All language subtitles for Brian Coxs Russia 1080p BBC

It's 100 years since the
Russian Revolution...

..and it all started here.

And it cut off Russia from the world
for nearly 70 years.

But new DNA evidence suggests that
1 in every 600 Russians

has Scottish ancestry.

I'm discovering Scots

who made a massive impact on
Russia's history.

Some made the former Empire their
home,

and others fought and died there.

From those who helped to establish
Russian football...

..to those, like me, who came to
Russia

at a crucial time in their life.

They found Russia beautiful,
captivating and quite exasperating.

This is from Scotland to Russia,
with love.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

This programme contains
some strong language.

I first went to Russia 30 years ago

to teach a series of Shakespeare
workshops to young Russian actors.

It was my first experience of Russia
and of being in a documentary.

You have to really keep this text,

it's tricky, but it's...

I'm now going back to find out about
other Scots

who came to Russia and
made the Empire their own.

Our journey starts here,
in Leuchars, Fife,

with an intriguing link between
Russia

and one of Scotland's most-respected
regiments,

the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

This regiment is about as Scottish
as they come.

But they have Russia
in their hearts.

Nicholas II, the last Emperor
of Russia.

In 1894, he was given the honorary
title

of the regiment's first-ever
Colonel in Chief.

What we've got here is a troop

in what we would call,
and in the Tsar's day...

Taking up the story
is commanding officer

Lieutenant Colonel Dominic Coombes.

So, we're in Fife
and very happy to be here.

And, of course, we're talking about
our relationship

with Tsar Nicholas and with Russia.

We wear these grey berets

which are the mark of the
Scots Greys.

And the cap badge.

There's a black backing to it.

Yeah, I see that, yeah.

And common folklore
and the internet

will tell you that we wear this
in mourning for the Tsar.

The reality is, we've worked out,

actually, it was the black backing
to put the silver badge,

to show it off better against
the grey beret. Right.

But the regiment's historical link
with the Tsar is very real.

Corporal Bell here is holding
this icon.

It's of Tsar Nicholas II.

So, when Tsar Nicholas... May I?
Yeah, absolutely.

This icon was a gift from the people
of Russia.

Many in the regiment believe
it gives them good luck.

It's been to Kosovo, it's been
to Iraq twice,

it's been to Afghanistan twice, and
anywhere we go in the future,

whenever we go on operations, that
comes with us

and goes and sits next to me,
wherever I am.

Even if you're on the front line?

Yeah, anywhere. That's pretty
impressive.

In Afghanistan, it went in various
vehicles.

So, yeah, it's travelled.

So, we take it with us everywhere.
I love that.

It's great, isn't it? Yeah,
it's tremendous.

We look after it.

We cherish it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think it's a great link.

And now it's in Fife.

And now it's in Fife.
In Leuchars, yeah.

Very proud to have it here.
Yeah, great.

Nicholas II was the last of the
three-century-old Romanov dynasty.

That the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
carry this piece of history

wherever they go is truly amazing.

But first, we have to find out where
it started.

Helping me understand the Russian
connection

is Brigadier Mel Jameson,

chairman of the
Scots Dragoon Guards Museum Trust.

What's the uniform he is wearing
here?

That's the Scots Greys uniform.
That is the Scots Greys uniform.

Full dress of the Scots Greys.

This is the Tsar? This is the Tsar
again, on his royal yacht, Standart.

And the band played, the Scots Rose
band played on the yacht for him.

I love this picture.

And I love this torch that has
somehow gone down with it.

That picture still hangs in
Buckingham Palace,

and Queen Victoria was so fond of
her great-granddaughter, Alexei,

that she turned out
at the front door to meet her,

and, as she called him, Nicky.

In 1896, the Tsar and his wife,
Alexei,

granddaughter to Queen Victoria,

visited Balmoral.

This rare footage captures
that moment.

The royal couple had been married
two years,

a fairy-tale romance
that Queen Victoria believed

would help create peace
within Europe.

Tsar Nicholas,

Tsarevich Nicholas, actually,
came over

because Queen Victoria had a review
of her troops at Aldershot

and riding past one of the regimens
was the Royal Scots Greys,

and he said to Queen Victoria,
seeing all these grey horses

and scarlet tunics,
"What a beautiful regiment."

Then there was a pause,

he got married the same year,

and Queen Victoria made him
Colonel in Chief,

probably one of the first
foreign monarchs

to be made Colonel in Chief
of a British regiment.

Was that like a wedding present?

Indeed. That's the way I look at it,
as a wedding present.

GUN FIRES

20 years later, Europe was in the
grips of World War I.

In Russia, Tsar Nicholas II had been
forced to abdicate,

after losing the support of his
battle-weary army.

When the Bolsheviks took over
in 1917,

Nicholas and his family were
imprisoned.

A year later, an order,
almost certainly from Lenin,

was given to execute
the royal family.

Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexei,

five children and four servants were
taken down to the cellar and shot.

The regiment must have been, then,

incredibly affected by the
assassination

and what eventually happened to him.

Yes, the tragic death of the
Tsar in 1918, from that moment on,

the one thing that happened
and still happens today,

is that when we have a formal dinner
in the officers' mess, we will play,

before the loyal toast and the
National Anthem, God Save The Queen,

we will play the
Imperial Anthem of Russia,

one verse, in memory of the Tsar.

MUSIC: Imperial Anthem of Russia
by Alexie Lvov

It's done with us sitting down,

as we sit for the national anthem
as well,

strangely, sitting at attention,

remembering the Tsar for that period
of time,

and we take it very seriously.

As you can imagine, the occasional
dinner got a bit rowdy,

rolls being thrown.

And there was never any damage
to the Tsar.

The regiment has one more
magnificent reminder of the Tsar,

their murdered Colonel in Chief.

He's very like King George V.

They were so alike, weren't they?

So alike. Yeah, incredibly alike.

King George V and him,
they could have been twins.

He had these eyes,
these amazingly blue eyes.

I always felt with Nicholas II, he
had tragedy written all over him.

But he's well remembered and revered
in the regiment

and part of our wonderful history.

So, we have had everybody come and
have a look at it,

Sotheby's and Christie's,
and everybody is fascinated.

It's probably worth a few shillings.

A few bob, yeah.

We Scots certainly love...

..lost causes, and there's nothing
more romantic or tragic

than the demise
of the Russian Imperial family.

But there are many other links
between Russia and us Scots.

Welcome to Russia.

Where I'm standing is arguably

the heart and soul
of this great country,

and there is no better location
to show Russia's turbulent past,

then here, in this very spot.

Krasnaya Ploschad, Red Square.

In the 15th century,

Red Square was little more than a
shanty town of wooden huts

housing criminals, pedlars
and drunks.

Now, from the iconic
Saint Basil's Cathedral

to the Kremlin,

where leaders since
Ivan the Terrible have ruled,

it's a tourist destination and
the historic centre of Moscow.

But if you know where to look,

you will find the presence
of we Scots everywhere.

The original clock
in the Spasskaya Bashnya

was built by a Scot,
Christopher Galloway,

in 1624.

Beside this beautiful Orthodox
church

is the entrance
to the grand Kremlin Palace.

It's a place that strikes fear
in many,

but I have been given
privileged access.

Citadel of the Tsars, it was once
the very centre of the Soviet Union.

But even here, there is a mark
of the Scots.

We come through these pair of
extraordinary - ooh!-

gold doors.

Gold, real gold...

..into St Alexander Room.

Unbelievable.

I don't think we've got anything
to match this.

It's hard to believe, but...

..during the Soviet period,

these rooms were treated
in a utilitarian fashion.

There'd be huge tables here
and desks

and lots of people buzzing
around

and meetings, trying to ignore
this absolute spectacle...

..pretend it wasn't here.

It must have been
very, very distracting.

It's a magnificent piece of work,
absolutely magnificent.

We come to the room...

..of our mutual patron saint.

And here we are.

The St Andrew's Room.

The throne room of the Tsars.

Gobsmackingly beautiful.

No people, just me.

Incredible.

If you look way up high, you can see
a little St Andrew on his cross,

the saltire.

It's quite funny.

He's wearing what can only be
best described

as a pair of wee white jockeys.

Good old St Andrew.

The St Andrew's Hall is one of five
massive chambers within the Kremlin.

In 2012, it was chosen to host
President Putin's inauguration.

So, here we have the three thrones.

