Hungary: Hungary and Mohacs 500

Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde travel from Vienna to Budapest and beyond to find out how Hungarian hardman Viktor Orban stays in power. With an election coming up next year, now seemed a good time to find out how he uses history in his campaigns, beginning with a battle his country lost to the Ottomans back in 1526.

"There are going to be three dates that matter in our series - 1526 and the battle of Mohacs; 1848, when the Hungarians rebelled against their Austrian overlords; and 1956, when anti Soviet protestors stood up to the Russian Bear … and were crushed. Three dates, three defeats, powerful moments in any nation’s history for politicians to exploit."

This is the thirteenth in the international How to Invent a Country series that asks where countries come from, and what are the stories people tell themselves about their past. Misha Glenny is the award-winning author of McMafia and currently head of the IWM in Vienna. With contributions from Paul Lendvai. Reka Kinga Papp, Simon Winder, Kamilla Marosi, Tibor Fischer and Nick Thorpe, plus Norbert Papp on location near Mohacs.

"The actual events of the battle don't matter - history is just raw material for politicians," Papp says.

The producer for BBC Studios Audio is Miles Warde.