All language subtitles for russias.wars.s01e01.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_Subtitles01_Unnamed

[narrator] Devastating wars.

Pitiless rulers...

in pursuit of power over centuries.

When Russia takes up arms,
the world holds its breath.

[foreboding theme music playing]

[narrator] The endless
expanse of Russia.

In the 16th Century,
the czar's empire is still young.

After defeating the Mongol nomads,

it expands further eastwards,
beyond the borders of Europe.

Russian Cossacks subdue
the people of Siberia.

By the end of the 17th Century,

Russia stretches all the way
to the Pacific.

Seen from Europe, Russia is a rather
insignificant, peripheral empire.

Inward-looking, with few contacts
with the rest of the continent.

[narrator] This giant country plays
no significant role in Europe.

But its rise to a great power
is imminent.

[woman] If you're looking over Russian

history of warfare,
you're also looking

over the history of warfare,

history of European warfare,
global warfare.

[military drum beating]

[narrator] The Kremlin, Moscow.

The centre of Russian power.

In 1682, Peter Romanov
has himself crowned czar.

History will know him
as Peter the Great.

[man] Pictures give him
a certain sort of solid grandeur,

while in fact, he had a twitch.

He had fits.

He was extremely hyperactive,
kinetic almost.

[narrator] At two meters tall,
he towers over his contemporaries.

And he rules his country
with an iron fist.

[Sebag Montefiore] He was probably
the most talented man ever to be czar

or ruler of Russia.

He had those brilliant qualities
that every politician needs.

He had a vision of
what he wanted to do.

He had the acumen,
the ability to actually do it.

And he had the resources
to achieve what he wanted to.

Everything about
him was extraordinary.

[woman 2] Well, he's Peter the Great.

He is considered...
He was not the first Russian emperor,

but he is considered
"the Russian emperor."

Putin himself recently,
and not even so recently,

compared himself to Peter the Great.

[narrator] Czar Peter
wants to modernize his country.

He takes an early interest
in military and in naval affairs.

His conflict with the Ottoman Empire
culminates in his first war.

His goal: to take the fortress of Azov
east of Crimea,

still strategically significant today.

[man 2] The campaign to take
the fortress of Azov

is a very important
trial run for Peter.

He's testing himself, his own
strategic, military capabilities...

and the options
that he has worked out for himself.

[narrator] The first attempt to take

the fortress from
the land-side, fails.

So Peter builds a fleet
and blockades Asov from the sea.

It works.

In 1696, the Ottoman fortress falls.

It's Peter's first
significant victory.

[man 3]That was the really new thing
under Peter I.

He saw the Russian Empire
as a maritime power too,

that could and must defend
its interests and frontiers at sea.

Prior to that, it hadn't had a fleet.

[narrator] Peter is fascinated
by the West:

its culture and its modern technology.

He decides to travel to Western Europe

to seek know-how
that will benefit his Empire.

As "Peter Michailyov," he finds
work in a shipyard in Holland,

to learn all he can
about shipbuilding.

He really is the first to cultivate
this fascination for western Europe,

or central Europe,
and for European values.

And he's starting a tradition that
extends through the czarist empire

and the Soviet Union
to contemporary Russia.

If you follow Russian media today,
watch Russian talk shows,

one of the most frequently repeated
lines is: "We are Europe."

That goes without saying.

That idea goes back to Peter,
and still holds today.

[narrator] Peter wants to play
in the concert of European powers.

He also wants access to the open sea.

In the year 1700, Peter declares
war on the great power of Sweden.

It controls the land between
Russia and the Baltic Sea.

Peter wants to break that dominance.

In the autumn,
Russian troops march on Narva.

It's the beginning
of the Great Northern War.

[faint sounds of battle]

[narrator] But at the end of October,
the ground has already frozen hard,

making it difficult to dig trenches.

And Russian gunpowder is substandard.

After a heavy snowfall,
the Swedish army

breaks through the
Russian defense line.

It's a painful defeat for the czar.

[Stadelmann] Narva,
at the beginning of the Northern War,

is a disaster for Peter and Russia.