The Tsar, his wife...

..and his mother.

Very evocative...

..in the midst
of all this amazing splendour.

It's also such a strong reminder

that St Andrew,
he's all over the place.

He's part of the Russian emblem,

the two-headed eagle,

and there's St Andrew crucified
in the middle...

..and how

much that saltire has come to mean
to us...

..so it's something we have
in common.

Well, there's only so much gold
a man fae Dundee can take.

It's time to leave the big city
of Moscow.

I'm now travelling back in time

to the medieval town of Vyborg,

close to the border of Finland.

This re-enactment group come from
all over Russia

to follow in the footsteps of
Patrick Gordon from Aberdeen.

In the 1690s,

this Scottish soldier was the
highest-ranking general

in the Russian army.

They're led by Boris Migorsky.

I thought you behaved
in a very commanding way just now.

Yes, see those stripes? Yes.
It means I am a sergeant.

Ah, sergeant.

For the last 14 years,
Boris and his group

have been researching
Patrick Gordon's regiment.

What are you going to show me?

We will perform the drill manual
of late 17th, early 18th century.

With flintlock muskets, this is

more or less what Patrick Gordon
taught his troops.

These roots lie in Patrick Gordon.

Yes. The words of command,
all the motions,

we can be sure that they are
more or less authentic.

In the middle of the 17th century,

Russia's army was largely made up
of villagers,

defending the motherland.

In 1661...

..Patrick Gordon began
to professionalise the army.

This drill is an example of the ones
taught by Patrick Gordon.

There's the sense of, you know,
firing in volley.

When 100 muskets fire...

..it will look like everybody fired.

Yeah. But when you look at
individuals...

Yeah.

Do you take them to task
if they don't fire properly?

Yeah, of course.

THEY LAUGH

What do you do?

That's all I can do.
Wag your finger!

It's a habit. Yeah.

I want to find out more about
Patrick Gordon,

and why he came to Russia in the
first place.

In Scotland, few have heard of him,
yet, here, he's not just remembered,

he's revered.

How this man became like a father to
the Tsar

is as long and as deep
as the Russian Metro itself.

Maybe he was in the right place at
the right time.

It's a common sight.

You'll see people touching the dog
for good luck.

And so they have a good day.

And you can see it's quite
worn away here.

In fact, that's what the metal
would have been...

Ah!

See?

To find out more, I'm going to meet
Dr Dmitry Fedosov -

a historian who has been researching
Patrick Gordon

for the last 20 years.

Patrick Gordon's diaries are here in
the military archive

of the Lefort Palace. He kept a
detailed, vivid account of his life,

even in the middle of battle.

So, let me understand.

There was this little boy
from Aberdeen...

Yes. ..who ends up going to Poland
at the age of...

At the age of 16.

16? And the idea was to send a son
to Poland.

Yes, but the thing is,
as he himself writes,

he was a younger son of a younger
brother, of a younger house.

So he had nothing to hope for in
terms of inheritance back home.

And as so many other Scots, all over
the world,

he just followed the track of wonder
in Europe, to seek employment.

Military employment. You'll see,

as he puts it in this very first
volume here.

The explanation for his leaving
the country, is...

..here. "I resolved, I say,
to go to some foreign country,

"not caring much on what pretence,
or to which country I should go,

"seeing I had no known friend
in any foreign place."

That's fascinating.

Patrick Gordon was fighting for the
Polish Army

when he was captured by the
Russians.

But luck was on his side.

One of his captors was
a fellow Scot.

So there were these bunch of
Scots lads, they said,

"Listen, you've got to come and
join us."

Yes. This is exactly what happened.

"You know, you're going to be
among your own kind."

So he was quite critical,
wasn't he, of the Russians?

Initially. Let's see if I can...

I love the way you know these books,
seemingly by heart.

Well, I've been...

And you can go straight
to the source.

It's incredible.
"The people being..."

Now listen to this.

"..morose, avaricious, niggard,
deceitful, false,

"insolent and tyrannous,
where they have command,

"and being under command,

"submissive and even slavish,
sloven and base,

"and yet overweening and valuing
themselves above all other nations."

In 1682, the new Tsar took over the
throne.

Pyotr Alexeyevich.

Better known in the west as
Peter the Great.

From a young age, Peter the Great
was fascinated with toy soldiers.

What happened was that Peter was,
as indeed young boys tend to be,

was very keen on things military
from very early on.

So he started with toy soldiers in
wood, and perhaps other materials,

but increasingly,
he was into re-enactments.

As the Tsar grew older, he was given
his own real soldiers to play with,

a bodyguard of 100 men.

Patrick Gordon trained them up
for the young Tsar,

and they were nicknamed
The Toy Soldiers,

or Play Men.

You've also got, in here,
I've noticed some amazing drawings.

That's true. This is volume three,
which is the smallest, but, perhaps,

the most military of them all,
with...action.

In 1695, Patrick Gordon had a
reputation as a formidable soldier.

The siege of Azov, where Russia
fought the Ottoman Empire

for access to the Black Sea,
would make him a legend.

So, amazingly, they managed
to hold out with some, like,

10,000 men against...

being outnumbered by ten to one

by the Turks and Cathars
for over a month.

One diary entry sums up
what Gordon faced.

"On the bridge I did meet
five or six Turks,

"with their drawn scimitars,

"and of the heads of Christians
in their left hands.

"At these, firing my pistol,
I break through,

"and run to the right hand on the
top of the dam.

"I got out also.

"And then made as much haste
as possible

"to the laager,
to the Russian camp."

So he survived by a hair's breadth.

It was really a miraculous
salvation.

That's an amazing escape.

Patrick Gordon served the Tsar
until his death in 1699.

Peter attended him several times,
almost constantly,

when Gordon was on his deathbed,

again, here, in this part of Moscow.

In November 1699,
indeed Peter closed his eyes.

And, of course, the funeral
was lavish.

I think no Gordon,

not even any Duke of Gordon was ever
buried with such pomp and grandeur

as Patrick here in Moscow,

because the Tsar himself was in the
procession,

at the head of his regiment.

To sum up, Dmitry, would you say,
I mean, apart from Peter...

..who was the Great,

that he was probably one of the most
important men in Russia?

Definitely.

Certainly. In Russia,
and I would say more,

he was one of the more important men

of the Scottish diaspora worldwide.

After speaking to Dmitry,

Patrick Gordon's story has come
alive for me.

I'm about to fire my first musket.

Well, I'm not actually sure if it's
my first musket.

I think it is.

So, what do I do?

God, they're heavy, aren't they?

Put that back, yes.

You shoot, open. Open.

Ah.

OK. In here?

All right, OK. Do you hold it there?

There?

OK. Hold it back.

OK. Is that it?

There's an interesting postscript to
this tale.

The Toy Soldiers, or Play Men...

..disappeared after the
revolution...

..when the Imperial family, whom
they guarded, were murdered.

And just three years ago, Putin
decided to reinstate them.

And now they are the official guard
of the Kremlin.

Time to meet my chauffeur
for the day.

Nice to meet you. It's moving.

Welcome to Russia. Is it OK?

It's OK.

Power in motion. Power in motion?

So, Sergei, what do I do with this
seat belt?

Well, actually, you can forget
about it.

I don't think our police will give
me a fine for an abroad actor.

I see. But...

Normally, you should put it
under the leg.

Put it under the leg.
This is so Soviet.

Yes. This is what they used to do
in the Soviet times.

So, how old are you? I'm 26.

So, 26, that means you were born
in 1990?

'89. '89.

To be fair, I'm really proud

I was born in the Soviet Union,
not Russia.

When I was here in 1988,
there was a great optimism,

because there was perestroika,
there was glasnost,

everything was changing,
Mikhail Gorbachev,

everything was possible.

You know, it was a great,
great time.

They offered new opportunities.

Back then the city was drab,
but unique.

Looking around now at the luxury
shops, it feels less distinctive.

How do you feel about Gorbachev?

He is the man who fucked up
my country.

He was...to me,
he seems a weak leader.

I feel sorry that we live
in different countries

with Ukraine, Belarus, it's one
nation for me, and, you know...

I'm really sorry we are separate
nowadays.

And you think that was Gorbachev
who fucked up the country?

Yeah. Probably.

But at the same time, he allowed for
changes to happen.

I like the changes, but I don't like
there is

some hate between the nations
which were brothers.

We're heading north on the trail of
our next Scottish connection.

