Russian revolutionaries and Japan’s record breaking rollercoaster

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is Dr Lara Douds, Assistant Professor of Russian history.

We start in 1907, the men who would go on to lead the Russian Revolution met in London for a crucial congress marking a point of no return between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.

Then, in 2000, the launch of Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spa Land in Japan, becoming the world’s longest rollercoaster at nearly 2.5 km in length.

Next, the political assisination of Juan Mari Jauregui, a retired Spanish politician and long-time campaigner for independence, by Basque separatists in 2000.

Plus, how in 1986, during a world record attempt and publicity stunt, one and a half million balloons were released as a storm rolled over the city.

Finally, the story of Chuquicamata, Chile’s abandoned mining town after its 25,000 residents left due to pollution concerns .

Contributors: Henry Brailsford - British journalist Dr Lara Douds - Assistant Professor of Russian history Steve Okamoto - rollercoaster designer Maixabel Lasa - widow of Juan Mari Jauregui Tom Holowatch - project manager of BalloonFest '86 Patricia Rojas - former resident of Chuquicamata

(Photo: Lenin giving a speech in Red Square. Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to The History Hour from the BBC World Service with me, Max Pearson, the past brought to life by those who were there.
0:12.8	Coming up, from the year 2000, the political assassination in the Basque region of northern Spain of a long-time campaigner for independence.
0:21.4	One thing that really struck me was the fact he had the smile on his face.
0:26.1	A smile that said to me, yes, they have killed me, but we are going to win.
0:31.7	Plus, the death of a mining town in Chile, Cleveland's botched balloon world record,
0:37.3	and from Japan, a record-breaking roller coaster.
0:40.5	It was definitely a huge statement. I think the ride budget itself was something like $50 million.
0:47.8	All of those events happened in the past, and to a greater or lesser extent, left their mark.
0:53.4	But first, a moment when the great tides of history
0:56.7	turned on perhaps the smallest of events,
0:59.8	the loan of the price of a ticket for a boat journey.
1:02.9	This was in 1907,
1:04.8	when the men who would go on to lead the Russian Revolution
1:07.5	almost failed to make it to a crucial meeting.
1:11.1	Vicky Farncombe has been listening to an archive report from the British journalist Henry Brailsford
1:15.9	recorded for the BBC in 1947.
1:20.9	It's May 1907 and we're in London in the newsroom of the Daily News.
1:27.3	Into my office with a look of excitement and anxiety on his face,
1:31.8	Walt Fodor Rochstein, an able journalist.
1:35.8	He was the son of a well-known Russian doctor
1:38.0	and had come to London with his exiled father as a schoolboy.
1:42.8	On this spring day, he startled me by asking me to lend, beg or borrow for him immediately
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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.