But he reacts in the same way
that he has reacted

to everything else in his life so far.

When something doesn't work,
he sits down, thinks it over,

and works out how
the situation can be bent to his will.

He reforms the army,
he reforms its command structure.

He begins to understand
that superiority in numbers

is becoming less and less significant,

and that modern military technology
is more and more important.

He does everything he can
to modernize the Russian army.

[narrator] And to make it bigger.

The czar raises more
and more recruits.

Bells are taken from the churches
and smelted into cannon,

an early form of total mobilization.

In the summer of 1701,
Peter launches another offensive.

He conquers large parts of Livonia
and Estonia, loyal allies of Sweden.

This is a scorched-earth campaign.

Russian troops burn
towns and villages,

plunder storehouses,
ravage the fields.

Nothing must be left to the enemy.

The scorched-earth policy was
a precisely planned strategy

to make it clear to the Swedes and the
population of the Baltic, the elites,

that Peter possessed
the military power he needed

to take control of the Baltic.

[narrator] It's a tactic that damages
Russia's reputation.

[fire crackling, tense music]

[Sebag Montefiore] It's always
a strategy of Russian warfare.

It's not unique to Russia,
and it's easy to paint the Russians

as complete barbarians at this time.

But in fact, all armies were
pretty chaotically supplied.

But the Russians
took it to another degree.

I mean, there was a civilized
code of warfare in the West.

Peter the Great never
subscribed to that,

and repeatedly, he showed incredible
ruthlessness at crushing opposition.

[narrator] To gain access to the sea,

Peter captures the
fortress of Nyenshanz,

near the mouth of the river Neva
in the Gulf of Finland.

He burns down the whole complex.

[fire crackling, tense music]

Close by,
in the middle of the Neva Delta,

he builds a new fortress...

with a church,
named for the apostles Peter and Paul.

The czar christens this place, which
he has chosen for his new capital,

Saint Petersburg.

[Kusber] So, in the Northern War,

which would go on till 1721,

Czar Peter won
his first foothold on the Baltic Sea.

[narrator] But the Swedish king
is not ready to give up.

He launches a counter-offensive with
a well-equipped army, 40,000-strong.

The Russians make tactical withdrawals
and carry out guerrilla attacks

on the enemy's supply lines.

Wherever the Swedes advance,
they find no food for the army.

Soon, hunger, disease and cold
are decimating the Swedish forces.

[somber music playing]

[narrator] Summer 1709
sees the decisive battle

over Ukraine's Poltava fortress.

The Swedish army now has
only 22,000 soldiers;

the Russians, 42,000.

[Richie] Peter the
Great is victorious.

He's absolutely thrilled.

This immediately becomes part
of the myth of Russia.

He does that very much.

He sets up himself
as a symbol of the great victor.

So Poltava becomes very, very
important in Russian historiography.

And it really is a
very important turning

point in the history
of Europe, after all,

because this is the moment that Russia

really defeats the
Swedes in the Baltic.

This is actually the moment
that Russia becomes a great empire.

[narrator] From now on,
Russia is a European great power.

Saint Petersburg is
its new capital in the west,

and by conquering the Baltic, it
has gained ice-free access to the sea.

The ideal basis for the further
expansion of the Empire.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] About 50 years later,

Russia's position
becomes even stronger.

In 1744, a German princess,
Sophie Frederike of Anhalt-Zerbst,

travels to St Petersburg.

She's betrothed to Peter III,
heir to the Russian throne.

A grandson of Peter the Great.

But first Sophie takes
a Russian name: Ekaterina.

The couple have little in common.

The heir to the throne
seems infantile,

and has no interest in his bride.

[Peter III mimics an explosion]

[narrator] He would rather play
with his tin soldiers.

Their characters, interests and goals

were completely incompatible.

Part of this was undoubtedly
down to the ability and ambition

of the young princess.

From the very start, she was
determined to be more than just

some married-in princess
stuck in a back room.

[narrator] Soon, Catherine speaks
fluent Russian.