This is Serednikovo.

In the 19th-century,
one of Russia's most famous poets,

and one of my favourite novelists,
Mikhail Lermontov, lived here.

And, ancestrally at least,
he's a Scot.

Here to meet me is a direct
descendant of Lermontov,

and Moscow's only expert
on Scots Gaelic, Mhari Koralova.

Mhari. Hello, Brian.

Ciamar a' tha thu?
Oh! Tha mi gu math.

You have Gaelic?

Mm. Ochen' plokha.

I see. Welcome to Serednikovo,

the home where Lermontov stayed

during his younger years
as a teenager.

Let's go upstairs. And this was
his grandmother's home?

Yes, it was. His grandmother's home.

Mikhail was cut off
from his father,

and brought up
by his aristocratic granny.

The Lermontov dynasty began in
Scotland.

In the 16th century, a Scottish
soldier, George Learmonth,

left Fife to seek his fortune.

He settled in Russia and changed
his name to Yuri Lermontov.

Mikhail would be born
nearly two centuries later.

So these are all the famous
Learmonths.

And over here we have, is this...?

This is, this is...

This is Mikhail, yes?

No. This is Mikhail.
This is Mikhail.

This one is his cousin, I believe.

Lermontov remains one of the
most-loved writers in Russia.

He devolved a very clear language
which became, some people say,

probably the best prose,

the best prose for Russia is
written by Lermontov

because his language is very clear.

And there's an element
of self-hatred that comes through

in a lot of the characters.
There is a dictionary where they

list all the most frequent words
of each writer,

and the most frequent word
of Lermontov is no.

No. No. Nyet, nyet. Yes.

"So I grew envious, I was ready to
love the whole world,

"but no-one understood me.

"And I learned to hate.

"My cheerless youth passed in
conflict, and with myself and
society.

"And fearing ridicule, I buried my
finest feelings deep in my heart,

"and there, they died."

'Lermontov wrote these words
when he was 24 years old.'

You can see the roots of that in
his childhood.

You can see the roots of that in the
fact that he was not able to...

..create, you know, be a part
of a family.

You know, with his dad.

Anybody who...

I mean, I lost my father when
I was very little,

so I know what that's like.

And I know what that does to you.

That sense of alienation.

You know, not having a father.

And I could feel that.

I could feel that empathy with him.

Yes. And that's why, I think,

Lermontov always dreamt
about his ancestors.

He was really fascinated
by his ancestors.

Sadly, Lermontov wasn't long
for this world.

At the age of 26,

he got involved in an argument with
a friend in the Caucasus.

He was probably considered to be a
friend of his but he, probably,

he was jealous because Lermontov was
so talented.

He challenged him to a duel?

He challenged him to a duel,

yes, and that's how his life ended.

There's lots of speculation whether
it was intentional or unintentional.

He thought it was a joke
right until the end.

Because didn't he fire his gun
in the air?

Yes. And Martynov just fired
straight...

Straight at him. Yes.

Shall we go down to the lake?

Yes, let's do that. I'll show you

the place
where Yearning was written.

This is so beautiful.

In 1831, when Mikhail was
just 16 years old,

he wrote one of his most celebrated
poems, The Yearning.

It looks like Scotland. It could be
one of your Scottish lochs. Yes.

'It shows how important his
Scottish roots were to him.'

"To the west, to the west,
I'll be gone in an hour.

"To the land where my forefathers
flowered."

SHE RECITES POEM IN RUSSIAN

'Lermontov never made it
to Scotland, his ancestral home.'

But he could never fulfil his dream
during his lifetime.

So my idea was to bring that
monument to Scotland,

so that we could finally,
after 200 years, fulfil his dream.

And I'm sure that his spirit now
rests happily.

And that he is very, very welcome
in the land of his ancestor.

He is among his kin.

I'm sure he's very happy.

"Westwards, ever westwards
would I fly.

"Where flourish the lands
of my forebears.

"Where, in an empty castle,

"on mist-clad mountains rest
their forgotten remains."

That sculpture now lies here

in the village of Earlston in the
Scottish Borders.

Today is the anniversary
of his birth.

It's a Russian tradition to give
flowers to the monument.

So we have a little posy of red
roses,

and thistles to represent Scotland,

the Scottish people. And it's tied
with the Flower of Scotland ribbon.

APPLAUSE

Friday night in Moscow.

I love this city.

I mean, it's hard not to,
but the traffic, oh, my God!

It's bad.

So bad that the uber-rich
put on flashing lights and sirens

and pretend that they are ambulances
just to get through the traffic.

I'm heading to Russia's
first Caledonian club,

a place for Scotophiles to meet
wandering Scots like me.

Extraordinary.

Russian fusion.
Scottish fusion.

It's run
by President Vitaly Myranov.

Vitaly has an amazing claim to fame.

In 2007 he brought Edinburgh's
famous Military Tattoo
to Red Square.

Over 1,000 musicians
from nine countries took part,

with a combined audience
of over 35,000 people.

It's now one of the most important
annual cultural events in Moscow.

For Vitaly, it's not just about
tourism.

Give people opportunity
to understand each other better,

because... Because,
sorry to interrupt, my friend,

but because, you see, I strongly
believe that what politicians are
doing now,

this is horrible thing.

All politicians around the world.

They're thinking instead of us,
they live in a plastic world.

In a world which they create
for themselves.

But we ordinary people, we don't
need to follow this.

We need to create our own world.

And speak with each other.

We need... Our people need to see
ordinary people from Scotland.

Ordinary people from the Western
countries.

And not follow Russian propaganda.

Because from both sides,
it's propaganda.

There is a lot of propaganda.

This is where I feel
there's a real disconnection

between peoples because of the
politics.

Because we need to understand.

We need to make a real connection.

Now it's the right time to do it,
because you see what's happening in
the world.

Absolutely. It's terrible.

It's terrible. So we need to do
something.

Ordinary people. Everything depends
on us.

From one ordinary Russian person...

But who am I? I'm just head of the
Moscow Caledonian club.

I have three lovely kids.

I met my wife while I was
in Scotland, you know?

So I like this country.
I like this world. I like this life.

Your wife's not Scottish, though,
is she?

No, she's Russian. But she used
to be a dancer. Oh, really?

And I met her in Edinburgh in 1988.

At Edinburgh Military Tattoo,
actually.

THEY LAUGH

# I spent all my money
on whisky and beer... #

'But for Dmitri,
co-founder of the Cally club,

'it's a chance to let his hair
down.'

# And I swear
I'll play the wild rover no more

# No nay never

# No nay never no more

# And I'll play the wild rover

# No never no more. #

Never more!

But every time come back in Moscow
Cally Club!

The next Scot we're about to meet
is a man who was so obsessed
with communism

he even made his name onto a Soviet
stamp, and yet he was never,

ever allowed to visit the country.

John Maclean, the great Bolshevik
defender, a man who sums up,

very neatly, where the word "bolshy"
comes from.

This is the old Bowhill
mining colliery in Fife.

'Here to tell us about John Maclean

'is my friend,
writer and broadcaster, Billy Kay.'

Thank you.

Billy!

Mr Cox, welcome
to the Little Moscows of West Fife.

Little Moscows of West Fife?

Bowhill, Cardenden...

'Nearly a century ago,
John Maclean and his fellow comrades

'orchestrated a strike here over low
pay and poor working conditions.'

The great John Maclean, his
stronghold was North Lanarkshire,

Glasgow and West Fife.

Born in 1879, John Maclean grew up
in Glasgow.

Graduating from Glasgow University
to become a primary school teacher.

At the same time,

he was beginning to make a name for
himself as a political agitator.

Although he was not a strong
religious man, he reminds me -

what went on then - a bit like some
of the religious revivals.

He had the ability to communicate

communist and Marxian ideology to
the ordinary man.

And that was a great, great ability
at that time,

because the ordinary man wanted
something that would take him out of
himself,

and make him think that there was a
better world around the corner.

Some vision of the future?

And that's what Maclean did.

John Maclean became increasingly
angry at what was happening

to the Scottish working-class.

He saw Glasgow, the second city of
the Empire,

had become an industrial lynchpin
in the war effort.

In 1915,

the Munitions Of War Act suspended
trade union rights for workers.

Thousands of working-class Scots
were being massacred in the
trenches.

Maclean began campaigning against
the war.

