x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Tales from Imperial Russia

Tales from Imperial Russia is a fortnightly podcast narrating ordinary and extraordinary lives from the Russian Empire. In episodes about 10-30 minutes long, we will avoid the oft-retold stories of emperors and battles to focus on the mostly forgotten lives of individuals from an amazing array of locales, peoples, and circumstances. This podcast is written and performed by Dr James White, a professional historian. For my academic articles, please see: https://ut-ee.academia.edu/JamesWhite

history

All Episodes

00:23:21

Episode 26: Spectres of Empire. The Tale of Father...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2025/10/30

A ghost was plaguing the household of Father Ioann Solov'ev, the parish priest of the tiny hamlet of Lychentsy, in November 1900...floating objects, strange fires, disembodied voices, fleshy masses materialising in beds. Exorcisms, guards, the police...nothing seemed to work. In this special Halloween episode, we look at other haunted house stories from the late Russian Empire, explaining their prominence and popularity with reference to both popular

en

00:44:45

Episode 25: Defeating the Demon Drink. The Tale of...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2025/10/07

Everyone in the late Russian Empire was in agreement: the country had a vodka problem. But what were its causes and how should it be dealt with? For answers, many turned to Ivan Churikov, a peasant who became a St Petersburg faith healer after suffering personal tragedy. But his attempts to form a sobriety movement involved him in an endless struggle with the Orthodox Church, one that occasionally cost him his freedom. In this episode, we follow Churikov

en

00:44:45

Episode 25: Defeating the Demon Drink. The Tale of...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2025/10/07

Everyone in the late Russian Empire was in agreement: the country had a vodka problem. But what were its causes and how should it be dealt with? For answers, many turned to Ivan Churikov, a peasant who became a St Petersburg faith healer after suffering personal tragedy. But his attempts to form a sobriety movement involved him in an endless struggle with the Orthodox Church, one that occasionally cost him his freedom. In this episode, we follow Churikov

en

00:40:09

Episode 24: City under Siege. The Tale of Rudolph...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2025/08/12

In 1704, Colonel Rudolph Felix Bauer found himself involved in the siege of Tartu, one of the many battles of the Great Northern War between Russia and Sweden. This tale tells of how Bauer came to be before the bloody walls of Tartu while also recounting the trevails of the siege itself. Sources M. Laidre, The Great Northern War and Estonia: The Trials of Dorpat 1700-1708, trans P. Ruustal (Tallinn: Argo, 2010) R. Slavnitskii, ‘Deistviia Russikh voisk v

en

00:24:52

Episode 23: The Other Rasputin. The Tale of Iliodor...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2023/12/08

Between 1905 and 1912, the monk Iliodor (Trufanov) set Russia ablaze with his inflammatory right-wing rhetoric, causing scandal after scandal. In this episode, we follow Iliodor's remarkable life from humble beginnings to would-be assassin of Grigorii Rasputin.Sources S. Dixon, ‘The “Mad Monk” Iliodor in Tsaritsyn’ in S. Dixon, ed., Personality and Place in Russian Culture: Essays in Memory of Lindsey Hughes (London: Modern Humanities Research Association for the UCL School

en

00:36:20

Episode 22: From Riches to Ruin. The Tale of Ivan...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2023/11/24

In 1796, the merchant Ivan Tolchenov was secreted in his magnificent mansion in Dmitrov, hiding from his creditors. This episode seeks to understand how Ivan lost his enormous fortune, along the way shedding light into the lives of Russian merchants in the second half of the eighteenth century. Source David L. Ransel, A Russian Merchant’s Tale. The Life and Adventures of Ivan Alekseevich Tolchenov, Based on His Diary (Bloomington and Indianopolis: Indiana University Press, 2009)

en

00:30:47

Episode 21: Empire of Light and Colour. The Tale of...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2023/11/10

The colour photographs of Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii fascinated the imperial public of the early 20th century, persuading Emperor Nicholas II to sponsor expeditions across the empire to chronicle in glorious colour daily life in his realm. In this episode, we follow the life of Prokudin-Gorskii, while also considering the development of photography in the Russian Empire. Photographs For the Library of Congress' digitalisation of Prokudin-Gorskii's pictures, please see:

en

00:50:56

Episode 20: Genteel Country Lives. The Tale of the...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2023/10/29

Andrei and Natalia Chikhachev, middling nobles, spent their lives running their small estate of Dorozhaevo in Vladimir province and raising their family. In this episode, we use their copious notes and diaries to understand what it meant to be a 'normal' provincial noble in the Russian Empire in the mid-nineteenth century, considering their work lives, their past-times, and their relationship with the world around them. Source Kate Pickering-Antonova, An Ordinary Marriage: The World of a Gentry

en

00:53:49

Episode 19: Strike! The Tale of Vasilii Gerasimov

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2023/10/12

Abandoned in 1852 when scarcely two weeks old, Vasilii Gerasimov ultimately became a child worker at the Kreenholm cotton factory, where he worked for 8 years. In 1872, he was a participant in a labour strike at this plant. After leaving, he became a revolutionary propagandist in St Petersburg before being sentenced to exile and hard labour in Siberia. In this episode, we chart Gerasimov's life, paying particular attention to the Kreenholm strike of 1872. Source R. E. Zelnik, Law and Disorder on the

en

00:38:32

Episode 18: Russia's Last Troubadour. The Tale of...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2023/09/29