She absorbs Russia's traditions
and ways of doing things.

That makes her
popular with the people.

She's educated,
clever and emancipated.

She's got this connection
with the West, with Germany,

but with much of the history
of Western Europe or Central Europe.

And she brings some
of those values and ideas to play

in her transformation of Russia.

She understands what makes
the Netherlands great.

What makes France great.
What makes England great.

What makes a great
empire. The Spanish.

She's learned all that
stuff and she says,

"Okay, I'm going to translate
some of this knowledge

into what I can do for Russia."

[narrator] Catharine isn't reluctant
to get involved in conspiracy

and political murder.

When Peter becomes czar in 1762,

Catherine plots a risky plan
with her lover, Grigory Orlov.

She gets the imperial guard
on her side and deposes Peter,

who shortly thereafter dies
in mysterious circumstances.

Catherine is declared
the new head of state,

and crowns herself czarina.

[tense music playing]

[narrator] The way is now clear
to mould Russia after her own ideas.

[Sebag Montefiore] She wanted to
complete the work of Peter the Great.

And in fact, every ruler since
Peter the Great wanted to emulate him.

Every czar, every general secretary,
every president of independent Russia

wanted to be Peter the Great,
wants to command in warfare.

And few of them have
the ability to do so.

[narrator] In Catherine's time,
Russia is an agrarian country.

Around 90 percent of the population
are peasant farmers.

Serfs on the estates of aristocrats,

they can be conscripted
to fight for the czar.

The rulers can raise an army
whenever they want.

Catherine would like
to abolish serfdom.

But she can't get her way
against the nobles,

and a large, powerful army
will help her achieve her aims.

She plans to expand
the empire southwards.

She wants to build a fortress
on the Black Sea,

as a bastion against the Ottomans.

And of course, Catherine's looking
at the south and saying:

"Crimea looks really
quite interesting.

What can we do down there?"

The overall aim toward the Black Sea
is to get control over the Black Sea,

starting with Asov.

But then, of course, the Crimea,
and then with luck

to be able to get control
over Constantinople,

or at least be able
to control shipping

that goes in and out
of the Black Sea.

This is all to do with power,
to do with trade,

with economic success as well,

and of course, to do with
getting more and more territory,

which makes your country,
your empire, even more important.

In context of today, of course,
getting Crimea is very important.

[narrator] Catherine's
forces move south.

The Russian Baltic Fleet undertakes
the long voyage to the Aegean Sea.

Here, in a battle in 1770, most
of the Ottoman fleet is destroyed.

And finally, in 1783, the Crimea,
the jewel in the crown, is annexed.

[Kusber] Both for its geo-strategic
significance dominating the Black Sea,

and in the mental map
of the Russian elite,

the Crimea is the pearl of the Empire.

The elite, and the
imperial family too,

start building summer
residences there.

[narrator] New cities are founded,
like Odesa and Sevastopol,

as ports for Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Catherine now holds the Gateway to
the Black Sea, and the North Caucasus.

Her lover and companion,
Marshal Potemkin,

starts a major project
of colonization and Russification

of today's southern Ukraine.

He brings in thousands of settlers,
and christens the region,

"Novorossiya," "New Russia,"
in a prestige project.

They say he faked the progress of
development for the czarina's visit.

By constructing settlements that
were no more than painted facades;

so-called "Potemkin Villages."

[Stadelmann]
The Potemkin Villages existed.

They were there to give an impression

of the first fruits of the long-term
policy of colonization.

Actually it's a really modern idea,

if you look ahead
to the 20th and 21st centuries.

The idea of spreading fake news to get
people on your side, to impress them.

[narrator] Czarina
Catherine died in 1796

without achieving her principal goal:

the complete destruction
of the Ottoman Empire.

But her conquests greatly expanded
the Russian Empire.

And so in her own lifetime,

she became known
as "Catherine the Great."

[Kruschcheva] The importance of her,
as with Peter the Great,

Vladimir Putin
mentioned, I think twice,

that Catherine the Great
is his favorite monarch.

He actually takes lessons from her.

