It's a real shame future leaders squandered everything Catherine the Great accomplished.

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Sums it up. So sad. Heartbreaking, when you think of the unrealized potential.

Cath the Great would have accomplished a lot more, if she hadn't abandoned the reform effort halfway through. The French Revolution scared her. After that, IMO the wheels were set in motion for dictatorships. The writing was on the wall.

How Catherine came to the throne likely largely influenced her choices, actions and so forth for rest of her reign. After all she wasn't a Romanov and never fully was cleared (in some minds) as being complicit in her husband's death. Well the same forces that put a usurper on the throne, can turn around and take her (or him) off it again.


It has been said the murder of Mary, Queen of Scots laid the foundation or offing several other anointed sovereigns; Charles I, Louis XVI and so forth. Lord knows Czars of All The Russias suffered rather high numbers in the murdered department.

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by MinivanDriver

And they substituted absolute monarchies for dictatorships. Hard to believe that the Russians look back with nostalgia at Stalin. Today, Russia is less a country and more of a criminal enterprise. Great people, terrible leadership.

While yes, hard to believe Stalin is celebrated by many Russians today, but yet there you are...


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/b...-friedman.html


As for the rest am sure not long into Lenin's rule average Russians could have sat down and wept when they realize what they've got instead of the czars. While life under the Romanovs was often no picnic for many, between Lenin and Stalin more Russians were murdered, tortured and so forth than anything that came under Romanov rule.


It is said that those who start revolutions rarely are the ones who finish or win. Just as Kerensky and his government were ousted (and largely fled Russia for their lives) by Lenin; the Bolsheviks were not treated all that well by Stalin.


What the czars and later rulers from Lenin to Putin have always felt is that Russia needs a firm hand on the wheel (more like boots on necks, but still....). This largely likely explains why from the Romanovs to Lenin, to Stalin and right on down to Putin Russians have put up with or accepted various degrees of autocratic rule.


Putin has co-opted many of the symbols and so forth of the Russian czars, which is rather apt since the man has pretty much made himself just that; Czar of All the Russias; including annexation of Ukraine.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by BugsyPal

It has been said the murder of Mary, Queen of Scots laid the foundation or offing several other anointed sovereigns; Charles I, Louis XVI and so forth. Lord knows Czars of All The Russias suffered rather high numbers in the murdered department.

The Dalai Lamas lineage of Tibet went through a spate of poisonings, too. There was a series of child DL's, that never reached adulthood to even take over the throne from the regents. And the first regent of the current (14th) DL was so corrupt, the DL had to throw him in jail and let him die.

Democracy, messy as it may be, is a significant improvement over hereditary leadership and reincarnate leaders.