Saint Petersburg: Putin's Hometown
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Founded by Peter the Great, the city of Saint Petersburg was built to rival the majesty of any capital in Europe. Its splendour made it a hub of Russian culture, and its geography made it a focal point for industry. It's factories would jump-start the revolutions that ushered in the Soviet era, and in the wake of a devastating Nazi siege, the recovering city would birth the man who lead Russia into the 21st century - Vladimir Putin.
Joining us is Sinclair McKay, author of 'Saint Petersburg: Sacrifice and Redemption in the City That Defied Hitler'. He takes us through the turbulent history of this magnificent city, from its founding right up to the present day.
Warning: this episode contains graphic descriptions that some listeners may find disturbing.
Produced and edited by James Hickmann.
Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here - https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.
You can also email the podcast directly at [email protected].
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Acast recommends. |
| 0:02.0 | Hi, my name's Paloma Faith and this is my new show. |
| 0:06.0 | One, two, three, four! |
| 0:07.0 | I'm really mad, sad and bad. |
| 0:10.0 | I've been called mad and bad my whole life. |
| 0:13.0 | I've also had some real moments of sad, so I decided to make a podcast. |
| 0:17.0 | This series, I'll be speaking to my favourite actors, comedians, musicians and thinkers to find out what makes them mad, sad and bad. Out now. |
| 0:27.3 | This is like free therapy for you, wouldn't it? |
| 0:34.7 | A-cast is the home of podcasting, including such shows as, |
| 0:38.5 | The Logbooks, the High Performance Podcast, and the one you're listening to right now. |
| 0:47.3 | Welcome to Dan Snow's Historyhead. |
| 0:49.7 | In May 1703, Peter, Tsar of All Russia, drove the Swedish out of this particular corner of Ingria. |
| 0:59.0 | A territory that you could say today, I suppose, would be Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and the parts of Russia that border on the Baltic Sea. |
| 1:06.3 | The key fortress there, the key Swedish fortress, Nayan Shantz, Peter captured that. And with that, |
| 1:12.8 | came finally Russian imperial access, defensible access to the Baltic, down the river Neva, |
| 1:20.6 | into the Gulf of Finland. It was a big moment in the expansion of Russia. Peter didn't waste |
| 1:26.4 | any time at all. Like I say, in a matter of days, |
| 1:28.8 | he'd laid the foundations of the first building to take shape in what he wanted to be a new city, |
| 1:35.3 | a northern powerhouse. Tellingly, that first building was military. It was the Peter and Paul |
| 1:40.5 | Fortress. And then, as soon as they could be hired, German and Dutch engineers were |
| 1:44.9 | brought to Russia to drain the swampy ground, and soon city blocks started to appear. The buildings |
| 1:50.9 | that would be constructed there were inspired by the Baroque architectural fashions of Europe. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 9 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.