I mean, Peter the Great is a great
example, but she is, as he put it,

she was probably
a better empress, because,

as he said, she shed less blood,
but she took on more territories.

[narrator] At the start
of the 19th century,

Napoleon Bonaparte
has Europe in his grip.

France controls great swathes
of the continent.

It has an alliance with Russia.

But there are tensions
between Napoleon

and the Russian czar, Alexander I.

Napoleon gathers a huge army.

Austria and Prussia
are forced to provide troops.

The Grande Armee
numbers half a million men,

far larger than Russia's forces.

[horses neighing]

Napoleon's invasion of Russia

was one of those crazy, maniacal
and stupid moves in history.

I mean, you can chalk it up to
really, really dumb.

So, he's really got
a treaty with Russia.

It looks as if he can actually,
you know, be fine.

But he gets it into his mind
that the Russians are going to

come against France, come against him.

So let's launch a pre-emptive strike.

[narrator] The plan is to mount
a high-speed campaign

followed by a single decisive battle,
to win the war.

On June 14th 1812,

the Grande Armee
crosses Russia's border

at the river Memel.

But Russian forces withdraw
into the wide expanses,

once again leaving
behind scorched earth.

Without supplies,
Napoleon's troops begin to starve.

Russian tactics are successful.

More or less without combat,
the Grande Armee is shrinking.

[Kusber] Napoleon's idea was to
advance deep into the Russian empire,

all the way to its heart, Moscow,
to take Moscow.

And he expected that, as in
his other European campaigns,

he would not only be offered
the keys to the city,

Russia's ancient capital,

but also that a peace offering
would follow.

[narrator] At Borodino,
just 150 kilometers from Moscow,

the Russians confront
the Grande Armee.

Napoleon wins a victory.

But Russia fights stubbornly,
with no concern for losses.

The Grande Armee suffers
almost 30,000 dead or wounded.

The Russians lose around 40,000 men

in one of the 19th century's
bloodiest battles.

Borodino was the
most intense butchery,

the most intense massacre in a battle

until the first day
of the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

It was absolutely a brutal stalemate

in which the Russian and French armies
just blew each other to smithereens

in very close quarters
for a whole day.

[narrator] Napoleon's forces enter
Moscow with no further fighting.

But the evening of their arrival,
the city is in flames.

Once again, it's the Russians'
scorched-earth policy,

denying the invaders any means
of supplying themselves.

Napoleon could only look on.

Not only did the Governor of Moscow
set fire to the city,

but no delegation came
to meet him to negotiate.

[narrator] Napoleon
decides to withdraw.

But the winter causes enormous
losses in his army

through cold and hunger.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator]The Battle
of the River Beresina

is the fatal blow for
the Grande Armee.

By the end, just 18,000 of the
original 450,000 are still alive.

[water rushing]

[narrator] In the annals of Russian
imperial history,

Napoleon's failed campaign will
become known as the "Patriotic War."

It's over.

They've swept the interloper
out of the country.

Hardly anything is left
of the French army.

Survival has turned into triumph.

[Richie] And so this is something
that gives a sense of...

indomitability of the Russians,

the fact that that no army
can really defeat them,

that they are secure and safe within
their geographical boundaries.

And "Look what we did to Napoleon."

And later, of course,
"Look what we did to Hitler."

[narrator] Decades later,

Leo Tolstoy publishes his world-famous
novel "War and Peace."

Before the background
of the war of 1812,

he tells the story of three families,

an epic that both defines
and celebrates the Russian nation.

The novel becomes a bestseller,
frequently adapted for the cinema.

[Sebag Montefiore] Tolstoy was
fascinated by Russian nationhood.

He was fascinated by the history
and the relationship in history

between great forces: nations,
empires, economies, cultures...

and also the effect that single men,
individuals, had on history.

And he's humanizing the Russian nation
through his heroes.

And he's looking
back, adding, in a way

to the mythology of
Russian resistance,

the people's resistance,
but it is also deliberately, in a way,

canonizing the creation
of Russian nationhood.