A year later, he was imprisoned for
comments against conscription

under The Defence Of
The Realm Act.

Do you like John Maclean?

I do. Because I've always responded
to that phrase

"all hail the Scottish workers'
Republic."

Right.

Maclean saw the Russian Revolution
as an inspiration.

The working classes could overthrow
the elite.

The very thing the British
government feared.

"Arise you starvlings
from your slumbers.

"Arise you criminals of want.

"For reason and revolt now thunders.

"And at last ends the age of can't.

"Away with all your superstitions,
servile masses, arise, arise!

"We'll change forthwith
with the old conditions

"and spurn the dust to
win the prize."

In 1919,

estimates of up to 100,000 men and
women filled Glasgow's George Square

to protest for better rights.

The Government feared a British
Bolshevik uprising.

They sent in 12,000 troops and
snipers to attack the protesters.

He was an enemy of the state.

He was regarded as such
and he was regarded -

in later years, the
correspondence from that period -

he was regarded as the most
dangerous man in Britain.

Right. He was the man
who could cause a revolution.

The biggest irony of all this was

that he never actually visited
Russia.

He never got there. He never got
there. Did he ever intend to go?

I think he would have wanted to go,
but he just was unable.

I mean, from the Russian Revolution
onwards, he was in prison.

Something like in about a three-year
period,

he was in prison for about 20 months
or something.

He was, say, arrested under
the Defence Of The Realm Act,

he went to Peterhead, he was
force-fed at times in Peterhead.

He eventually came out, but he died
of pneumonia in 1923.

On his death, more than 20,000
people came out

to pay their respects.

Now Maclean has been recognised
as the Scottish Lenin,

and rightfully remembered as the
champion of the working classes.

This is a real treasure.

It's a stamp with the face of...

..John Maclean.

Only ten years later, Russia was
under the grip of Josef Stalin.

Very few foreigners travelled to
Russia,

or knew what was happening there,

but one extraordinary Scot was
an exception to the rule.

So, Fitzroy Maclean crisscrossed
Russia's vast empire

in the late 1930s,

attending the purge trials of the
great Russian intellectuals

such as Bukharin.

Soldier, diplomat, author, spy...

Some say that he was even the
inspiration

for Ian Fleming's James Bond.

Born in Cairo in 1911,

Fitzroy Maclean was educated at Eton
and Cambridge.

In his 20s he joined
the diplomatic service.

He'd later go on to be one of the
founding members of the SAS.

Today I'm meeting his son Charles
at Fitzroy's family home in Argyll.

So, Charles, tell me,

what was it that brought your father
to Russia in the first place?

Well, he was third secretary

at the embassy in Paris
in the early '30s,

and was living a life of luxury,
really.

When the opportunity arose,

he decided, after about three years
of living this good life,

that he wanted to go to Russia,

that he asked to be what was then
regarded as a punishment post,

he asked, "Can I go to the Moscow
embassy?"

He had a downstairs flat,

but it looked directly across to the
Kremlin,

and I think
the view of the Kremlin...

Yeah, here it is, here.

That's what he took from his flat.

There it is all. And there was a red
star that flashed at night,

and the red flag was illuminated,
and he said,

you could hear in the middle
of the night,

you would be woken by the screams
of people being dragged away

by the NKVD and tossed into the
river or the Lubyanka.

So it was, he said, it was
a terrifying time to be there.

Fitzroy arrived in 1937, two years
before the Second World War.

He returned much later
in a BBC documentary.

I remember the first time I arrived
in Moscow at this station.

It was a gloomy February afternoon.

Dark, snow everywhere,

crowds on the streets,
all huddled in their sheepskin.

Not a very cheerful outlook.

Fitzroy witnessed the beginnings
of Stalin's purges,

including the show trials of key
figures within the Communist Party.

I sat listening to the speeches
and taking notes,

and in the intervals I did that
ten hours a day for ten days.

Pretty exhausting, especially as you
went on to two or three
in the morning quite often.

In those days, Stalin liked staying
up late

and he kept the country up late too.

Well, that's rather like Nuremberg,
isn't it?

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

'Proceedings were filmed right
through as far as I remember...'

I never realised that they were
filmed.

No? I've never seen this.

Extraordinary.

There was one extraordinary episode
during the trial,

when the man, poor man, who was
operating the arc lights,

let it get out of control.

And it shot right up,

threw its loud beam of light onto
this little middle window up there.

And through the dark glass we could
recognise the features of Stalin,

gloating over his former colleagues.

It was very dramatic indeed.

Brilliant. It's astonishing.

Astonishing. Absolutely, I mean,
to witness that,

to witness that incredible moment
of history,

and of course it must have had a
very profound effect on his life.

It must have had a very profound
effect, certainly on his thinking...

I think it did. I think he was
horrified, actually.

In the run-up to war,

Fitzroy heard rumours about
a possible pact between Russia

and Nazi Germany.

If it was true, it would change
the world.

Fitzroy's source was someone deep
within the German Embassy.

He actually was feeding stories
about what was going on in Germany

with regard to the certainty of war.

If he'd been caught, he would have
been executed immediately,

so it was a really very serious
and dangerous thing.

So, this was information
that your father was getting?

That he was getting. And certainly
very useful in terms of his
position?

And he was relaying back to London.

Exactly. How much people were
listening, debatable.

But certainly...

You see, we didn't have any...

We didn't have any spies in Russia.

There was nobody kind of able
to penetrate at that point.

So, that now comes to my next
question, the inevitable one.

Ian Fleming was working
for naval intelligence.

He also came out to Moscow and hung
out with these guys

at the dacha and everything.

So, that is where the notion,

that James Bond connection
might come about?

Yes, that's right. I think there was
a moment,

and I could tell you exactly
when it was. 1940.

The Germans were about to occupy
Paris.

And he, Bruce Lockhart, Ian Fleming
and Fitzroy Maclean

all had lunch together.

That's astonishing!

I know. Because Bruce Lockhart is
supposed to be the other possible

influence for James Bond. That's
right. But they were all there.

And of course, 007 is the official
dialling code for Russia.

That I didn't know.
That's very funny.

Fitzroy died in 1996, after
a life of action and achievement.

In his later years he had what many
Scots would see as a dream job.

He created his very own malt whisky.

And it would be rude not to try it.

Brian, have a seat. I'm going to
introduce you to the MacPhunn.

The MacPhunn? Yeah.

Now, this is the first bottle
of a new...

A hogshead
which we have just bottled.

So we are trying something new
here, in the sense that...

It's quite powerful stuff,
cos it's cask strength,

so this is it, full proof.

And sherried oak, single malt.

Well... And if you like a little
drop of water...

Tiny, tiny. It releases the flavour.

That's fine, yeah.

That's great.

You don't want to drown it. No.

That's great.

Well, na zdrowie.

Slainte. OK.

Ooh.

That's a bit good.

A bit good? Yes!

It's a bit good!

So, I just want to raise our glass a
little bit, MacPhunn, to your dad.

Yes. I'll join you with that.

To your dad. Thanks. To my father.

By the 1980s, Russia was changing
almost by the day.

Premier Mikhail Gorbachev introduced
glasnost,

which literally translates
as "openness".

The old Empire began to
disintegrate,

allowing Westerners like me
to arrive.

I was teaching a group of students
and having the time of my life.

Brian Cox!

I just have to say something for the
viewers out there.

This is a trapped man.

I am trapped between two continents.

They have got me here and they ain't
going to let me go.

They got me here under pretences -
not false, but spurious.

I'm now on my way to my old stomping
ground.

LAUGHTER

Look at you!

You haven't changed!

You look exactly the same.

THEY GREET EACH OTHER

This is my rock. This man
was my rock, my absolute...

he was the rock.

What do you say "rock" in Russia?

Rock. Rock. He was my rock.

'I haven't seen Aliona and Sergei
since the late '80s.'

It's like visiting your childhood
again, coming back.

Well, shall we go in here?

'The famous Moscow Arts Theatre has
one of the oldest and most important
drama schools in Russia,

'and I spent nearly two years
of my life here.'

I love this space.

Oh! Come here,
I'll show you something.

It's one of the greatest spaces
in the world.

It's just incredible.

'After a series of workshops,

'the production we finally worked on
was Arthur Miller's The Crucible.'

'The play is an allegory
of the McCarthy era,

'when the American government began
purging supposed communists.'

We have to really keep this text.

It's tricky, but it's...

