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

How to Invent a Country

When did countries become countries? Misha Glenny on the borders, the stories and the people of countries worldwide.

Radio 4,61 episodes

Episodes

ListGrid

Two World Wars, One Failed Revolution
How Hungary grabbed the world's attention resisting the Soviets in 1956
03 Jul 2025,41 mins
The Butcher And The Poet
In 1848 a poet in a coffee shop set off a revolution that still reverberates today
02 Jul 2025,41 mins
Hungary and Mohacs 500
How does Viktor Orban blend Hungarian history and politics to stay in power?
23 Jun 2025,46 mins
Taiwan
They look so sturdy on the map, but what is a country and when do they take shape?
12 Sep 2024,29 mins
China: The Life and Times of Chairman Mao
The Long March, the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution
24 May 2024,41 mins
China: imperial collapse
The end of the Qing and the troubled birth of the republic under Dr Sun Yat-sen
13 May 2024,41 mins
China - to kowtow or not to kowtow
Find out how the world's greatest civilisation found itself dragged into two opium wars
04 May 2024,41 mins
China - the first emperor
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head east to find out what is China and where it came from?
03 May 2024,44 mins
Turkey - Ottoman or Turk
A bonus episode with Hannah Lucinda Smith, Christopher de Bellaigue and Misha Glenny
20 Nov 2023,27 mins
Turkey - A Delicate Balancing Act
Ep 3 - How the republic of Turkey emerged from the ruins of World War One
27 Oct 2023,38 mins
Turkey - The Military and Decline
EP 2 - The Invention of Turkey and slow decline of the empire from the siege of Vienna
27 Oct 2023,31 mins
Turkey - The Ottomans: East or West
Ep1 - Istanbul and Mehmet the Conqueror. Misha Glenny on the birth of the Ottoman empire
27 Oct 2023,33 mins
Russia - the bear moves west
Ep 3 - The Invention of Russia and Catherine the Great, presented by Misha Glenny
09 Jan 2023,43 mins
Russia - A Tale of Two Ivans
Ep 1 The Invention of Russia ... told from a time when it was still very small
09 Jan 2023,32 mins
Russia - the sacred song of war
Ep 4 - The Invention of Russia, presented by Misha Glenny and produced by Miles Warde
09 Jan 2023,32 mins
Russia - the Empire Strikes Back
Ep 2 - The Invention of Russia and the expansion east to Siberia, west into Ukraine
09 Jan 2023,43 mins
Return to Spain
with Sir John Eliot, plus exciting news
06 Jan 2023,21 mins
Poland - Stalin on one side, Hitler to the left
Ep 3 - Poland reborn and invaded again. Misha Glenny presents, Miles Warde holds the mic.
08 Apr 2022,35 mins
Poland - a nation without a state
EP 2 - Misha Glenny on Poland's 123 year absence from the map, produced by Miles Warde
28 Mar 2022,30 mins
Poland - Obliterated from the map
Ep 1 - how Europe's largest state was sliced and diced by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
28 Mar 2022,31 mins
The Birth of Bangladesh
Bangladesh was born in 1971.
17 May 2021,29 mins
Scandinavia - the narcissism of small differences
Ep3 Norway and fish, followed by oil
24 Nov 2020,29 mins
Scandinavia - The Viking Inheritance
The Swedish Baltic Empire ... why it's not all Abba and social democracy with the Swedes
17 Nov 2020,33 mins
Scandinavia - The Bridge
Ep 1 "Danes talk about Swedes all the time. Swedes don't talk about Danes so much."
10 Nov 2020,35 mins
Ireland: Escalation
Declan Lawn talks to Micha Glenny about the differences between the north and the south.
01 Oct 2019,16 mins
Ireland: Plantation and Conflict
Dr Joan Redmond talks to Misha Glenny about Ireland, England and the early seeds of war.
19 Sep 2019,18 mins
Ireland: Catholics and Protestants
Fintan O'Toole talks to Misha Glenny about Catholics, Protestants, and Top of the Pops.
09 Sep 2019,24 mins
The Invention of Britain #4 - so many different little corners!
Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales - why all these borders, and what do they mean?
17 Mar 2019,33 mins
The Invention of Britain #3
Insecurity - from Dover to Dublin, presented by Misha Glenny and produced by Miles Warde
10 Mar 2019,30 mins
The Invention of Britain #2
Anglocentrism .... or why Britons Never Will Be Slaves
04 Mar 2019,31 mins