[narrator] After the patriotic war,

Napoleon's power is shaken
throughout Europe.

In 1813, Russia, with Prussia,
Austria and Sweden,

march against Napoleon's
newly constituted army.

The Battle of the Nations at Leipzig

is one of the greatest battles
in world history.

It marks the end of Napoleon's
domination of Europe.

Along with Prussia and Austria, Russia
is now setting the tone in Europe.

[distant gunfire]

[narrator] Since the time
of Peter the Great,

Russian czars expanded
their empire at sea.

In the first half of the 19th century,
Sevastopol in the Crimea

becomes the most
modern naval base of its time.

[Sebag Montefiore] Sebastopol
became one incredibly proud,

heroic city for Russia.

And that's partly why Sebastopol,

the Crimea,
is so important today to Putin.

But secondly, it had hugely practical
importance, and it still does today,

because the Crimea controls
the entire Black Sea and in effect,

the approaches to Constantinople,
to Istanbul in today's Turkey.

As Russia became the breadbasket
of Europe, growing much of the grain

that was exported in the 19th century
through Odesa;

then Crimea and its
navy were the guards,

the sentinels of that trade.

[narrator] There's one last obstacle

between the Russian navy
and the world's oceans:

In 1850, the Ottomans still control
the bottleneck of the Bosphorus

and the Dardanelles.

Russia's czar sees the Bosphorus
as "the keys to his house."

Nicholas I has a list of demands.

He wants a treaty recognizing Russian
protection of the orthodox Christians

in the Ottoman Empire,
about a third of the population.

The Sultan refuses.

The czar now has an excuse
for military escalation.

The Ottoman Empire was
becoming weaker and weaker.

And in the mid-19th century,
Czar Nicholas I saw an opportunity.

He could finally win control
over the Black Sea,

and the vital access
to the Mediterranean.

[narrator] In autumn 1853,

the Russian Black Sea Fleet
attacks the Ottoman port of Sinope,

setting all the enemy ships on fire.

3,000 Ottoman sailors perish
in a matter of hours.

Just one enemy ship
can flee to Constantinople.

But the battle at Sinope changes
opinions in France and Britain.

For the British, it was quite clear

that Russia must not be allowed
to take control of the Bosporus.

The British, and the British fleet,

had a huge interest in keeping
the Dardanelles open,

both for naval forces,
and also for British merchant ships,

which played a dominant role
in wheat exports,

for example, out of Odesa.

[narrator] England and France
support the Ottoman Empire,

and declare war against Russia.

They seek a long-term reduction
of Russian power in the Black Sea.

The plan is to take
and destroy Sevastopol.

The world has never
seen a war like this.

[Richie] What's happening is,
you're going into the modern world.

You're going into the world
of the industrial revolution.

You're going to the world
of modern armaments, of trains,

of all these other new technological
developments, the telegraph and so on,

which changed the concept
and the makeup of warfare.

[narrator] The Crimea becomes
the first European media war.

British reporters like William
H. Russell send dispatches

direct from the front lines.

And for the first time, there are
photographs of a campaign.

Because of the long exposure times,
military action can't be shown.

But the photos still give
a brand new insight into war.

The public in Britain and France,

getting their information
from war reporting,

followed the war with great interest

and a good deal of patriotism
for their own armies.

But they were also shown the reality
of trench and siege warfare.

[narrator] The Russians
build up Sevastopol

into an apparently
impregnable fortress.

An integrated defense system
combining artillery batteries

and trench networks.

Industrialization makes the
Crimean War a conflict of technology

with new and deadly weapons.

The British Lee-Enfield rifle, for
example, has a range of 1000 meters.

This muzzle-loader is far superior
to Russian muskets

with their 200-meter range.

Actually, they now
commanded mass armies,

huge armies that were heavily armed
with new rifles and new artillery.

[narrator] The siege of Sevastopol is
conducted under appalling conditions.

Cholera and dysentery kill thousands

of soldiers, including
senior officers.

But the battle for the port continues.

The young Leo Tolstoy
volunteers to defend the city.