OK...

'I was worried that this play
might be too on the nose

'for these young students
whose country, after all,

'was right in the middle of a state
of flux.'

But, you know, the extraordinary
thing is, they got it right away.

SCREAMING AND YELLING

Do you remember this?

Yeah!

Remember that there?

'I wanted to open their world up
even more.

'So I brought them to London.

'None of these guys have ever seen
this footage.'

You were drunk.

And do you remember I took you
around various houses,

to all the houses you stayed in?

I remember everything.

Yeah. Well, do you remember
who you stayed with?

I remember, of course, in your flat.

Oh, you stayed with me!

THEY LAUGH

Ssh! We mustn't talk about that.

Yes! Yes, I'd forgotten.

So... I am now embarrassed.

Every one of these is a genius.

WOMAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN

Seven geniuses.

See, you've got
a completed circle here.

'The biggest surprise
was how it changed me.

'At that time I was trying to
work out

'who I was and who I wanted to be.'

You know, there is pre-Moscow and
there is post-Moscow in my life.

And everything changed after that,
because you guys,

you taught me so much about being,

you know, because you had very
little,

you had nothing,
but your imaginations -

you had the greatest imaginations
I'd ever come across.

Fierce. I mean, it was just fierce
what you imagined,
what you could do.

And I was just... So that has never
left me.

I still think of you and I think
of you in rehearsal.

We are all keeping
this fantastic experience.

We all keep it. Yeah?

It's not left them,
it's not left me,

and it's something that we'll carry
with us to our dying days,

just there.

'At lunch with my old friend,
Oleg Tabakov,

'who brought me to Russia.

'It's just...

'It's overwhelming.'

Are you OK?

'It's incredibly moving.'

And also that leaves you
kind of bereft of

the right words to describe it.

MAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN

MAN TRANSLATES: We ran ahead
of time, Brian.

We were so free.

We've seen so much of the world.

You raised the curtain for us.

This is for you,
and thank you so much.

You are my Sergei Korolev
to Yuri Gagarin.

You selected us.

It's, um...

It's fantastic.

Next time on my Russian odyssey,

we go to the dream city
of Peter the Great.

The jewel in the crown
of Russian culture.

St Petersburg.

They damaged the painting. Oh.

Poor Alexandra Feodorovna got
the full might of the Bolshevik.

Oh! This is beautiful.

I wonder what the people
of Leningrad made of this.

What is it about this place
that gets under your skin?

I didn't want to say this
cos you're my father,

but a lot of the time, of course,
we were drunk.

Goodnight.

Spokoynoy nochi.

It's 100 years since the
Russian Revolution

and it all started here.

And it cut off Russia from
the world for nearly 70 years.

But new DNA evidence suggests that
one in every 600 Russians

has Scottish ancestry.

I'm discovering Scots who made a
massive impact on Russia's history.

Some made the
former empire their home

and others fought and died there.

From those who helped to establish
Russian football...

..to those like me who
came to Russia

at a crucial time in their life,

they found Russia beautiful,
captivating

and quite exasperating.

This is from Scotland
to Russia, with love.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

Last time, I was in Moscow,

following Scots before me who
had made the capital their own.

I marched in the footsteps
of the Scot who was

the highest ranking general
in the Russian army...

..discovered the spy
behind James Bond...

..and the believer that
never made it here.

He was regarded as the most
dangerous man in Britain. Right.

He was the man who could
cause a revolution.

'I even managed to get into the
heart of the Kremlin.'

It's...

gobsmackingly beautiful.

Now I'm in St Petersburg, one
of the most beautiful cities
in the world...

..Venice of the North,
and Russia's cultural capital.

For many Scots, this imperial city
would become their home.

'I first came here to
work in the 1990s.'

Grushko.

How do you know it's ours?

'I was making a series about a
melancholic Russian detective

'struggling to cope with
the pace of change.'

'It perfectly matched my own
state of mind.

'My career had taken off,

'yet I was divorced and in the
middle of a midlife crisis.'

I brought my daughter, Margaret,
here, aged 12,

probably scared I'd lose her.

It was when he took custody,
more or less, or tried to.

You decided to kind of
try and bring me,

have time with me and bring me up on
your own in your own way.

It was a difficult time.
I mean, I'd been in America,

I'd made Manhunter,
I'd been a big success,

and her mum, I think,
had had enough.

Her mum had just, you know,
just given me the red card and said,

"You're off the field."

And, uh...

I sort of went off with my tail
in between my legs,

and it was difficult.
You said to her,

"I'm a train, you can get on when
you like and get off when you like."

Did I say that?! Yeah. Oh, God!

"I'm a train, Caroline,

"you can get on whenever you want
and get off whenever you like."

She got off the train.

Since then, St Petersburg has
become Margaret's second home.

Tell me, what is it, what is it

about this place that
gets under your skin?

Well, I studied here, and the summer
is incredibly full of lovers.

The city is full of young girls
and young boys in love.

Because it's all night long, too.
It's 24-hour daylight.

I mean, I didn't want to say this
cos you're my father,

but I remember going, I mean,

I would meet boys I knew
on Palace Square at

one or two in the morning

and it would just be,
like, them on bicycles

and us riding on the handlebars
all night long.

A lot of the time,
of course, we were drunk,

but we didn't know what time
of day it was or anything.

And it's magic, it's a magic hour
and it is fairy tale.

Romance runs deep through
the Russian soul.

So it's rather fitting that our
first story involves an empress

who fell in love with her
Scottish architect.

Tsarskoye Selo,

Catherine the Great's Palace.

Absolutely jaw-droppingly stunning,
even on a grey day like this.

It's like a...

It's like a wedding cake.

Amazing.

Catherine the Great wanted to
update her ancestral palace.

Inspired by ancient Rome,

she combed the world for someone
who shared her passion.

The man she found would go on
to create a palace

full of exquisite rooms like this,

the Arabesque Hall.

In 1779, Charles Cameron arrived
in St Petersburg.

When Catherine the Great
introduced him, she said,

"At present I am employing
Mr Cameron,

"Scottish of nationality,
nobility, practising Jacobite,

"a great draughtsman,
nurtured by antiquities,

"known by his book on
the Roman baths."

Now Cameron was neither
noble nor a Jacobite.

Nevertheless, he would
become more dear to her

than she could possibly imagine.

The iconography that they would
intimately create together

would become the iconography
for the Russian Empire.

Architect Charles Cameron
had published a book on
Roman bathhouses.

In it, drawings showed
classical motifs of the Greek

and Roman emperors,
and the empress loved it.

It got him the job and
brought him over to Russia.

Appointed the architect
of her Imperial Majesty,

Cameron immediately set to work

reimagining a palace fit
for the empress.

Cameron needed skilled workers to
build these massive structures.

Now, there was a serious problem.

The Russian workers he found just
didn't know enough about the
materials.

And not only that, he complained
that they drank.

So in 1784,

Cameron took out an advert
in an Edinburgh paper

looking for specialist craftsmen.

In May of the same year,
76 masons, smiths,

bricklayers and plasterers travelled
from Scotland to St Petersburg.

From the Blue Drawing Room to the
Green Dining Room, a snuff room.

From the bedchamber
to churches and temples.

The work went on and on here
and elsewhere for nearly 30 years.

Taking up the story is
the palace's curator.

So...

Our Cameron...

He doesn't look very happy.

TRANSLATED FROM RUSSIAN:

Ah, a little bit in love with him.

A wonderfully ceremonial staircase
links the bathhouse to

the empress's personal quarters.

So this was originally
white marble, was it?

I've never seen such a staircase.

It's beautiful. And I can see her
coming down, you know,

I can visualise Catherine
descending.

Yeah.

Catherine the Great's private
library was on the top floor

and one of her favourite retreats,

the wing known as the
Agate Pavilion.

Can you give me a hand with these,
somebody? Ugly shoes.

Ugly, ugly, ugly.

OK, I'm in.

Tell me, Irina, so tell me about
this magnificent room,

what was this?
Was this a reception hall?

Ah, so this is a Roman room?
Of course it is.

Yes.

'This is the Great Hall.'

Cameron painted walls to
look like marble

and created a ceiling of frescoes.

He introduced non-native wood to
create intricate parquet flooring

and had the room lit by sculptures
bearing foliage, candelabras -

a potpourri of styles.

There is a kind of extraordinary
aesthetic at work in this room,

and you can see it,
it's just magnificent.

