Original subtitles

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.