In his "Sevastopol
Sketches," he writes:

"Above their heads
was the lofty, starry sky,

across which flashed the
fiery streaks of artillery shells."

[threatening music playing]

Tolstoy's "Sevastopol Sketches"
gave Russian readers

the first realistic picture
of what went on there.

It was no exaggeratedly patriotic,

romanticizing portrait
of Russian heroism,

of soldiers happy to throw themselves
into battle and sacrifice themselves,

but rather it showed the suffering,
the groaning, the screaming and dying.

[narrator] The siege of Sevastopol
lasts almost a year.

Finally, after bitter fighting, French
forces breach the defensive ring.

The defeated Russians blow up
their positions and leave the city.

Sebastopol is reduced to rubble.

In Russia, it becomes
a symbol of Russian resistance.

Leo Tolstoy writes:

"As they left Sevastopol,

almost every soldier
looked back, sighing,

inexpressible bitterness in his heart,
and shaking his fist at the enemy."

Sebastopol was so important.

It was Catherine and Potemkin's City.

It was the naval base
of the Russian empire.

And it still has that prestige today.

Hence, Putin was so keen...

You know, the Crimea,
for Putin, is Sebastopol.

[narrator] For the time being,
the end of the war

halts Russia's plans for expansion.

The czar is forced to recognize the
independence of the Ottoman Empire.

[Kusber] In the Treaty of Paris
at the end of the Crimean War

Russia has to accept the
demilitarization of the Black Sea,

so it can no longer have
a Black Sea Fleet.

But what was more devastating
for Russia's self-respect

was the humiliation of being defeated
in the Crimea, their own territory,

by France and Britain, and above all,
by the Ottoman Empire,

that they had considered
militarily and culturally inferior.

[narrator] The Crimean War may have
marked the birth of modern sanitation.

But by the time it was over,
an estimated 70,000 Russian soldiers

and 90,000 British and French
had lost their lives.

Because of the new technology
and high losses,

the Crimean War is considered
the first modern war.

But in the coming decades,
the toll of armed conflicts

would dramatically increase.

At the end of the 19th century, Czar
Nicholas II ascends to the throne.

Imperialism is reaching its peak.

Unlike other European Great Powers,
Russia has no overseas colonies,

but it has central Asia.

The czar rules the largest
continuous land-mass on Earth.

And he wants to extend his empire.

Especially in the Far East.

And then they start building
the trans-Siberian railway

and see that as the
real colonial empire.

Other states, the British, the French,
the Germans, start taking over Africa.

The Russians, so to speak,
see their Africa in Asia.

[narrator] The czar occupies Manchuria
and leases Port Arthur from China.

It is to be the main base
for Russia's Pacific Fleet.

Korea, too, has opened its borders
to Russian troops,

and is trading with Russia.

Japan views Russian expansion
as a threat.

[Sebag Montefiore] What Nicholas II
didn't understand

was that there was a dynamic
new power in the east: Japan.

That, with British naval know-how and
the latest weaponry and technology,

was more than a
match for the Russians.

And that clash was to be disastrous
for the Russians.

[narrator] In February 1904

the Japanese fleet attacks Russian
ships at Port Arthur with torpedoes,

unleashing the Russo-Japanese War.

The Japanese attacked
without declaring war,

setting a precedent
they would repeat

at Pearl Harbor in
the Second World War.

To that extent, it was a surprise.

But it was clear that war was coming.

Russia had embraced the possibility
of a Far Eastern war,

and was prepared to risk it.

[narrator] Japanese forces
approach Port Arthur over land.

For more than 150 days,
they besiege the city.

When the Russians realize
they have no chance of breaking out,

the czar scuttles
his Pacific Fleet in the harbor.

Then, the diverted Russian Baltic
Fleet is tracked down by the Japanese,

and almost entirely destroyed.

This prestige fleet, so miserably,
so hopelessly destroyed, sunk.

By the end, all the vessels
of two great fleets

lie at the bottom of the sea.

And to add insult to injury,

the Japanese then raise the ships and
integrate them into their own fleet.

