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Great Continental Railway Journeys Series 3 Part 1: Tula to St Petersburg
With Bradshaw’s 1913 Continental Railway Guide in hand, Michael Portillo penetrates the eastern extreme of Europe to journey through the vast country of Russia.
Among the golden onion domes and icons of Tula, Michael is moved by the sound of a Russian Orthodox choir. He visits the beautiful country estate of Yasnaya Polyana, where Tolstoy wrote his masterpieces, and learns how the author’s life and works were inextricably entwined with the railways.
Striking north, Michael boards the long distance train which runs from the Caspian Sea to the capital. He learns from the buffet car cooks how to prepare a supper of meat-filled dumplings – Dagestani specialities called pylmeni.
At Belorussky Station in Moscow, Michael hears how thousands of Russians journeyed to the capital in 1913 to mark the Romanov royal family’s tercentenary year. At the Bolshoi Theatre, Michael performs an important role in one of Russia’s most dramatic operas. A relaxing soak at the famous Sanduny Baths, however, proves anything but…
Aboard the high-speed Sapsan to St Petersburg, Michael discovers the history behind the line, once the longest double-tracked railway in the world. From the Grand Hotel, Europe, advertised in his Bradshaw’s, Michael explores the beauty and history of St Petersburg, from the great Nevsky Prospekt to the magnificent Winter Palace with its Hermitage Museum, then rides the first railway ever built in Russia between the city and the Tsar’s village – Tsarskoye Selo.
Back in the city again, Michael meets former Russia correspondent Martin Sixsmith to discover how the strikes, mutinies and massacres, which took place shortly before Bradshaw’s 1913 guidebook was published, were to unfold and the part the railways were to play in those tumultuous events.