So it puts Cameron,

for me it puts Cameron in a
completely different light from
before,

not just an architect, but actually
an interior designer,

with such a magnificent eye.

And it was that,

it was precisely that talent that
Catherine recognised

and that Catherine wanted.

She wanted it, that's why
they were so close

because his aesthetic matched
her own.

Oh! These bloody shoes!

Mind you, the one
thing about these shoes,

they're very handy
for polishing the parquet.

You can polish the parquet
as you go.

Definitely.

Two years later,

Cameron was asked to create a
private esplanade

complete with busts of the
empress's favourite philosophers.

And in the ultimate complement,
it was named the Cameron Gallery.

Cameron spent the rest of his life
in Russia, but as tastes changed,

he failed to adapt.

The Scot who came to St Petersburg

to build Catherine the Great's
architectural dream

died 33 years later designing a
naval barracks.

Yet Catherine the Great's Scottish
relationships went far beyond
architecture.

It's enough to make any man
want to relax.

And Catherine had a special place in
her heart for the Scots.

Her private banker, her doctor, her
architect, wet-nurse, nannies,

even the military, all were Scots.

In fact, you could say the Scots
were becoming quite trendy
in her empire.

But since I'm near naked,

I'll tell you a fun story about a
canny lad from Scotland

who saw a
completely different side of her.

Catherine was what many people might
call a sensuous person.

Others have been less kind,

noting that her sexual voracity
was notorious.

In other words,
she was a wee bit of a goer.

Fitting in nicely to this scene was
a Scottish schoolmaster,

William Porter.

Born in 1741,

he was brought over by
Catherine the Great to help
reform the education system.

What is less known is that he
brought over the sex club known as

The Beggar's Benison for local
aristocrats.

Members chanted the words of the
Highland march as the orgies began.

"In the garb of old Gaul
with the fire of old Rome...

"..from the heath-covered mountains
of Scotia we come.

"Where the Romans endeavoured our
country to gain,

"but our ancestors fought,

"and they fought not in vain."

And it was all in the name of carnal
pleasure.

Beat me, beat me,
call me a Dundonian.

Porter invented a complex set of
phallic rituals and initiations

with members from the
British expat community.

Rubbing more than shoulders with
merchants and aristocracy,

all using their private sign for
uprightedness.

Little else is known
about the club or Porter.

Both seem to have disappeared almost
as quickly as they appeared,

or perhaps they didn't and perhaps
that The Beggar's Benison

continued below the radar.
Who knows?

But what is known is that on his
death,

Porter's obituary belied the man
who, above all else, championed

the Scottish phallus in Russia.

Oh, boy, I could just sleep
after all that, I tell you.

In fact, I think I will.

From sex to religion.

Back in Edinburgh,

I'm meeting my friend, Scottish
writer and broadcaster Billy Kay.

I'm about to find out about a small
group of Scottish missionaries

who set off to Russia
armed with the word of God.

So, Billy, what is it we have here?

Well, this is a map of the vast
Russian Empire

and you've got Scottish influences
right across it, from very early on,

from St Petersburg and the merchant
community there

to the Shkot Peninsula near
Vladivostok, a place called
Shkotova.

Scottish influences
right over the area,

but the principal area associated
with Scottish religion effort

is down here in the Caucasus. Right.

That borderland that's now
Chechnya and places like that.

The Tsar decided to give the
Edinburgh Missionary Society

18,000 acres in an area called
Karas,

near the spa town of Pyatigorsk,

just north of the
Caucasus Mountains,

which was hostile to Russia then

and a bit further south is hostile
to Russia to this day.

So the idea of converting...
And that was Muslim-dominated?

It was Muslim. This was historically
a Muslim area.

So the idea of trying to convert
Muslims

was quite an outrageous proposition.

These Scots missionaries thought
they were up to the task,

they thought, "Here we go."

They were, and they had a religious
fervour and zeal

that you could see goes back to the
time when this kirk was built.

At the beginning of the 19th
century,

the Caucasus were wild and untamed,

and it was here that Henry Brunton
set up his Scottish colony.

It lasted only about 30 years,

they only converted approximately
nine hardy souls.

But they bought out of slavery a lot
of children from

the local Tatar Turkish tribes.

How did they convert
the Bible into Tatar?

I mean, because they probably didn't
have any knowledge of Tatar,

but they obviously had somebody who
was able to speak both languages.

It was Henry Brunton there
and the man Swan from Fife,

and apparently Brunton's translation
was a mixture of classic Turkish
language,

but taking in the local
dialects of the Tatar language,

just creating it himself.
It's astonishing.

I mean, it's an achievement,
it's quite astonishing.

To what end, you go,
"What is the point?"

But the actual scholarship is
remarkable.

Exactly. That's the remarkable
thing.

Henry Brunton's mission failed.

The locals remained resolutely
Muslim.

He died in the Caucasus in 1813.

One remarkable thing was although
the colony died,

40 years after its failure,

a journalist from The Times,
Mackenzie Wallace,

a Scot, went through the area.

And he noticed written on the map,
"Shotlandskaya koloniya",

Scottish colony.

This was here? This was here,
down here, near Pyatigorsk.

And he decided, "I've got to go
and see what this is."

And he went there and he says in
Russian, "Are there any Scots here?"

And Mackenzie Wallace says something
like,

"Imagine my astonishment when the
man replied in broad Scots,

" "Ach, man, I'm a Scot tae!" "

I mean, these links are quite
important, aren't they?

They're a bit like
Mormons in the '50s.

I remember the Mormons in the '50s
coming round the houses in Dundee,

you know, doing big conversions,
trying to convert.

Well, I think that zeal has always
been at the heart of

everything the Scots do,
we do with a passion.

Yeah. And we'll just breenge
into things with a heart and soul.

And I think that's,
despite what was against them,

that's what these missionaries had.

It's a curious tale that speaks of a
very different time.

Like the Scots before me,
it was work that brought me here.

But looking back at my career,

I hadn't realised just how many
Russian parts I've played over

the last 50 years.

Today, I'm giving a masterclass to
Russia's next generation of
film-makers.

I always had this strong connection
with Russia, and my daughter,

who is here today, blames me for her
having to learn Russian.

APPLAUSE

Thank you.

PROJECTOR: They've marched 1,000
miles, but are in excellent shape.

'War and Peace was the BBC
adaptation of Tolstoy's
epic Russian novel.'

And that's where we'll stop Napoleon
in his tracks, God willing.

'I played General Kutuzov,

'the one-eyed defender of Moscow
who defeated Napoleon.'

Napoleon has left Russia,
your Grace.

We have our victory.

Nothing left to do.

Russia is saved.

Thank the Lord.

'It was an honour to play this hero,

'and it's great to hear the series
was so well received here in
Russia.'

'Here I play a KGB general with
Bruce Willis.'

I have many times dreamed
of killing you.

But now...

'Willis is a former
CIA adversary

'on the run.'

You are...

..pensioner.

A couple of years now.

'It gave me a chance to say one of
my favourite villainous lines.'

I haven't killed anyone in years.

That's sad.

To Igor,

the butcher.

He's not dead.

'Whilst the world looked on with a
mixture of happiness and disbelief

'at the end of the Soviet Union...'

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

'..I was playing a Russian colonel
on an international space station.'

We've had some good fortune at
Cruise McKinney number three.

A dead man - accident, whatever.

'There's been a murder.'

The Cold War was ending and
here in space,

the film showed the Americans and
Russians beginning to work together.

All right, where is he?

Mr Huff is available for
Colonel Voronov now.

If you do not make your company
records available immediately,

then your lease to operate in
Soviet territory

will be cancelled immediately. What?

You have two hours to comply.

'Some 20 years ago, I played a dodgy
Russian with Michael York.'

I'd like you to meet Anatole.

The film explored the sexual
possibilities of

the new business order.

I have not had a chance to clean
things very much since I... I mean,

since we bought factory.

Relax, nephew. Relax.

Anatole just come look,
check investment.

'I think I might have aged a wee bit
better than this film has.'

Looks OK.

Da.

The film that launched me was a
Hollywood movie about

the fall of the Romanovs,
Nicholas and Alexandra.

I wish we didn't have to go.
It's Mama's birthday.

'I'm still proud of this one.'

My role was at the very
heart of the tragedy.

PROJECTOR: This must be some of your
nonsense, Trotsky.