That is a humiliation
on an almost unimaginable scale.

[narrator] The defeat has serious
consequences for Russia.

Broad strata of the population begin
to question the autocratic authority

of the czar.

Internal resistance is growing, with
calls for political participation,

civil rights, and a
better food supply.

The czar responds with defiance.
His troops fire on demonstrators.

[Sebag Montefiore] When he repressed
the revolutions in 1905,

when he retook Russia from the rebels,

he did so with absolute brutality.

And that made him extremely
unpopular with many people.

He already had a bad reputation
for being a loser.

But now he also added
the reputation for being a butcher.

[Stadelmann] The czar's
basic failure to understand

is underlined by the fact

that he showed
not the slightest regret or remorse.

Instead he didn't try
to conceal his anger

at the insubordination
of these impudent workers,

who had the temerity to trouble
him over something like this.

And it is at this
point, at the latest,

that even his closest advisors
at court realize how far their ruler

has lost contact with reality.

[exciting music playing]

[narrator] Resistance is growing,
even in military circles.

In the summer of 1905,

sailors on the cruiser Potemkin
mutiny in the Black Sea,

events recreated in the silent film
"Battleship Potemkin."

When the ship arrives in Odesa,
in the middle of a general strike,

czarist troops wreak a bloodbath
among the civilian population.

[Stadelmann] Subsequently, of course,

this mutiny won special prominence

through Sergei Eisenstein's
masterful film.

A mutiny, the workers' march in
January, the peasants' uprisings.

All that together worked
to create the impression

that things couldn't go on like this.

[narrator] As the pressure
on the streets grows,

the czar seems to give in.

In his October Manifesto in 1905,
the czar promises civil rights

and an elected legislative assembly:
the Duma.

We can see what Czar Nicholas
thought of the Duma

by the fact that he never visited it.

But In April 1906, when it first met,

he summoned the Duma to the
throne room of the Winter Palace.

And he addressed
them, from the throne,

and told them what they could
and couldn't do.

[narrator] The 1905 revolution fails.

Conservative and nationalist circles
around the czar block real reform.

Nicholas has formed
an alliance with France,

and also an arrangement with Britain,

an informal pact
known as the Triple Entente,

facing the Triple Alliance of Germany,
Italy and Austria-Hungary.

June 28th, 1914.

A fateful day for Europe.

The heir to the Austrian throne,
Franz Ferdinand, and his wife,

are on an official visit
to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.

They are assassinated in their
open car by a young Bosnian Serb.

Austria-Hungary plans its response:
a lightning-fast victory over Serbia.

But Russia declares itself
Serbia's protector.

The czar orders a
general mobilization.

We historians have
argued for a century

how to explain the outbreak
of the First World War,

and we've still haven't got
an explanation everyone can agree on.

So, it seems to be very complex.

My own conclusion is that
all of the Great Powers,

there were five of them,

could have prevented the war.

And to a different extent,
all of them bear responsibility

for the outbreak of
war, including Russia.

After all, the Russians were prepared
to risk a great war over Serbia,

and the same was true
of the Austrians, and the Germans,

and finally also the
French and British.

[narrator] In the First World War,
Russia fights

alongside its allies France and
Britain, against Germany and Austria.

The czar's army is
the world's largest.

But his troops are badly trained
and poorly equipped,

and the command structure is outdated.

Nevertheless, in 1914,

the Russians advance
to Tannenberg in East Prussia.

The Russians mobilize,

and they advance much faster
than the Germans expected,

and they march into
East Prussia on two fronts.

At first, the Germans panic

and transfer troops
from the Western Front.

But then superior German tactics
encircle and destroy

one of the two Russian armies
at Tannenberg,

taking more than 90,000 prisoners.

[narrator] On the eastern front,
the Russian and German empires

reach a stalemate.

In the first year of war, the Russians
lose 1.4 million dead and wounded.

The Germans take around 980,000
Russian soldiers prisoner.

[Neitzel] In fact the czar's army
isn't equipped for this modern war.

