Podbit · Fin vs History
A 9-year-old Peter the Great hid in a cupboard for days while the Streltsy massacred his family on the Kremlin's Red Stairs. He survived by leaving the door slightly ajar so it looked already searched. He was not fine.
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At 13:28 · chapter starts 10:56
Fin walks through the dysfunctional family tree: Peter's father Tsar Alexei had 16 children across two marriages, making Peter the 14th. The two family branches — the Naryshkins and the Miloslavskys — are already in political tension. Theodore, the first successor, probably had Down syndrome (a 'broad category throughout history', Fin notes), but apparently had sharp intellectual faculties. He dies in 1682, leaving a succession vacuum that the Streltsy — described as women in caftans with pikes, like a hippie trail outfit gone wrong — are ready to exploit. Horatio quips that the episode's arc runs neatly 'from Down syndrome to Stockholm syndrome'. [1] — Fin Taylor "We're going to end up with the Great Northern War. This really is from Down syndrome to Stockholm syndrome." 12:20
The 1682 Streltsy uprising began when one of their leaders came out to send them home and was immediately thrown onto their pikes for not being harsh enough. What followed was days of massacres, beheadings, and stamping on children. Peter was 9 years old.
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