With the current conflict in Ukraine, we focus in on Russia and Ukraine’s changing interactions with the world around them through the centuries. Find nine podcast episodes from our archive below…
The Ukrainian famine
In this 2017 podcast, historian Anne Applebaum discusses her book Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine, which charts the events of the devastating 1932–33 famine in Soviet Ukraine – a man-made catastrophe in which almost 4 million people lost their lives.
Cold war mind games
Martin Sixsmith explores the role of psychology in the Cold War, from propaganda and paranoia to a divided mindset and unpredictable decisions made by unstable leaders.
More articles about the history of the Russia-Ukraine crisis:
- Russia-Ukraine crisis: 9 milestone moments in history that explain today’s invasion
- “Russia has always refused to let Ukraine go”: Keith Lowe on the long roots of today’s crisis
- Nato, Russia, and the history of the post-WW2 tensions
The Cold War: everything you wanted to know
From espionage across the Iron Curtain, to the global struggles between communists and capitalists, Michael Goodman responds to your questions on the decades of geopolitical tension that shaped relations between east and west in the second half of the 20th century, as part of our series tackling the big questions on major historical topics.
The Cuban Missile Crisis: everything you wanted to know
Historian Mark White responds to listener queries and popular search enquiries about the Cold War nuclear confrontation between the US and the USSR.
How US-Russian relations fractured in the 1990s
Mary Sarotte talks about her book Not One Inch, which reveals how diplomatic missteps after the fall of the Berlin Wall soured US-Russian relations and fuelled the rise of Vladimir Putin.
The Russian revolution: everything you wanted to know
Historian Robert Service responds to listener queries and popular search enquiries about the Russian revolutions of 1917, which saw Tsar Nicholas II deposed and the beginnings of the Communist era.
Poland, 1939: World War Two begins
Roger Moorhouse tells the story of one of the most misunderstood campaigns of the Second World War – the German and Soviet invasions of Poland in 1939.
1983: the Cold War almost goes nuclear
Taylor Downing describes the events of the Able Archer scare, which nearly witnessed global Armageddon when the Soviets misread the intentions behind a NATO war exercise.
Chernobyl: the story of a tragedy
Serhii Plokhy, author of an award-winning book on the 1986 Soviet nuclear disaster, explores the causes and consequences of the Chernobyl accident and offers his thoughts on the accuracy of the 2019 television drama.