For instance they have no
heavy artillery, unlike the Germans.

The Russians have
some success fighting

the Austrians but not
against the Germans.

[narrator] In 1915,
Czar Nicholas takes over

supreme command of the armed forces

and takes himself to the front line.

[Neitzel] That was
certainly a bad idea.

His generals advised against it,

because Nicholas
had no military experience.

Some sovereigns
have been effective

war leaders, but he
wasn't one of them.

Then he did let the generals
have their way,

but he had to take the blame
for Russian defeats.

[narrator] By the beginning of 1917,

with the morale of the troops
at rock bottom,

Russia is a tinder-box.

The lack of reform
and food shortages at home

are stoking resentment
against the czar's regime.

There are almost daily mass protests,
hunger marches and strikes.

When police and soldiers begin
to mutiny and join the protesters,

Czar Nicholas follows the advice
of his generals and abdicates.

350 years of absolute rule
have come to an end.

A provisional government puts the czar
and his retinue under house arrest.

The crisis grows.

In April 1917,

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin returns to St
Petersburg from exile in Switzerland.

The leader of the Bolsheviks
urges the takeover of the country

by workers, soldiers and peasants.

[Sebag Montefiore] And he promised
the three things

that the Russians most wanted:
bread, land and peace.

[narrator] He positions himself openly
against the provisional government.

Now we have chaos,
crisis, complete revolution.

The czar has been overthrown,
that was unimaginable.

Lenin must privately
have admitted that

he could never believe that possible.

And now he has the chance to act.

[narrator] The real strategist
of revolution is Leon Trotsky.

In October 1917, he sets up
a military organization:

the military-revolutionary committee,
the MRK.

Right across the country
Bolsheviks seize power violently.

Actually, Leon Trotsky's
great achievement

was knowing which
bridges, post offices

and train stations in St Petersburg

had to be occupied,

so that they could
surround the remains

of the collapsing
provisional government

inside the Winter Palace

and take it quietly,
and without bloodshed.

[narrator] After the revolution, Lenin

and Trotsky must
consolidate their power,

over the whole country,
as quickly as possible.

And so they end the unpopular war
without consulting their allies.

At Brest-Litovsk, they sign
a separate treaty with the Germans.

With this treaty,
Russia loses everything

it has gained since Peter the Great.

They lose all the non-Russian parts
of the empire.

They're forced back to the core
of purely Russian territory.

And of course, all this is
a terrible defeat for Russia.

Losing their European lands means
losing a very large amount of industry

and a big part of their population.

And the Bolsheviks are clear
that they're doing this

because their priority
is to win the civil war.

But this is a peace
they won't accept in the long run.

[narrator] In the coming years,

Russia's new rulers will do
all they can to reverse these losses.

But first they have to fight
for power inside the country.

"White" forces, loyal to the czar,
rise up against the Bolsheviks.

By 1918, Russia is in the grip
of a terrible civil war.

The Bolsheviks have imprisoned
Czar Nicholas and his family

in Yekaterinburg,
2000 kilometers from St Petersburg.

They spend their days locked up in
a modest villa, under constant guard.

[Sebag Montefiore] Nicholas
had already been overthrown.

He lost power.

He was discredited politically,
but in an autocratic system,

the czar, the autocrat,
always had the potential to return.

He was the sacred monarch.

He was potentially more significant
than he was in actuality.

Lenin understood that Nicholas II

could be a rallying banner
for the opposition.

[narrator] The Bolsheviks
must at all costs

prevent the czar falling into
the hands of the "White Armies."

They are afraid that the "Whites"
could use the czar

as the figurehead
of a counter-revolution.

Lenin and the Bolsheviks decide to
murder the czar and his entire family.

He wasn't a great czar, but because
he was killed, he became a martyr.

I think it was important for world
history, in a sense that it showed...

Not that we needed more evidence,
but it showed the brutality

of the new incoming Soviet state, the
state of dictatorship of proletariat.

[narrator] More than 350 years
of czarist rule have come to an end.

In the wake of the civil war

a new Russian empire arises,
that will become a global power.