The 1804/1818 song collection of Kirsha Danilov introduced the Russian reading public, in many ways for the first time, to the people's immensely rich tradition of fairy tales, historical legends, and bawdy satires: these stories and their motifs have gone not only to influence great writers, poets, painters, and composers, but generation after generation of children. But who was Kirsha Danilov? In this episode, we follow the biography of this great bard to the Ural factories of the mid-eighteenth

en

00:38:41

Episode 17: Sex, Murder, and Orthodoxy. The Tale of...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2023/09/16

On 1 December 1911, the priest's wife Zinaida Troitskaia was found murdered in the backwoods village of Alajõe in eastern Estland province. This episode charts the scandalous details found by the investigation and asks what they tell us about the private lives of the rural Russian Orthodox clergy. This episode is based on my article for the website Deep Baltic. This can be found at:

en

00:25:14

Episode 16: Insulting the Tsar. The Tale of Vasilii...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2023/09/07

In this episode, we examine the history of lèse-majesté (insulting the honour of the tsar, his family, and his image) in imperial Russia through the story of Vasilii Zverev, an unfortunate factory worker who took the tsar's name in vain during a heated quarrel in 1908. Tracing the history of these crimes back to the early eighteenth century, we ask what these affronts to imperial virtue tell us about the people of the empire, the state that so harshly prosecuted these crimes, and

en

00:14:41

Episode 15: The Afterlife of a Tsar. The Tale of...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2022/01/11

In this episode, we look at the story of the oddly refined peasant wanderer Fedor Kuzmich, who was claimed by many to be the dead tsar Alexander I. The myth and its staying power are rooted in several sources, not least the peculiar circumstances of the emperor's death and popular conceptions of monarchy. Source M. P. Rey, Alexander I: The Tsar Who Defeated Napoleon (trans. S. Emanuel. DeKalb: NIU Press, 2016)

en

00:30:20

Episode 14: Of Scots, Steam, and Gold. The Tale of...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2021/10/29

On Easter morning 1831, Joseph Major was murdered in his Urals home. A Scottish engineer, he had lived for 26 years in the gateway to Siberia, producing that most modern of devices, the steam engine, for a variety of Russian enterprises. In this episode, I talk about how foreign technology, Russian ingenuity, and massive industrial colonization created the conditions in which Major lived and worked. Sources: F. B. Bondarenko, V. P. Mikitiuk, V. A. Shkerin, Britanskie mekhaniki v predprinimateli na

en

00:27:25

Episode 13: The Apostle of Vegetarianism. The Tale of...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2021/10/22

From the 1890s, the Russian Empire saw an outburst of interest in vegetarianism, especially since it was being propounded by famous figures like the novelist Leo Tolstoi and the painter Il'ia Repin. In this episode, I talk about the spread of vegetarianism, the opening of new vegetarian eateries, splits within the movement, and its external opponents. Sources for information and quotes: J. Malitska, ‘Mediated Vegetarianism: The Periodical Press and New Associations in the Late Russian

en

00:22:59

Episode 12: The First Rasputin. The Tale of Fotii...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2021/09/17

As is well known, Grigorii Rasputin wielded a considerable and scandalous level of influence over Tsar Nicholas II. What is less well known is that this was not the first time that a holy man managed to worm his way into the good graces of an emperor and create destructive consequences. This episode follows the life and career of Fotii (Spasskii), a monk who was able to persuade Tsar Alexander I to turn against one of his oldest and closest friends. Sources: J. L. Wieczynski, ‘Apostle of

en

00:31:54

Episode 11: The Great Fair of Nizhnii Novgorod. The...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2021/09/01

In 1817, Agustín José Pedro del Carmen Domingo de Candelaria de Betancourt y Molina (known in Russian as Avgustin Betankur) surveyed the site of one of his most important engineering projects, the future Nizhnii Novgorod Trade Fair. In this episode, we move from Betankur's impressive architectural designs to daily life at the fair, tracing the ribaldry, revelry, and rampuctiousness that made this fair one of the marvels of the Russian Empire. Source: A. Lincoln Fitzpatrick, The Great

en

00:21:40

Episode 10: From Servant to Empress. The Tale of...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2021/08/18

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 crowned Empress Catherine I of all Russia. In this episode, we follow the remarkable story of this woman and the men who fell in love with her, especially Peter the Great. Source: I. Pavlenko, Ekaterina I (Moscow: Molodaia Gvardiia, 2004)

en

00:32:46

Episode 9: Moscow's Plague. The Tale of Dr Afanasii...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2021/04/30

Between 1770 and 1772, Moscow saw a virulent outbreak of the Black Death, one of the most feared diseases in European history: Dr Afanasii Shafonskii was tasked with battling this epidemic. In this episode, we follow the plague's progress as it caused death, deprivation, and revolt in Russia's biggest city. The principal source for this episode and all of the quotes is: J. T. Alexander, Bubonic Plague in Early Modern Russia: Public Health and Urban Disaster (Oxford: Oxford University Press,

en

00:24:44

Episode 8: Shriekers, Demons, and Witches. The Tale...

Tales from Imperial Russia ·

2021/04/16

In the 1890s, the tiny village of Ashchepkovo in western Russia was struck by an epidemic of demonic possession. This episode attempts to understand this and other cases of malign spells by entering the mystical and magical world of the Russian peasantry. Sources: C. Worobec, Possessed: Women, Witches, and Demons in Imperial Russia (DeKalb: Illinois University Press, 2003) V. Kivelson, Desperate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,

en

27 results

Similar Podcasts

The Old Front Line

Paul Reed

Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors

جنود خلدهم التاريخ

ALSUMOOD PODCAST

Film History - Daily

Inception Point Ai

Madonna - Audio Biography

Inception Point Ai