Barbara Stocking on Catherine the Great - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

Catherine the Great assumed power in a St Petersburg coup, extended the empire into Crimea, Ukraine and Alaska. is Russia's longest lasting female ruler, and wasn't even Russian herself. All of this intrigues Dame Barbara Stocking, former head of Oxfam, who admires Catherine's leadership style.
Biographer Virginia Rounding provides the details of her background and her lovers, and Matthew Parris presents.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.

Further episodes of Great Lives

Further podcasts by BBC Radio 4

Website of BBC Radio 4