The birth and death of Yugoslavia
Misha Glenny talks to contributors from Bosnia and Belgrade and Albania too about the history of Yugoslavia from 1918 via Tito until now. Recorded and produced by Miles Warde
Apr 17, 2026•45 min
The Invention Of...
Misha Glenny investigates the borders, the histories and the people that make different nations what they are.
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Episodes
The Balkans: The Birth and Death of Yugoslavia
Misha Glenny returns to the Balkans to report on the birth and death of Yugoslavia. With contributions from Lea Ypi, Radina Vucetic, Ivan Veyvoda, Tim Heneage, Jelena Dureinovic, plus former soldier turned writer Faruk Sehic in Sarajevo. Includes archive of Fitzroy Maclean and Steed Wickham, plus an interview with the scientific director of the Jewish Museum in Thessaloniki, Xenia Eleftheriou. This is series eighteen of The Invention of ... on Radio 4, following on from previous visits to Taiwan...
Apr 17, 2026•45 min
More history than you can consume!
Misha Glenny + Miles Warde on a journey through the Balkans - was Churchill's quote true?
Apr 17, 2026•42 min
The Balkans: Episode 2
Churchill may have said that the Balkans produce more history than it can consume, but in this episode Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head out to discover if it's true. This is a road trip through Bosnia, Belgrade and northern Greece. The aim? To explore the collapse of the Ottoman empire and see how it fed into the start of World War One. There's also a also pause for sausage in Serbia, while they find themselves in a massive street protest in Thessaloniki. This is history from the ground, and fe...
Apr 17, 2026•42 min
What are the Balkans?
June 28 1914 - a young Bosnian in Sarajevo fired the shot that triggered World War One. Why is this region so unstable? Misha Glenny returns to a region he's known for years
Apr 03, 2026•42 min
The Balkans: What Are the Balkans?
June 28 1914 - a young Bosnian on a street corner in Sarajevo fired a shot that triggered World War One. Why is this region so unstable, and what lessons can we learn from that event. Misha Glenny was a famous reporter during the wars of the 1990s, well-placed to find answers in a region he's travelled for years. Is the violence the fault of the people who live here, or are there bigger, outside forces at work? This is the latest from the team behind The Invention of ... series which has recentl...
Apr 03, 2026•42 min
Two World Wars, One Failed Revolution
Misha Glenny asks how the losers of two world wars, which drastically reshaped Hungary's borders, tried to fight off Soviet tanks on Budapest's streets. Produced by Miles Warde
Jul 03, 2025•42 min
Hungary: Two World Wars and One Failed Revolution
It's easy to forget how entwined Hungary has been in some of the worst events of the last 100 years – losers in the first world war, the country initially sided with the Nazis in the second, tried to change its mind, was invaded by the Germans then taken over by the Soviets, then tried to kick out the Soviets … and failed. What, asks Misha Glenny, are the consequences of this history now, and how does the Hungarian government of Viktor Orban view the Russians today. Recorded on location at the s...
Jul 03, 2025•42 min
The Butcher And The Poet
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head to a rally in Budapest where Viktor Orban compares the EU to the Habsburgs, forgetting it was tsarist Russia that crushed the revolution of 1848
Jul 02, 2025•42 min
Hungary: The Butcher and the Poet
"Brussels is abusing its power," said Victor Orban, "just as Vienna once did." The date, March 15 2025 - this year - but the reference was to March 1848 when Hungary rose up against its Austrian overlords, a great moment for many Hungarians today. Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde were in Budapest when Viktor Orban made his speech, looking for the source of that revolution, who turned out to be a poet, Sandor Petofi. So is Viktor Orban right to draw parallels between then and now, or is he u...
Jul 02, 2025•42 min
Hungary and Mohacs 500
McMafia author Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel from Vienna to Budapest to find out how Hungarian hardman Viktor Orban uses history beginning with the battle of Mohacs of 1526
Jun 23, 2025•46 min
Hungary: Hungary and Mohacs 500
Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde travel from Vienna to Budapest and beyond to find out how Hungarian hardman Viktor Orban stays in power. With an election coming up next year, now seemed a good time to find out how he uses history in his campaigns, beginning with a battle his country lost to the Ottomans back in 1526. "There are going to be three dates that matter in our series - 1526 and the battle of Mohacs; 1848, when the Hungarians rebelled against their Austrian overlords; and 1956, wh...
Jun 23, 2025•46 min
Taiwan
At the beginning of 2024 the president of the Chinese People's Republic, Xi Jinping, claimed people living on both sides of the Taiwan Straits should reunite "and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". But is Taiwan really part of China, and could this question lead to war? Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde have been to the capital Taipei and Tainan City in the south to find out about this relationship with the Chinese mainland. "I've obviously been following the situ...
