History

2016 marks the 100th anniversary of one of the bloodiest revolts in the history of the Russian Empire. The uprising took place in Semirechye, ‘the valley of 7 rivers’, in the south of the Empire’s territory in Central Asia. What started as a protest against Tsar Nikolas II’s policies quickly escalated into a fight between the native Kyrgyz population and the Russian and Cossack settlers. It was a conflict that turned ordinary men into murderers and heroes, revealing the worst, and some of the best, of human nature. Now, descendants of those who lived through it share their ancestors’ accounts of the uprising.

On 27 July 1714, the Russian fleet overpowered the Swedes at the Battle of Gangut, resulting in Russia’s first naval victory. 300 years later, history comes alive in the largest-scale re-enactment of those events. RT Doc joins the eye-catching spectacle

Since 1974 Cyprus has been divided into two parts – Greek and Turkish. The bloody conflict that preceded it is still fresh in the memory of Cypriots. And it’s only now that the remains of those who went missing are being searched for and identified in an attempt to bring the relatives some closure

August 2015 marks 70 years since the US dropped nuclear bombs on Japan. But was this drastic decision dictated by military necessity? RTD’s Peter Scott visits Hiroshima and Nagasaki to investigate the real reasons behind the bombings.

James Brown “travels back in time” to take part in what would be remembered as the “attack of the dead men”, the bloody conclusion of the battle of Osowiec in WWI.

Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels turned words into a weapon of mass destruction. Join RT to examine some myths of the Goebbels propaganda that shaped the contours of the human catastrophe of WWII.

2014 was a very special year for Sevastopol and its citizens. The 70th anniversary of the city's liberation from Nazi occupation coincided with the reunification of Crimea and Sevastopol with the Russian Federation. 

World War II took millions of human lives, leaving many homes devastated with grief. Six million Soviet soldiers went missing in the war, seemingly lost to their loved ones forever. But now, groups of enthusiasts eager to find their unmarked graves search former battlefields for their remains. 

Solovetsky Island in Russia's White Sea is home to one of Russia's most fabled monasteries. A barge carrying its bells which left for the mainland vanished in the 1920's, leaving it up to modern-day divers to retrieve them.

On October 4th, 1993, what had started as a row between then-President Boris Yeltsin and Russia's Parliament culminated in an all-out battle for Russia's destiny between legislators who had barricaded themselves inside Russia's 'White House' and the president's tanks and supporters.

Although the Battle of Borodino may have been a victory for Napoleon, it helped the Russian army to unite and ultimately free the country from the French invasion. Find out what life was like for the soldiers at Borodino 200 years ago.

Join RTDoc as we team up with a Russian delegation on the road from Moscow, period vehicles in tow to meet other enthusiasts who share the same history and use it to turn former enemies into new allies.

Those born with artistic taste and a love of all beauty were doomed if they were born in the Soviet Union. Practicality and uniformity dictated all spheres of life, including fashion. Our heroes begged to differ, becoming the vivid flecks on the Iron Curtain’s drab surface.

Twenty-year old soldiers who fought in the World War II are now past eighty. Few are still alive. But they still remember how after many devastating years, the spring came, and the war was over.