Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

World Service,24 Mar 2011,10 mins

The BBC Russian service

Witness History

Available for over a year

For 65 years the BBC World Service has broadcast in Russian, this weekend it stops. The Russian Service came into its own during the attempted coup by communist hardliners in August 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev said he got his news from the BBC, while being held under house arrest in Crimea.

Programme Website
More episodes