Lenin's theory comes to this.

'I played Leon Trotsky,

'the man who helped ignite
the Bolshevik revolution.'

You will print it. I can't.

The style's atrocious.

So that was my start in movies.

And so there was my
initial Russian connection.

'One of the most important scenes is
when we, the Bolsheviks,

'prepare to launch our attack.'

State bank.

Central telephone exchange.

This is where the
revolution started.

The Winter Palace had long been the
official residence of

the imperial family.

It also contains one of the world's
most important art galleries.

The Hermitage.

And it was here at 2:10am

on October the 25th, 1917,

that Russia became a
communist country.

As the Bolsheviks stormed the
palace, one eyewitness wrote,

"Like a black river filling
all the street,

"without song or cheer,
we poured through."

The Bolsheviks came through that
archway, they came through here,

up through this area here
and then up this staircase.

Seven months before,

a revolt had resulted in the
abdication of Tsar Nicholas II.

A provisional government
occupied the palace,

but there they were threatened by
continual infighting,

chronic food shortages
and a collapsing army.

Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky led
the Bolsheviks to overthrow them.

Incredibly, a Scottish artist,

Christina Robertson,
is part of this story.

To find out more, I am meeting
curator Lisa Renne.

All these revolutionary soldiers
came, you know,

and they damaged the painting. Oh.

It was cut with a sword.

It was.. They damaged
it with rifles.

Of course the revolution was
against the Tsars, you know,

and it was an item of
one of the Tsars.

So you could never guess it because
it was restored with our
wonderful restorers.

There was a cut there, yeah.

It's like they deliberately tried to
decapitate her.

Poor Alexandra Feodorovna got the
full might of the Bolshevik.

This was just one of the many
paintings the Bolsheviks targeted

as they stormed the palace.

Christina Robertson was a successful
society portrait painter in Paris.

Tsar Nicholas I persuaded her to
come to Russia and paint his family.

She moved here aged 43.

It's a very romantic story.

For a woman, coming so far

from Fife, from Edinburgh to
St Petersburg.

But she was married,
she had children, didn't she?

She married in 1822
and she had eight children,

and just four survived to adulthood.

So she lost four children.

Christina Robertson would never
return home, dying here in 1854.

Do we know if she was estranged from
her family because her family

wasn't with her when she died?
It's a bit of a mystery.

We don't know anything about her
husband.

I think she was not very lucky with
the marriage.

Dobryy vecher, dobryy vecher.

Dobroye utro!

Dobroye utro, dobroye utro.
Sorry! Not dobryy vecher.

Dobryy vecher is goodnight.
Sorry. Sorry, Lisa!

My Russian is very rough.

Dobroye utro.

To return to Christina Robertson -
I mean, this is astonishing to me -

that the posing of these women,

there's something...

I don't know what it is,

there's something kind of doll-like
about them in a way.

What is it? That's right, yes.

I think it's a combination of

the taste of the time and also of
the lack of anatomy,

which women artists possibly did not

know about because they had no
classes.

Or even encouraged to know about.

Yes. Well, absolutely.

There is another of Christina's
paintings I want to see.

Now this is beautiful.

It is. That's exquisite.

I think she developed,
of course, a style.

Incredibly. But see the same sort of
wistful look on the girl's face,

that same head to one side.

This, I love this painting.

It's a lovely painting.
I absolutely love that painting.

And I love the parrot with
the cherries in the mouth. Yes.

And it tells the story of a brother
and sister,

and we've no idea who these people
are, have we?

Well, regretfully we don't know the
names, we don't know who they are.

But, of course, the circle was not
quite big.

It's aristocracy children,
of course.

They came from some aristocracy
family.

Whether these children survived
the revolution, we will never know.

Determined to overthrow
the bourgeoisie,

the Bolshevik leaders orchestrated
looting of all symbols of power.

Russia faced cultural upheaval,
violence and turmoil,

as a civil war erupted.

In 1924, Josef Stalin became the new
leader of the Soviet Union.

He brought rapid industrialisation,

created massive state farms
and eventually a reign of terror.

But in Stalin's Russia,

a Scottish poet became a poster boy
for the workers' struggle.

And where better to pick up on that

than St Petersburg's most famous
book shop, Dom Knigi,

where they make the finest latte
this side of the Neva.

During the 19th century,

Robert Burns was admired in Russian
intellectual circles as

the people's champion.
Post-Revolutionary Russia,

interest in our national bard
rocketed,

and it's all thanks to one man.

In 1924,

the Russian poet Samuil Marshak
translated Burns

and in over a year he sold 600,000
copies.

It was a mammoth feat,

but one that cemented Burns into
the psyche of every Russian.

But Marshak was a shrewd operator.

Burns' writing was endorsed by
successive Soviet regimes

and only because something was
missing.

Sex.

Now Stalin was known to be quite
prudish

and had an aversion to raunchy
western writers.

Marshak pushed Burns the people's
poet as an idea,

and one of peasant virtue,
which Stalin...

..seemed to buy into.

Burns would never make it over to
Russia, but his writing has,

and it shows no signs of fading
away.

Even today in schools throughout
Russia,

children can recite the poems of
Robert Burns.

Every year in June there is a
Scottish delegation celebrates

the birthday of Robert Burns in
St Petersburg.

We are getting ready for the
performance called

For The Immortal Memory Of
Robert Burns.

"Gin a body meet a body,
Comin thro' the rye,

"Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?"

"O, Jenny's a' weet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry:

"She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!"

THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

SHE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

"As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I:

"And I will luve thee still, my
dear, Till a' the seas gang dry:

"Till a' the seas gang dry, my
dear."

As for Marshak, as he was dying,

he requested that his badge as
honorary president of

the Burns Federation
be laid with him.

Under Stalin, this beautiful city
had its name changed to Leningrad

in honour of the man who led
the Bolshevik revolution.

But during World War II, its very
existence was under threat.

Partly due to its historical
significance

and industrial importance,

on the 8th of July, 1941, German
troops began surrounding the city.

Held at bay by fortifications,

Hitler decided to strangle the city
to death.

Aerial bombardment set fire to
warehouses...

..which held food supplies.

Around three million citizens were
now trapped in

the middle of a blockade.

The Siege of Leningrad had begun.

Around the world the news of the
siege spread.

In the Scottish mining heartlands of
Airdrie, a communist collective,

the Russia Today Society, met in the
front room of a council flat.

One member, Harry Walker,
recorded what happened.

This is what he said.
"All the women were deeply affected

"by what they'd been hearing about
Leningrad.

"They were desperately anxious to do
something,

"to feel part of the vast struggle
that was taking place."

Within weeks of the siege beginning,

they would send an extraordinary
gift in comradely support.

That gift is kept here,
in the Peter and Paul Fortress,

in the heart of Leningrad,
now St Petersburg.

So in the steel manufacturing towns
of Airdrie and Coatbridge,

the ordinary working men and women
started raising funds,

and on top of that they created
this...

magnificent book.

"To the heroic women of Leningrad.

"Our hearts go out to you in this,

"your hour of supreme agony
and trial.

"Your fight is our fight
and we shall fight with you."

It says here,

"Women from all sections of the
community have signed this letter,

"the Provost's wife,
wives of the councillors,

"business and professional men,
housewives,

"professional and businesswomen,
industrial workers.

"We realise humanity's debt of
gratitude to the women of Russia."

And then the book has all the names
of the women who signed.

"Jean Lockhart,

"Agnes Graham, Margaret Drummond,
AN Fleming,

"A Kirkland.

"Betty Wright, Agnes Clark,

"Cecilia Beattie."

This is really, really astonishing.

And incredibly heartening that these
women,

you know, these were simple women
from Airdrie, from Coatbridge, who

didn't even know probably what
St Petersburg looks like,

then it was Leningrad.

And they even put pictures of the
town, the Royal Burgh.

Oh, this is beautiful.

Something like this defies words.

It's beyond language because it's
so incredibly expressive in itself.

They've even gone to the
trouble to have something
translated into Russian,

and this is from the Albert Street
Congregational Church in Coatbridge

and it just says, you know,

"We are with you in
your epic struggle.

"You have our total support."

I wonder what the people of
Leningrad made of this.

From people that they didn't know,

from a place they'd probably never
even heard of,

Airdrie and Coatbridge.

The coldest winter in decades began.

Daily rations reduced to a thick
slice of bread a day,

and people began to starve.

