The Invention Of... Folgen

Misha Glenny on the extraordinary history of Poland - includes the Miracle on the Vistula in 1920, the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and how Solidarity set in motion the Soviet Union's collapse.Recorded on location in Warsaw, Krakow and Zamosc, with contributions from Professor Norman Davies and Olesya Khromechuk of the Ukrainian Instititute. The image shows the Warsaw Uprising Monument.The producer for BBC audio in Bristol is Miles Warde

"The last king of Poland was arrested, put in chains and marched off to Russia." Professor Norman Davies.Between 1795 and 1918 there was no Poland, but the idea of Poland remained extremely strong. Travelling by bus and train around the south east, Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde go in search of what kept Poland alive. With contributions from Professor Natalia Nowakowska and Timothy Garton-Ash. Part of the How to Invent a Country series for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.The image shows the Warsaw Uprising Monument which features in episode three

Long before Putin tried it on, long before the Soviet Union as well, Ukraine was controlled by somebody else - the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the first of a new series, Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel to eastern Poland to find out more. It's a tale of terrifying power politics, when an ancient European kingdom was sliced up like a cake. Beginning in Krakow, they travel by train and tiny bus in an arc around the south east to the Renaissance city of Zamosc, near the border with Ukraine.With contributions from Norman Davies, Adam Zamoyski, Professor Natalia Nowakowska, Bartek Ziobro of Krakow Explorers and Olesya Khromeychuk of the Ukrainian Institute in London.The image shows the Warsaw Uprising Monument which features in episode three.This is the latest in the How to Invent a Country podcast series which has previously travelled to Germany, the USA, Scandinavia and Brazil.Presenter Misha Glenny is a former BBC Central European correspondent and the author of McMafia.Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Miles Warde