71. War and Peace and Conservatism in Russia's 19th Century - Part I

Tolstoy's War and Peace is a symbol, a reflection and an expression of a Russian Golden Age in the 19th century. Its story of the events of Russia's defeat of Napoleon's invasion of 1812 is well-known, and this great novel is one of many great cultural artefacts of an extraordinary cultural flowering of the Russian Empire. Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, Mendel and so many more. The real history of Russia in the nineteenth century is even more intriguing than Tolstoy's novel, and far richer than the autocratic black legend of Russian history. This two-episode discussion explains the big events from the assassination of Emperor Paul I in 1801 to the ascension of the last Romanov, Nicholas II. And it presents both the myths and the truths of Tolstoy's War and Peace, as empire, nation, conservatism, liberalism, intelligentsia and serfs struggle for the spirit of the Russian people.