Bonus: Introducing: The History Bureau
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft turns out to be flawed? The History Bureau revisits the defining stories of our times with the reporters who first covered them. What did they get right first time around? And, in the chaos and confusion of unfolding events, what did they miss?
Season 1: Putin and the Apartment Bombs. In September 1999, just weeks after a 46-year-old Vladimir Putin became Prime Minister, four bombs blew up four apartment buildings across Russia, killing hundreds of people while they slept. The attacks plunged the country into panic. Families fled their homes. Residents patrolled their blocks around the clock. An entire nation paralyzed by fear. But who did it? It's a mystery that has fuelled some chilling theories. The government blamed Chechen militants. Many reporters agreed. But then the whispers started. Was something even more sinister going on?
If you're in the UK, listen first to The History Bureau on BBC Sounds - or elsewhere in the world, listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hi, I'm Helena Merriman, and I'm jumping on this fee to tell you about a new BBC podcast, |
| 0:12.5 | the History Bureau. In our first series, Putin and the apartment bombs, we explore one of the most |
| 0:19.2 | contested and consequential stories in modern Russia. |
| 0:23.0 | And if you like what you hear, listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:30.0 | They say that when a bomb goes off, you feel it before you hear it. |
| 0:36.9 | The explosives create a shockwave that pushes walls inward, |
| 0:42.1 | disintegrates glass, compresses air. |
| 0:45.7 | And for a brief moment, there's just silence. |
| 0:51.3 | Then you hear it. A blast so loud it can rupture ear drums after the explosion the aftermath of a bomb follows a familiar pattern |
| 1:05.3 | sifting through the rubble counting the dead the survivors. And finally, the search for a story, |
| 1:16.2 | something to make sense of the horror. Sometimes the story gives closure. Perpetrators are named, |
| 1:22.7 | motivations identified. But then there are the stories that don't make sense. |
| 1:30.8 | That lead to more questions than answers. |
| 1:35.2 | From the BBC, this is the History Bureau, where we take journalists back to a story to ask, |
| 1:42.5 | what did we miss the first time round? |
| 1:46.1 | It's a second draft of history. |
| 1:49.8 | And for this, our first season, |
| 1:52.0 | we're digging into a story that the world may have been getting wrong for years. |
| 1:57.1 | It's about a bomb. |
| 1:59.3 | In fact, four bombs. Four bombs that blew up four apartments across Russia in 1999, |
| 2:06.7 | killing some 300 people. The entire country felt under siege. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.