Within the first year alone,
600,000 people died,

and still there was no end in sight.

Today, my daughter, Margaret, and I
are meeting three veterans

who were young children during the
siege.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would just like to start by saying
this is an incredible honour

to be speaking to you,

who have survived probably one of
the most horrendous acts of

the 20th century.
And what I want to know is,

what is it like for you to look at
those memories?

You know, because most people have
memories of childhood.

Nobody has such unique memories as
you people here from Leningrad have,

during that blockade.

Valentina said that she remember
everything.

They go to the shop,
to the bakery, to get bread.

Only 125g per day.

Sergei?

Four out of 15 people survived?
Yes. In one winter.

She was dead. She was dead for two
weeks.

Throw it out the window? Yes.

So, Tamara.

Valentina?

But looking back on that time...

..you must think,
"How did I survive?"

That's astonishing.

Wow!

So they took the table apart
and took the glue off the table

and melted the glue off the table,

boiled the glue and ate the glue.
Yes.

This is your mother.

My mother after the war.

This is Valentina. Very beautiful.

This has been such an honour and
such a privilege to listen to you,

and very humbling, really.

I'm incredibly moved

and incredibly humbled by this
extraordinary experience you've had.

Thank you so much for sharing it
with me,

and sharing it with, hopefully,
the people in Scotland.

I mean, above all,

talking to these three extraordinary
human beings

who do not see themselves in any way
as extraordinary

but, really, as rather ordinary.

And the thing that comes out is, I
don't know if you agree with this,

Margaret, is a tremendous
affirmation of the human spirit.

As the war raged, one Russian
journalist wrote,

"The city is dead,
no streetcars.

"Almost the only transport is sleds
carrying corpses covered with rags,

"or half clothed."

Daily, 6,000 to 8,000 die.

Against all that,

just seven months after the book
from the ladies of Airdrie

and Coatbridge arrived here,
an album was smuggled to Scotland.

The album contained watercolours by
the Soviet artist

Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva.

And despite the blockade circling
the city...

..over 6,000 women signed this...

..still suffering from hunger
and weakness.

And the book now sits in the
Mitchell Library in Glasgow.

This is the actual book that
the women of Leningrad sent,

and this is what they said.

"To our dear friends, the women of
Airdrie and Coatbridge...

"..we have been moved to the depth
of our soul by the words of love

"and greeting from those of you in
far off Scotland.

"We thank you for the help you've
given us in the struggle with
Hitler's Germany.

"Our husbands and brothers are cut
off from us,

"our homes are in danger,

"our children doomed to destruction
and bondage."

And it is equally remarkable that
6,000 women sent this book.

It's so beautifully put together,
this book.

And these...

That's Leningrad,

and this, with these wonderful,
wonderful watercolours,

if you can see here, beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.

And this is Vera Milyutina,
who put the whole thing together.

It's very potent.

And the care, I mean,

these are an example of the
signatures of the women.

That's their signatures,

and these are professions,
secretaries, nurses.

And that's them.

Incredible testament, it really is.

So the women at work - nurses.

And, of course, the one thing we
don't know,

with all these signatures,

we don't know how many, if any,

made it through to the end of the
blockade.

On the 20th of January, 1944...

..the siege of Leningrad finally
came to an end

after nearly 900 days.

It remains the deadliest blockade of
a city in human history,

causing the death of more than a
million citizens.

People in the streets wept for joy,
life had become valuable once again.

Our last story is a subject about
which both Russians

and Scots care passionately,
and even sometimes obsessively.

Football.

Next year, Russia will host the
World Cup.

Thousands of fans will flock into 11
cities,

hoping to see their country win.

Behind me is the Zenit Arena,

currently in the midst of a
$1 billion construction programme.

When it is finished,

it will be one of the most expensive
football stadiums ever.

Football first came to Russia
with Scottish and English workers.

They were encouraged to play on
their day off by their bosses

as it stopped them drinking vodka.

It took another Scot,
Arthur MacPherson,

hailed by many as the father of
Russian football,

to recognise its potential as a
national sport.

But who was Arthur?

And how did he end up dying at the
hands of the Bolsheviks in prison?

Well, the answer lies not far
from here,

in a cemetery on Vasilyevsky Island,

one of the most historic parts of
the city.

Today, Margaret and I are meeting
Russian football historian

and fanatic Yuri Lukosyak
and his friend, Slava.

Yet our story doesn't start where
you expect.

This grave is of Yuri's
footballing hero, Sergei Chirtsov,

a prodigy of Arthur MacPherson.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

So Chirtsov,

he learnt from MacPherson and his
fellow Scotsman

how to play the game as a family
game.

And they began the tradition,
doing it with Russian families.

And they started the beautiful game
here?

MAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN

And he was one of the first Russians
who played with

the immigrant football players,

and brought the Russians to the
game.

Those immigrants were us.

Teams of British expats who had come
over to work in Vasilyevsky's many
textile mills.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

First of all we're very proud that
we created the first football club
in Russia.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

And here we created the
Russian Football Association,

of whom the president
was Arthur MacPherson.

The first team under MacPherson
was Victoria, formed in 1894.

It was made up of Scottish,
English and German expats,

but the Russians weren't happy.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

They wanted the expats to understand

that... Rossiyskiy futbol?

That Russian football was in the
Russian territory.

Yeah.

And there was only one man with
authority in Petersburg,

Arthur MacPherson.

MacPherson, he is a
legendary figure.

He is the first sportsman
in Russia...

..who Nicholas II...

..in 1914...

..gave the Order of Stanislaus.

So this is the highest honour from
Nicholas II.

OK, so he may not have been
the father of Russian football,

but he may have been the godfather
of Russian football.

He's not having it.
He's simply not having it!

I think what we find is that this is
very typical of football, really.

The kind of difficulties that
football...

The difficulties that football
get themselves into.

So we have the vodka.

Because it's cold.

Just as we Scots took our sport with
us,

we also brought our rivalry.

In 1901,

English industrialist Thomas Aston

proposed Russia's first-ever
Scotland versus England game.

To Mark the occasion,
he had a cup made.

He hoped...

that the first winning team would be
the English team.

He hoped that Nevsky would beat
Nevka, the Scottish team.

So Nevsky, let me just clarify this,
Nevsky was the English team.

And Nevka was the Scottish
team wearing the red blouses.

Yes, yes, yes. In fact...

..in the press...

..it was written in the press it was
the Scottish versus the English,

not Nevsky versus Nevka.
Oh, I see!

And they separated them immediately
in the Russian sports press.

And then...

The Scots won.

But Aston didn't write on the cup
that it was the Scottish that won.

Typical! Typical!

The Scots do not get their desserts.
Typical!

I think this is the vodka speaking.

OK, I just want to say...

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

SHE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

To world football, Dad.
To world football.

Denis Law. Denis Law.

And Matt Busby. And Matt Busby.

THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

Wow! That's a genuine wow.

It's a fitting end to my fascinating

and sometimes bonkers
Russian odyssey.

Na Zdorovie!

Oh, God.

What a journey!

Before I leave,

I want to pay tribute to this great
man

whose honour from the Tsar would
haunt him.

Arthur MacPherson was accused of
being a British spy.

He was thrown into jail by the
Bolsheviks.

It is believed that he had fought on
behalf of the Tsar.

This gravestone was erected by Yuri,
who we spoke to minutes earlier.

He's not buried here

because his body was riddled with
typhus.

When word of his death reached the
UK in March, 1920,

it was thought MacPherson had been
murdered

and his body had disappeared.

Some weeks later,

three British soldiers who'd got
permission to look for his body,

discovered it in one of the prison
cells,

buried beneath 40 others.

They recognised it, as
before his death,

Mr MacPherson had pasted a piece of
paper around his wrist

with his name on it.

It's a tragic end to the man who
helped shape

the world's most popular sport here
in Russia.

Most of us have heard about the
Scots in America, Canada, Australia,

but the story of our folk here in

the world's largest country spans
centuries.

In making this film, I have seen an
aspect of

the Scottish diaspora that until now
I never really knew about.

It's only now I realise that I had
unwittingly followed

in their footsteps.

Many came in search of a better
life, and in doing so,

left our Celtic footprint.

But I also think we brought a
willingness to work

and a desire to get to the very,

very essence of our being,
and existence.

And at times, to reinvent ourselves.

And sometimes...

..sometimes, our influence remains.