request for a lecture about russia given the interest on the news and interest in the culture so  i'm delighted to say that one of our own bill maher resident participant in the center is a true expert on the topic and delighted that she's austria hungary and russia and even if germany and russia also eventually acquire some sort of political stability  ninety's when there's a soviet union collapsed can you hear me russia still call it equally as far as i'm concerned under construction it's not finished and i don't know how it will continue in work on the border of russia and siberia their bodies stripped hacked into pieces doused with it and thrown into an unused shaft to rot this despite the  apparently less important than saints by the moscow patriarch alexy in two thousand before selection of which and since this seem politically expedient can you hear me claimed that all civilizations were to some degree silly volved under the influence of geography geography which influenced the culture and he found  especially clickable to russia and well why because russia is huge the largest country on earth covering one six of the surface twice siberia are cold much of the time so if you decide to go dress well st peter's work and so winter solstice has only five and a half hours of daylight while the far north your exhibit of winter as there is the sun never rises darkness all the time moscow lies on the same latitude as the lower hudson bay and the most had to make up for a loss of time by working extremely hard and they had only a certain time limit told to do it in russia's location and the absence of clearly defined geographical borders made her vulnerable to wars literally hundreds of them to the east the great your asian step served as a highway for waves viking traders from scandinavia established the trade to route from the baltic sea to the black sea and eventually became rulers of kiev and all the other little states which developed wars with each other and so also sent a proposal to the swifts world to say to the vikings saying our country is immense and plentiful but there roman catholicism and greek orthodoxy they were snow protestantism yes so he didn't like islam from what he heard because of its restriction on wine drinking is the joy of all russians he apparently said we cannot exist without that pleasure so islam is out then he also disapproved of judaism because as he said there go out took away from th or you see is a double headed eagle which comes from resent him and took over some customs from the byzantine court which was known for its trickery introduce the idea of moscow as a third to rome i think that's face i think that's a very important point that i think still is good today i mean they still consider themselves as the defenders of whatever it is no so russia's historic distrust of the west has its roots in this religious schism and its aftermath remote from the west russia experienced none of the major developments which shaped modern europe  recognition of individual rights the beginnings of political liberty and the growth of a strong middle class i think that was a major point of why russia collapsed in the final analysis i had no middle class i mean it was there but it was very small when peter is a it's a great started his westernizing efforts in the late seventy's and early eighteenth century forcing his subject to adopt western ways ordering  mean and they were supposed to mingle with women and even dance with women can you imagine what that meant it was a whole revolution the population believed that the end of the world was near as they just thought he was peter you know horrible so new ideas came to russia late and whence they came they were opposed bicycle service to the masses and the conservative orthodox church i think the were recruited men for the army and navy service in the army or navy was loam twenty five years later somewhat reduced so that every recruit when he left his home village was unlikely to see it again i mean if he was killed in the various wars or he was would that didn't come time so modern russia getting to modern russia appear on the world had had subjected all of europe and here he went to russia what for god knows why maybe he wanted to go to the middle east you know get to persia and so on well so alex under international congress in eighteen fifteen this side it is a future of europe and so this is this where great events but i revere reversal came of course there's always an up and that goes down well the troops who had seen the west realized the black organise of russia i mean these were mostly officers who were educated twenty five as they kind of made an attempt to change the government i mean they rebelled against nicholas at first but of course they siberian railroad was built from petersburg to nose to the end and about what came then was the crimean war i am sure you know about the crimean war which was i think w would traditional administration was jury system local government but today when alexander says second was assassinated in eighty eight he won he had signed a new constitution which may have stopped the deterioration of the political atmosphere so you see it's sometimes some some little thing that changes the whole way history murdered as you know has supposedly cried when his father had died prematurely and unexpectedly at forty not nine so pretty young since he felt totally unprepared rule and so what he did was to continue in the autocratic manner of his father ignore exist changes that were taking place in the country and that vice of his ministers although some of them were really very good as a result nicholas the second stumbled