Pick the Next Extra History Series! "Eastern Europe" (Patreon)

It's time for our Extra History poll! Where you get to vote on what our next Extra History Series is about!

These four topics were selected from our "Eastern Europe" Patreon Suggestions and are listed in no particular order below.

Killing the Romanovs

The Russian Revolution has finally come. The Tsar is deposed, his family in closely-guarded exile. But… what to do now? Nicholas would almost certainly face death for his crimes, and perhaps Alexandra also—but the new Russian government wouldn’t dare execute the children, would it? As plans swirled to send the children to Britain, or establish a noble exile, events began to cascade. A second revolution—this one communist—was sweeping the country and the land descending into civil war with possession of the royal family as one objective. But should the Romanovs fall into the hands of the Red Army, a far worse fate than exile might befall them. This series charts the strange, exciting, and tragic story of the Romanovs’ captivity and murder, as well as the bizarre aftermath of fraudsters seeking to profit off their deaths.

Ivan the Terrible: A Series of Unfortunate Events

In 1547, things were bad enough in Russia that a group of nobles decided to rally around the 16-year-old Grand Prince of Moscow and declare him Tsar of all Russians. At first, no one doubted this was a good idea. Ivan IV's reign was peaceful... until his wife died from poison and he started to descend into paranoia. Join us for a parade of odd incidents as Ivan drags Russia out of the Middle Ages, from poisoned queens (three of them), to fake royal resignations, to creating Russia's autocratic state. The series will end with Ivan’s murder of his son and heir… and an episode about the bizarre era of the False Dmitrys, when multiple con men pretended to be Ivan’s dead son in order to take the throne (and power brokers pretended to believe them).

Russian Pogroms: The Jewish Diaspora

For centuries, Jewish communities had taken refuge and grown in Eastern Europe. Though often harassed, they managed to hang on. But between 1881 and 1905, the forces of the Russian Empire executed one of the most vicious pogroms in history. With mobs rampaging through Jewish districts and Cossacks sweeping into villages, thousands of Eastern European Jews opted to leave and seek new homes abroad. Many set their sights on the United States, a country with clear religious protections and an open-door immigration policy. But to get to a port, many would have to pay shady people smugglers, illegally cross borders, and avoid arrest in unfriendly nations—providing an interesting parallel to modern refugees. In this series, we'll discuss the reasons for the pogroms and complicity of the Romanov dynasty, then follow Jewish refugees across Europe and see how their flight changed communities across the continent. Finally, we'll talk about how their arrival in the United States reshaped American life—and shaped Judaism in return.

The Crimean War: The First Modern Military Mess

In 1853, the Russian and Ottoman Empires came to blows over the treatment of Christians in the Ottoman-held territory of Palestine. And within months of declaring war, the armies of the Tsar pressed Ottoman holdings hard enough that Europe feared the empire might collapse. For France and Britain, that would not do—the balance of power in Europe depended on a strong Ottoman state to counterbalance Russia—so they formed an alliance with the Ottomans and unleashed their fleets on Russia’s territory in Crimea. The resulting war would be the first modern conflict, one with photographs, war correspondents, and industrialized weapons. It would provide both glorious images like the charge of the Light Brigade and the grinding brutality of history’s last classical-style siege. And it would be a mess. European armies would make mistake after mistake, with the ongoing debacle—such as insufficient medical care—exposed for the world to see. Join us for the conflict that taught Europe how to fight modern wars, providing eerie parallels to the later American Civil War and World War I.

Current Schedule:

Frederick the Great airs 1/14 --> John Brown: The Army of the Lord --> Napoleon in Egypt --> Your Vote!

***Friendly reminder: The poll will end at 5:00 PM PT on Wednesday the 18th. You can vote for as many choices as you want! This style of voting helps us see what people are most interested in without having to make tough decisions between a couple of close favorites. ***