What happens
This episode of The Pacific Story, broadcast on 1945-10-14, traces how Russia gained access to the Pacific Ocean over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It follows settlers who reached the port of Petropavlovsk and General Muravyov, who led a makeshift force down the Amur River. The narrative covers the Treaty of Aigun, disputes over Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands with Japan, and Russia's push into Port Arthur and Dairen. It describes the Russo-Japanese conflict that followed and the later struggles along the Manchurian border, with the Russians working to secure ports on the Pacific coast.
The Russian Far East, the Amur River region, Siberia, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula, from the mid-1800s to the 1930s.
Characters: General Muravyov, Prince Tishan, Count Muravyov
Listen for: The gradual shift from Russia's landlocked position to its acquisition of Pacific ports, told through the Treaty of Aigun and the struggle with Japan.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.