Ukrainian history special

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes.We hear a survivor's incredible archive account of living through the Siege of Paris in 1870. Sydney Snell was in her 80s when she recorded her memories with the BBC in 1946.Our guest Professor Beatrice Heu ...  Show more

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes.American artist Keith Haring's bold 1986 mural on the Berlin Wall and British naturalist Gerald Durrell's 1950s mission to save species from extinction.We discuss other examples of art which aim to bring pe ...  Show more

The history of Russia and Ukraine has been irrevocably entwined for centuries. When the Bolsheviks took over and Civil War erupted across the Russian Empire, Ukraine was one of the bloodiest centres of the conflict. Antisemitic pogroms and wanton violence destroyed whole communit ...  Show more

In April 1986 a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, in the USSR, causing the worst nuclear accident ever. Sergii Mirnyi was in charge of a monitoring unit which measured radiation levels in the 30 km exclusion zone around the plant.(Photo: The Cherno ...  Show more

In this week's episode of Talking History, we're looking at the history and making of modern Ukraine, exploring questions of identity and the roots of the ongoing conflict. Featuring Taras Kuzio, Professor in the Department of Political Science, National University of Kyiv Mohyla ...  Show more