St Petersburg
Steve Rosenberg revisits 1914 St Petersburg and an event that would define modern Russia.
The Essay · BBC Radio 3
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Show Notes
Stepping back in time, BBC News correspondents present their personal perspectives on the capital cities of major European powers that fought the Great War.
The series continues with the remarkable city which would - uniquely - soon be renamed amidst bloody regicide and revolution: St Petersburg.
The BBC's Moscow correspondent, Steve Rosenberg, finds a revealing connection, however, between the St. Petersburg of a hundred years ago and its counterpart of today.
He tells the remarkable story of the Grand International Masters' Chess Tournament of 1914, with its starring cast of Russian, German, French, British and American competitors and its dramas of who won and who lost.
But the tournament also demonstrated the Russian passion for chess that continues to this day and helps define its national identity as well as the fierce competition with other countries.
Producer Simon Coates.