In the finale of the series, we enter the "House of Special Purpose" - the ominous code name for the villa where the Romanov dynasty met its end. As the White Army closed in on Ekaterinburg in the summer of 1918, the Bolsheviks made a cold calculation: the Tsar could not be allowed to live as a banner for the counter-revolution.

We follow the family’s descent from imperial boredom behind painted-over windows to the terror of the night of July 16th.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPt

Amazon Podcasts:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-before

RSS Feed:

https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

The most consequential revolution of the 20th century did not happened with a change of the guard. In this episode, we dismantle the myth of the "storming" of the Winter Palace to reveal the reality of the Bolshevik seizure of power: a methodical, invisible coup d'état masterminded by Leon Trotsky. While the citizens of Petrograd rode the trams and attended the opera, the Military Revolutionary Committee quietly seized the city's bridges, telegraphs, and banks without firing a shot.

We follow the surreal timeline of October 25th, from Prime Minister Kerensky fleeing the capital in a borrowed American car, to the "siege" of the Winter Palace—defended only by teenage cadets and the Women’s Battalion of Death. The episode concludes in the smoke-filled halls of the Smolny Institute, where Trotsky consigns his political enemies to the "dustbin of history" and Lenin announces the birth of the Soviet state.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPt

Amazon Podcasts:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-before

RSS Feed:

https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

By the summer of 1917, the optimism of the February Revolution had dissolved into violence. Alexander Kerensky, the "Persuader-in-Chief," attempted to save the crumbling nation with a suicidal military offensive that destroyed the last remnants of the army's morale. The resulting power vacuum triggered the "July Days," a premature uprising of armed sailors that forced Vladimir Lenin to shave his beard and flee into the swamps of Finland.

The chaos culminated in the Kornilov Affair, a bizarre standoff between the socialist Prime Minister and a general with "the heart of a lion but the brain of a sheep." Facing a military coup, the government made a fatal calculation: opening the armouries and handing 40,000 rifles to the Bolsheviks, effectively arming their own executioners.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPt

Amazon Podcasts:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-before

RSS Feed:

https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In the spring of 1917, the German General Staff decided to deploy a new kind of weapon against the Russian army: a revolutionary exile named Vladimir Lenin. In this episode, we follow the journey of the "plague bacillus", Vladimir Lenin, as he travels from a cramped apartment in Zurich to the steps of the Finland Station.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPt

Amazon Podcasts:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-before

RSS Feed:

https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In the bitter winter of 1917, the 300-year rule of the Romanov dynasty ended with a bread riot. What began as a march by female textile workers demanding food spiraled into a revolution when the Tsar’s ultimate enforcers, the Cossacks, refused to charge the crowd.

We follow the chaotic escalation from snowballs to machine-gun fire, leading to the decisive moment when Sergeant Kirpichnikov convinced the Volhynian Regiment to shoot their own officers rather than their people. Finally, we board the "Ghost Train" with Nicholas II, trapping him in a railway siding at Pskov where, isolated and abandoned by his generals, the Autocrat of All the Russias was forced to sign his empire away with a pencil.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPt

Amazon Podcasts:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-before

RSS Feed:

https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

When World War I began, the Allies believed the "Russian Steamroller"—an army of millions—would crush Germany by Christmas. Instead, the Imperial Army marched into a catastrophe that would break the back of the regime. In this episode, we move from the palaces of Petrograd to the frozen trenches of the Eastern Front to witness the military collapse of the Russian Empire.

We tell the tragic story of the Battle of Tannenberg, where a personal feud between two generals led to the annihilation of an entire army and a suicide in the dark forests of East Prussia. We explore the horrors of the "Great Retreat" and the "Shell Famine," where soldiers were sent into battle without rifles. Finally, we witness the fatal decision of Tsar Nicholas II to dismiss his generals and take personal command of the war, tying the fate of the monarchy directly to the dying war effort.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPt

Amazon Podcasts:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-before

RSS Feed:

https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

After the chaos of the 1905 Revolution, the Romanov dynasty had one final decade to save itself from extinction. In this episode, we explore the strange twilight of the Russian Empire, a period dominated by two men who could not have been more different: Pyotr Stolypin, the ruthless Prime Minister who tried to force Russia into the 20th century with the "hangman's noose," and Grigori Rasputin, the Siberian mystic who dragged the monarchy back into the dark.

From the assassination at the Kiev Opera House to the terrifying secret of the Tsarevich’s hemophilia, we trace the path of a government paralyzing itself from within. Join us as we recount the "Ministerial Leapfrog" of World War I and the bizarre, chaotic night in the basement of the Moika Palace where a prince, a grand duke, and a politician tried to save the Tsar by murdering his favorite holy man.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPt

Amazon Podcasts:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-before

RSS Feed:

https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In May 1941, the balance of the war at sea shifted on a knife-edge. The German battleship Bismarck, the most powerful warship in Europe, slipped into the North Atlantic with orders to sever the convoy lifelines sustaining the United Kingdom. What followed was one of the most intense naval operations in history, spanning thousands of square miles of ocean.

In this episode, we follow the narrative of the chase from the first sightings in the Baltic to the freezing mists of the Denmark Strait. We examine the shocking destruction of the HMS Hood, the desperate cat-and-mouse game that followed, and the critical role played by the Swordfish biplanes of the HMS Ark Royal. This is the complete story of the hunt, the tactical decisions made by Admirals Lütjens and Tovey, and the final destruction of the German giant.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPt

Amazon Podcasts:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-before

RSS Feed:

https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml