Listen to The Monday Documentary on BBC Russian in London, United Kingdom

DocArchive: StoryCorps - Part Two

Fri, Dec 4 Listen

Did I turn out to be the son you wanted? What was the saddest moment of your life? Questions like these have arisen out of StoryCorps - an American oral history project described as "a story-foraging mission of epic proportions".

DocArchive: Assignment - Bhopal

Thu, Dec 3 Listen

Twenty-five years ago, a gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal killed 8000 people. Allan Little returns to the scene of the disaster to find out why people are still suffering.

Can China Go Green? Part One

Wed, Dec 2 Listen

Jonathon Porritt reports from China, where, amidst the toxic power stations and burgeoning numbers of cars, he finds some extraordinary and pioneering green solutions. In two provocative and counter-intuitive programmes, Jonathon Porritt flies in the face of international protest and fear at what China is 'doing' to the world's environment in order to properly explore what's actually happening across the vast country. Although the Chinese are avid to grow their economy at all costs, Porritt...

DocArchive: The Crescent and the Cross - Part Four

Mon, Nov 30 Listen

In the final part of this series, Owen Bennett-Jones examines the Islamic leader who confronted the might of the British Empire. The Mahdi was a devout man, who developed a huge following. This programme examines his rise to power and his clash with the British General, Charles Gordon.

DocArchive: StoryCorps - Part One

Fri, Nov 27 Listen

How would you like to leave a record of your life for your great-great-great-grandchildren? That's the future for participants of StoryCorps, an American oral history project. What do people choose to talk about?

DocArchive: Assignment Malvinas War Crimes

Thu, Nov 26 Listen

Twenty seven years after Britain and Argentina went to war over the Falklands, or the Malvinas islands, Argentine army officers are facing prosecution. Not for the way they treated the enemy, but for crimes allegedly committed against their own troops.

DocArchive: Assignment - The Congo Connection

Thu, Nov 26 Listen

In Assignment Peter Greste investigates whether Rwandans in France and Germany are controlling a deadly African militia in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For the last 15 years, the rebels of the FDLR have enforced their control through a series of brutal atrocities. Now Assignment has secret intelligence suggesting that they were taking orders from political leaders living openly in Europe.

Short Changing the Planet

Wed, Nov 25 Listen

The BBC World Service has been investigating the controversial issue of whether poor countries have ever seen all of the money promised by industrialised countries in 2001. According to some less than 10 percent of it has been paid: others disagree.

The Crescent and The Cross: Part Three

Mon, Nov 23 Listen

In the third instalment of The Crescent and the Cross, Owen Bennett Jones examines one of the most important Muslim empires in history - the Ottoman Empire. In particular, it focuses on the time of Suleiman The Magnificent, a towering figure in the rivalry between Christianity and Islam, and a crucial battle - the 1565 Seige of Malta.

DocArchive: John Simpson Returns to 1989 - Part Two

Thu, Nov 19 Listen

The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson tells the story of 20 years of post-communist life. Through personal stories, he traces the different roads that East Germany, the Czech Republic and Romania have taken since 1989. In part two John returns to Prague to speak to those who lived through the Velvet Revolution.

A Dollar A Day - Part Three

Wed, Nov 18 Listen

In Nepal, severe drought and unreliable monsoon rains have led to acute food shortages. The impact is felt most by people like Charuri who is struggling to feed three children and cannot afford the medical help she needs.

The Crescent and The Cross: Part Two

Mon, Nov 16 Listen

Owen Bennett Jones explores five crucial battles in the relationship between Christianity and Islam. This episode looks at the Crusades.

Africa's Forgotten Soldiers

Thu, Nov 12 Listen

Seventy years after the start of the Second World War the overwhelming impression is of a conflict fought on the battlefields of Europe by white troops. Britain’s war effort was bolstered by soldiers from the white Commonwealth – Australia, Canada and New Zealand and later by the United States. The war in the Far East is often overlooked, as is the fighting that took place in Africa. Yet one million African troops participated in the conflict, fighting their way through the jungles of Burma,...

DocArchive: Assignment: Better Banking

Thu, Nov 12 Listen

As governments struggle to curb the so-called “casino-banking” practices which some blame for the global financial meltdown, Michael Robinson now reports on growing concerns over super-fast, computerised share-dealing systems which are earning massive new profits for banks.

DocArchive: A Dollar a Day - Part 2

Wed, Nov 11 Listen

Thrown off nearby farms at the time of Namibia’s independence, the squatters of Otjivero lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Last year a scheme was established to give every inhabitant a basic cash grant of US$10 a month, to spend as they wanted. School enrolment has shot up, small businesses are springing up, and the nurse at the local clinic says malnutrition rates amongst the children have dropped.

The Crescent and the Cross - Part One

Mon, Nov 9 Listen

The Crescent and the Cross, a four-part series, presented by Owen Bennett-Jones, examines several turning points in the relationship between Christianity and Islam covering Muslim Spain, the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire and the struggle for Africa. Part One starts by look going back over 1,000 years ago, in what we now call Spain, but was then known as al-Andalus.

DocArchive: Youssou N’Dour at 50

Thu, Nov 5 Listen

To mark the 50th birthday of Youssou N'Dour, Robin Denselow travels to Senegal to profile the best known African musician of recent times.

DocArchive: Assignment - Guinea on the Brink

Thu, Nov 5 Listen

Mark Doyle reports from Guinea in West Africa on the harrowing events of 28 September when government troops crushed an opposition rally in the centre of the capital, Conakry. This programme contains some graphic description of sexual violence.

DocArchive: A Dollar a Day - Part 1

Wed, Nov 4 Listen

What keeps a billion people trapped in the most persistent poverty? Mike Wooldridge travels to Nicaragua to meet Justa who hoped for a better life after the Sandinista revolution.

DocArchive:

Mon, Nov 2 Listen

The extraordinary but little-known tale of Russia's three all-female regiments that flew more than 30,000 missions on the Eastern Front. At home they were celebrated as 'Stalin's Falcons' but terrified German troops called them the 'Night Witches'.

DocArchive: Public Places, Private Lives - Part Two

Fri, Oct 30 Listen

Public Places, Private Lives is a series of portraits of well known places that reveal the lives and stories of those people who come to a famous spot not to gaze as tourists, but for work or for their own private reasons. The second programme is set in the Taj Mahal, where we hear the experiences of those people for whom one of the most important sites in India is part of their daily landscape.

DocArchive: Assignment - Dying to Give Birth

Thu, Oct 29 Listen

Jill McGivering travels to Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, to meet a doctor who is battling against the odds to prevent women from dying in childbirth. Listeners may find parts of this Assignment programme distressing.

DocArchive: Rebranding Nigeria - Part Two

Wed, Oct 28 Listen

Nigeria is campaigning for a new image and a new reputation in an effort to attract some much needed investment. Reporter Henry Bonsu follows the many steps of this charm offensive.

DocArchive: MI6 - A Century in the Shadows - Part Tree

Mon, Oct 26 Listen

The head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service Sir John Scarlett, talks for the first time about the interrogation of terrorist suspects and MI6’s role in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

DocArchive: Public Places, Private Lives - Part One

Fri, Oct 23 Listen

Public Places, Private Lives is a series of portraits of well known places that reveal the lives and stories of those people who come to a famous spot not to gaze as tourists, but for work or for their own private reasons.

DocArchive: Assignment - Protecting Britain's Children

Thu, Oct 22 Listen

When a 17 month-old London child died after horrific abuse by his family, it unleashed a barrage of criticism against British social services. For Assignment Catherine Miller gains rare access to the people whose job it is to protect Britain's vulnerable children.

DocArchive: Rebranding Nigeria - Part One

Wed, Oct 21 Listen

Can the home of 419 internet scams, corruption and voodoo ever transmit a positive image? Is changing Nigeria's image an impossible mission?

MI6 - A Century in the Shadows

Mon, Oct 19 Listen

In Programme Two, we find out what were spies really up to behind the Iron Curtain. MI6 chief John Scarlett describes his clandestine meeting with an agent, and the Russian defector Oleg Gordievsky talks about his reasons for coming over to the other side.

DocArchive: Assignment Armenia: The cleverest nation on the planet

Thu, Oct 15 Listen

Every two years teams from all over the world compete with one another in the Chess Olympiad. In the last two Olympiads, the winning medal has gone to a small country in the Caucasus. How has this nation done it? Gabriel Gatehouse investigates.

DocArchive: John Simpson Returns to 1989