When Diplomacy Fails Podcast
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PINYL: #3 - "From Russia With Lies"
🕑 Added 2020-02-10 06:00:01 +0000 UTC[PATRONS]
In autumn 1699, the Tsar of Russia was mobilising not just his soldiers, but also all his talents for trickery and deception. The goal - make war on Sweden in league with the Kings of Poland and Denmark. The problem - the Swedish delegation were in town, and wanted at all costs to avoid the very war which the Tsar was planning to participate in. The solution - lie his head off, and take fibs to a new level, including crocodile tears and several instances of pretending to be the victim.
As we learn in our latest episode of Poland Is Not Yet Lost - "From Russia With Lies", Tsar Peter was perfectly capable of avoiding something as inconvenient as the truth when the glory of his House and expansion of Russia into the Baltic was at stake. He could never have imagined it, but his end goal would be successful, just not in the way he had planned. Their target, the teenage king of Sweden, Charles XII, was nothing short of a genius, but Peter, fortunately for Russia, was nothing short of 'Great'.
