised and her body shaking. A ... Show More
18m 58s