Curated playlist
Burials at Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg
- Elizabeth of RussiaElizabeth Petrovna seized the Russian throne on the night of the 25th of November 1741 wearing a warrior's metal breastplate over her dress and gripping a silver cross. She strode into the barracks of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards…
- Alexander III of RussiaAlexander III of Russia was born on the 10th of March 1845 at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, the second son of the future Alexander II. He grew up as a spare, not an heir. His elder brother Nicholas was the one schooled for empire,…
- Catherine the GreatCatherine the Great was born Princess Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, on the 2nd of May 1729, in the Ducal Castle of Stettin in Prussian Pomerania. Her family had little money. Her rise was bankrolled by her mother…
- Alexander I of RussiaAlexander I of Russia was born at 10:45 on the 23rd of December 1777 in Saint Petersburg, held at the baptismal font by Catherine the Great herself and counted Frederick the Great and Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor among his godfathers. He…
- Nicholas I of RussiaNicholas I of Russia died on the 2nd of March 1855 at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, refusing medical treatment as his empire crumbled around him. He caught a chill during the Crimean War, and rumor spread almost immediately that his…
- Alexander II of RussiaAlexander II of Russia was born on the 29th of April 1818, and by the time he died he had freed more than 23 million people from bondage, sold an entire continent's worth of territory, and been blown apart by a bomb on a canal road in…
- Anna of RussiaAnna Ioannovna signed away her absolute power on the 18th of January 1730, in the presence of the Supreme Privy Council in her capital of Mitau. The document was called the "Conditions," and it stripped her of the right to declare war,…
- Catherine I of RussiaCatherine I of Russia carried an origin story that her own successors treated as a state secret, not fit for the official record. Born as Marta Helena Skowrońska, she rose to become Empress of Russia, ruling for a short time before her…
- Paul I of RussiaPaul I of Russia ruled the largest empire on earth from 1796 until his assassination in 1801, yet for most of his life he was known simply as the man his mother refused to trust. Catherine the Great kept her son at arm's length for…
- Peter the GreatPeter the Great stood over six feet tall in an era when most men barely reached his shoulder. Saint-Simon, who met him in 1717, described him as "tall, well-formed and slim... with a look both bewildered and fierce." Sophia of Hanover saw…