A fantastic BBC full-cast radio "book". I call it a book rather than radio show because it has the length and detail of a book, but it's also extremely entertaining with bits of classical music, voice actors, primary sources, and sound effects. BBC is clearly the best at radio productions.

Sixsmith's central question is, why did Western Europe develop modern Democracies while Russia has had successions of authoritarian governments, why isn't Russia today like America or France? He says by looking at Russian history we should not be surprised, he shows time and again over the centuries why Russia has reverted to its "default" mode - authoritarianism, with the state being more important than the individual. Sixsmith shows how early on the Russians were subjugated by Mongols for centuries while the West was experiencing a Renaissance, they fought internally among themselves, and it took strong authoritarian control to unite and defeat its enemies. The fear of invasion is strong and repeats in Russia history and so the state must remain strong for Russia to survive, is the "default" Russian thinking. ( )