into the russell japanese war which was over korea ring the bells he lost his fleet to rip around the country without any ministers because nicholas distrusted them so outbreak of world war one the suffering of which i specs of of russian history which i thought are important well if you want to hear about which is whom i don't like personally i know i'll say a few words about him  well he is a phenomenon even in russia's colorful and often violent history if you look at some of the early photos of fortune you wonder house is physically that later researchers who will have perhaps more access will have to figure out i mean i don't understand and i still don't understand it is in his favor of was the fact that he was still is relatively young when he was but he became president he was only forty five this is young in soviet russia they were all old died on the throne some of the doubt very intelligent pragmatic absolutely ruthless which is a heritage of his k g b training i hope you know what the k g b is the internal political police so called he seems intent on the rebuilding of the russian or soviet empire which had been destroyed why i don't know does he believe in communism hardly is he an ardent nationalis or is nationalism and orthodoxy just a cover for overwhelming personal ambition we may or may never find out in one of his statements he said that's a call ups of the soviet union was  greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century i think he considers it his personal injury and his intent to repair it by there's an interesting book new portion mean this is the title already tells you what what he thinks he is it's probably as informative as it can be when you deal with a closed society there's another  original name of st petersburg and his background is totally unimpressive voice both parents minimally educated his father war veteran his mother housekeeper which had been encircled by the german army for eight hundred seventy two days from forty one to forty four had been bombed and starved so such living conditions were considered petulant disruptive but what changed him was interest in the martial arts as you know he is still apparently doing a lot of martial arts and it's very good at them and then he saw a movie which was a very patriotic movie of the sixty's which was called the field and the sword about a hero who was a russian agent in pre war germany so he accomplished all sorts of fe eighties it was still a completely different and better world i mean all the soviet officers tried to get a smudge of the stuff they could send back to send it back to russia you know like toaster things like that machines and so on well as you know the k g b is a state within a state with black white view of the world so either you are with us or you are against us and if you are against us you have to be collapsed insulate the eighty's you know the fall of the berlin wall which was a very exciting moment in november eighty nine of course his professional class seemed to collapse he had to go back to moscow and see what he can do well his fate became intertwined with his former law professor  deal from putin he would not be prosecuted for his corruption and so it's fine i'll take over and so from then on everything came into russia and guess who will be like the fortune no doubt there is no democracy in russia a new history book because history is being written now proclaims that although soviet russia for which is so so pressed for writing only well except the will we have corrupt core courts and the rubber stamping parliament i mean there's absolutely no democracy and wanted also to become president but he was involved with illegal dealings and was on the point of being prosecuted so he supposedly suffered a heart attack and was taken by private plane to paris apparently helped him to get to paris where he stayed for two years never went to the hospital and then he decided to come back to russia putin was another one declared poisoning which apparently had also affected his two young bodyguards but they had not died because they were young and strong so what ever open session there is eliminated so much we do have some moments for some questions because this program is being televised i asked if you have a question that you speak close to the table that you come to the table so that the camera can hear the question so any questions professor oh yes of course oh yeah of course he does say he does confuse people who are taking him at his face value of course he would do anything to a woman's foster his image i mean he he pretends he is a good the russian orthodox but how can he have all these people i didn't care to go and look praise your question if you do that that was the comments that were asked to be televised but i can certainly repeat oh yeah oh yes know of course no no no no no very very clever maneuver you well  that when nicholas the second poor man what was hoping to get into england into exile and apparently it was not something that george what was  alec safe ye and but apparently he helped this child but nobody else could and of course he would just bleed to death if he injured himself syria i mean why also russians bombing syria i mean i don't understand all these things and they kill kill people without any mercy and so on so i don't i think the only way is a fourt understands us strength but of course you have to be careful with not going overboard with rags either so i don't know the clumsy just like north korea i mean i don't know what we're supposed to do with north korea this is this is an absolutely fascinating and i think that we will include on the camera and i'd like to have the