Gonna re-up this one; if you're interested in what Russian liberals at the time thought of the Russian Empire, check out FOOLSBURG: THE HISTORY OF A TOWN, by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky

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They were psychotic, and it's very symbolic of how bad the tsar was that the worst ruler of the USSR *constantly* measured himself against the tsars (especially Alexander I)

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The one unanimous conclusion from the civil war is that it's better for the world that the Whites lost that shit

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This is why it's more than a little puzzling to see self-identified leftists ally themselves with Russia. The modern Russian state doesn't look to the USSR for guidance; it looks to the Tsar, who was, almost unfailingly, the most reactionary man in all of Europe

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Putin and his cronies don't want to emulate the USSR, because that comes with all these annoying nationalities attached. They want to return to the Tsar and the good old days of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality, because the Russian people are the special children of God

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