Russia: A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby - Breaking the Ice

Jonathan Dimbleby explores 10,000 miles of one of the world's most awe-inspiring countries. Summer 2006. After the long years of the Cold War through which Jonathan had lived, Jonathan is keen to make his first stop in the city of Murmansk, which stands as a reminder to the years when England and Russia were close allies in a war of survival against the Nazis. Soon he is on the move, away from the Russia we normally see or read about and into the strange and remote world of Karelia. He crosses a great lake in a replica 17th-century schooner, and we get a first taste of the extraordinary contrasts that Russia provides. In Karelia, he meets people who still believe in the good and evil spirits of the forest, but just a short train ride away he comes to the sophisticated elegance of St Petersburg, with its canals and palaces and extraordinary history. On the surface St Petersburg must count as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Jonathan runs into the conductor Valery Gergiev as he comes out of a concert at the Mariinsky Theatre. He meets some of the cool new rich of the city at a party overlooking one of the cities beautiful canals, who try to convince him that there is a massive difference between democracy and freedom. Jonathan then sets out to track the origins of this Russian nation, following the course of the first Viking settlements along the River Volkhov until he comes to Velikii Novgorod. This was a great city when Moscow was no more than a trading post in the woods, and the cathedral is one of the oldest in Russia. Journey's end is Moscow and a couple of hours in the ornate Sandunovsky baths, a quintessential institution in Russian society.