BBC's radio series on Russian history

[Rooster]

I'm not sure where to put this but, well...

Has anyone listened to the BBC's The Wild East - Russia: The Wild East radio programme? I'll post a link but you'll only get this in the UK:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01130qp/Russia_The_Wild_East_Russia_The_Wild_East_Omnibus_ The_Road_to_Revolution/

It's very very very biased, especially in favour of Kerensky. Calling him a liberal reformer and what not, describing Lenin as a manic depressive coward and such.

Here is the blurb for it:


From the BBC

In the final week of the first part of BBC Radio 4's major new series on the History of Russia, the momentum is all towards revolution.

After centuries of unbending autocratic government Nicholas II creates an embryonic parliament - an astounding leap forward. Unrest abates and the economy recovers. Martin Sixsmith reflects, "For a brief moment the vision of the Russian empire as a sort of British constitutional monarchy looked enticingly possible. Had it been offered earlier and more willingly - it might just have worked." Instead it is seen as too little too late.

Sixsmith stands where the revolutionaries stood and paints this picture: "On the 18th of October 1905, a young Jewish intellectual with a small goatee beard, a thick head of black hair and intense dark eyes rose to address an unruly assembly of striking workers here in the Technological Institute in Saint Petersburg." That man was Lev Bronstein, better known by the pseudonym Leon Trotsky. He and Lenin were agitating for the whole Tsarist system to be swept away.

After the assassination of his uncle, Tsar Nicholas retreats from public view for eight years, but remains under the influence of his wife and her faith in the maverick and dissolute holy man, Grigory Rasputin. When the Prime Minister is assassinated at Kiev Opera House, imperial Russia's last attempt at political liberalism comes to an irrevocable end.

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking

Producers: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.

I suppose it's more or less factually correct but there's a really biased reading of history here. It's kinda shocking actually. It's as bad as Robert Service. You can stick complaints in. If I get some time then I'll transcribe some of it for comrades who can't listen to this.

[Rooster]

Ah wait, that's the blurb for the episode called 5. The Road to Revolution.

This is one for 24. Lenin's Return.



Chaos follows the abdication of the Tsar, and it is into this chaos that Lenin returns from exile. The programme opens with a series of telegrams from the German foreign ministry which reveal that Berlin saw Lenin as a 'secret weapon', a 'dangerous virus' that would foment revolution forcing Russia to withdraw from the war, and so the Germans put him on the legendary sealed train bound for St Petersburg.

But Lenin was most certainly not in control. No one was in control.

Tsarism had collapsed but the revolutionaries were far from united. The Provisional Government was trying to create Russia's first western style law-governed state: their "liberal idealism was impeccable," muses Martin Sixsmith, "but the middle of a world war with revolutionary chaos on the streets was not the easiest moment to introduce democracy."

The opposition was divided between the Mensheviks who wanted to go through a phase of capitalist democracy before true revolution ushered in the nirvana of socialism. The Bolsheviks, at that stage minor players, had more idea of what they wanted to destroy than what they wanted to create. But Lenin seized the moment: "All power to the soviets!" was his dramatic conclusion that has resonated through Russian history. He was already plotting a Bolshevik coup to take control and boldly promised Land, Peace, Bread and Freedom. This gave him the popular support he needed to have a real chance of taking power.

But then he ran away. Sixsmith draws on comments by Nikolai Valentinov, a friend of Lenin, which hint at a manic depressive side to Lenin's character to explain it. It puts things on hold, the Bolsheviks go underground, but by October, the pressure for change was unstoppable.

[Die Neue Zeit]

The current Russian political consensus on Nicholas II and Kerensky is more definitive than the idiocy of British liberalism on the subject. Both politicians were weak and were cowards themselves.

[Red Future]

God almighty -The BBC is turning into Fox News gradually , History and Goverment Policy in Britain are intwined with the BBC as its mouthpiece.


"For a brief moment the vision of the Russian empire as a sort of British constitutional monarchy looked enticingly possible".

That was funny

[Die Neue Zeit]

There's a reason why Gorbachev is still seen as weak.

[Red Future]

Honestly though "The wild east?" smacks of 19th century imperialist jargon of the "Great game" against Russia.

[Rooster]

Does anyone know anything about the historical consultant Geoffrey Hosking?

The BBC amazes me sometimes with it's claims to be objective.

[Vanguard1917]

I'd say this is evidence of dumbing down, but philistinism is nothing new at the BBC Radio 4 -- contrary to popular belief, of course.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Isn't philistinism the pastime of British historians? :p

[Red Future]

Isn't philistinism the pastime of British historians? :p

That and verbally shitting on the works of Great Revolutionaries while making no contribution improve to the world except expanding thier own bloated ego by publishing more books and then installing extra security in thier mansion to guard this newfound welth and to keep the mob away

[Red Future]

Sorry that was a rant agaisnt the Tory clique of Academics

[Rooster]

I think the main problem is that the BBC is run by public school boys. I tried to apply for a job at the BBC's political news arm and the guy asked me why didn't the Tories get a higher vote in Scotland. I pointed out numerous historical arguments and such but it turned out the correct answer (becaue I saw him years later saying this at a lecture) was "I don't know". The BBC is really an arm of the establishment despite it claiming not to be, because it shares the fundamental class interests as the establishment.

[Tifosi]

The BBC is really an arm of the establishment despite it claiming not to be, because it shares the fundamental class interests as the establishment.

And the ruling class is happy with what the BBC is saying. The US state department has rewarded the BBC by helping to fund the BBC World Service. (http://m.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/20/bbc-world-service-us-funding?cat=media&type=article) It shows that the BBC is saying all the things the ruling class want it to.