Sep 12, 2024•30 min
Taiwan
At the beginning of this year the president of the Chinese People's Republic, Xi Jinping, claimed that people living on both sides of the Taiwan Straits should reunite "and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". But is Taiwan really a part of China, and could this question lead to war? Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde have been to the capital Taipei and also Tainan City in the south to find out about their relationship with the Chinese mainland. "I've obviously been ...
Sep 12, 2024•30 min
China: The Life and Times of Chairman Mao
The Long March, the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution
May 24, 2024•42 min
China: The Life and Times of Chairman Mao
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel east to tell the story of China - what it is and where it came from. "Twentieth century China is the most extraordinary place, and Mao is at the heart of nearly all of it." With the help of Tania Branigan, Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution; plus Chris Buckley, Chief China correspondent of the New York Times, Frances Wood, Paul French, Ian Johnson, the author of Sparks, and Jonathan Fenby, former editor of the South Chin...
May 24, 2024•42 min
China: imperial collapse
The end of the Qing and the troubled birth of the republic under Dr Sun Yat-sen
May 13, 2024•42 min
China: Imperial Collapse
"You could do a whole programme on why you shouldn't build a capital in Beijing. It's a Mongolian camel camp." Paul French Beijing means capital of the north, and was first used by the Ming to distinguish it from Nanjng, capital of the south. Home to the Forbidden City where the emperors lived, the centre had a tortuous relationship with many other parts of China. By the end of the Qing dynasty this relationship had totally broken down, but what was going to replace the old system? Step forward ...
May 13, 2024•42 min
China - to kowtow or not to kowtow
Find out how the world's greatest civilisation found itself dragged into two opium wars
May 04, 2024•42 min
China: To Kowtow or Not Kowtow
Britain was late in its contacts with China and the Qing dynasty - the Portuguese, the Dutch and the Spanish had all headed east long before Lord McCartney's embassy tried to establish a formal relationship in 1792/3. Although it failed, this mission is famous for one thing - whether the British envoy did or did not kowtow to the Chinese Emperor. So began a fractious, ultimately shameful century for Anglo-Chinese relations. Travelling to Hong Kong, taken by the British following the First Opium ...
May 04, 2024•42 min
China - the first emperor
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head east to find out what is China and where it came from?
May 03, 2024•44 min
China: The First Emperor
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel east to tell the story of China - what it is and where it came from. "The empire long united must divide, long divided must unite. Thus it has ever been." The opening lines of a fourteenth century novel about the rise and fall of China's multiple dynasties, history explained in a couple of brilliant lines. But what is China and where did it come from? This is episode 55 of How to Invent a Country on BBC Sounds, recorded on location and opening in Taiwan. "The ...
May 03, 2024•44 min
Turkey: Ottoman or Turk
A bonus episode with Hannah Lucinda Smith, Christopher de Bellaigue and Misha Glenny.
Nov 20, 2023•28 min
Turkey - A Delicate Balancing Act
Ep 3 - How the republic of Turkey emerged from the ruins of World War One
Oct 27, 2023•39 min
Turkey: A Balancing Act
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde take a ride over the Bosphorus to see the old Hyderpasha railway station - the Asian bulkhead of the Berlin to Baghdad railway which opened in 1909. The Ottoman alliance with Germany had implications for the Middle East that are still being felt to this day. "This was a place of intrigue, spies and glamour. For four and half centuries Istanbul had been the centre of the empire, right up until the end of the first world war. At which point the empire was divided up, b...
Oct 27, 2023•39 min
Turkey - The Military and Decline
EP 2 - The Invention of Turkey and slow decline of the empire from the siege of Vienna
Oct 27, 2023•31 min
Turkey: The Military
On September 12 1683, an army led by Kara Mustafa Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman empire, lined up on a hill just outside Vienna. The Ottomans had been besieging the city for almost two months. This wasn’t the first time they’d threatened Vienna. Europe’s fate appeared to hang in the balance once again. Misha Glenny - who now lives in Vienna - traces the rise and fall of the Ottoman empire with location recordings from the two palaces of Topkapi and Dolmabahce on the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Co...
Oct 27, 2023•31 min
Turkey - The Ottomans: East or West
Ep1 - Istanbul and Mehmet the Conqueror. Misha Glenny on the birth of the Ottoman empire
Oct 27, 2023•33 min
Turkey: The Ottomans: East or West
When Mehmet the Conqueror arrived in Constantinople, now Istanbul, he turned the main cathedral into a mosque and threatened to move much further west. Christian Europe was terrified. Misha Glenny travels to Istanbul to reveal how Mehmet's empire expanded over the next 100 years - to Iran, to Egypt, right up to the gates of Vienna too. This was the age of mighty sultans, Selim the Grim and Suleiman the Magnificent, who was happy to take the challenge to the catholic Habsburgs. But as modern Turk...
Oct 27, 2023•33 min
Russia - the sacred song of war
Ep 4 - The Invention of Russia, presented by Misha Glenny and produced by Miles Warde
Jan 09, 2023•32 min
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