Your Favorite Russian Leader?

[Scholencia]

Well, he brought democracy in Russia, did not he?

No. Firing tanks at Parliament and rigging the elections in favor of his own persona, is not the same as bringing democracy to a country.

But the Parliament was from the Soviet Union which were elected in 1990 but not democratically (since it was a delegat system). Besided, there is no evidence that Yeltsin rigged the election.

Now, firing tanks on parliament is not good even if that parliament was not democtarically elected but since they had power the parliament did not want to make free elections.

[Shofercia]

Well, he brought democracy in Russia, did not he?

No.

Not at all, actually. It could be argued that Gorbachev was attempting to bring democracy to Russia, and it could be argued that Putin won his elections democratically, but Yeltsin was essentially the oligarch-in-chief who presided over the collapse of Russian society during the 1990s. He didn't even try to stop it. He just got drunk and made an ass of himself.

Putin won the 2004 elections, and the 2012 elections. On the other hand, he didn't exactly play fair in the 2000 elections, and the 2007 elections. So he's at 50%

[New Soviet Red Republic]

Gorbachev or Putin, Theyboth made significant economic breakthroughs for Russia.

[Ice Hockey (Ancient)]

None of the above

[Shofercia]

No. Firing tanks at Parliament and rigging the elections in favor of his own persona, is not the same as bringing democracy to a country.

But the Parliament was from the Soviet Union which were elected in 1990 but not democratically (since it was a delegat system). Besided, there is no evidence that Yeltsin rigged the election.

Now, firing tanks on parliament is not good even if that parliament was not democtarically elected but since they had power the parliament did not want to make free elections.

There's no evidence that Yeltsin rigged the elections?

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 65,00.html

But behind closed doors on Monday, during a meeting with opposition leaders, Medvedev reportedly offered another take on the official story. According to four people who were in the room, Medvedev stated, like a bolt from the blue, that Russia's first President did not actually win re-election in 1996 for his second term. The second presidential vote in Russia's history, in other words, was rigged.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomani ... -to-putin/

This is the sort of pointless pearl-clutching that really makes me despair. Of course Yeltsin stole the 1996 election. Anyone who knows anything about Russia has known this for years.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... -not-putin

If we go back to the 1996 presidential elections in which Boris Yeltsin and Gennady Zyuganov both won just over 30% in the first round and were preparing for a runoff, Yeltsin made a deal with General Lebed, who finished third with 14.5%, to convince his supporters to vote for Yeltsin. It was a dirty, unfair, undemocratic deal, but Yeltsin didn't rely on counting votes as it pleased him, however people actually voted. Instead he was determined to convince people to vote for him.

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2 ... -of-putin/

“De-democratization,” as it is often called, began not under Putin but under Yeltsin, in the period from 1993 to 1996, when the first Russian president used armed force to destroy a popularly elected parliament; enacted a super-presidential constitution; “privatized” the former Soviet state’s richest assets on behalf of a small group of rapacious insiders; turned the national media over to that emerging financial oligarchy; launched a murderous war in the breakaway province of Chechnya; and rigged his own re-election.

That took me 10 mins. How much evidence do you want? Oh, and when they say "Yeltsin used administrative resources", that doesn't mean things like the Franking Privilege. That means that Zyuganov votes were really counted as Yeltsin's votes.

[Shofercia]

Gorbachev or Putin, Theyboth made significant economic breakthroughs for Russia.

Gorbachev had significant economic breakthroughs?

[Shirah Mataniya]

So who is your favorite Russian leader? Is he or she a leader of Imperial Russia? Soviet Russia? Or the new Russian Republic?

I am by no means an expert on Russia but I do have an interest in the nation. And If pressed I woul say Catherine the I of Russia is my favorite. She was the first woman to rule Imperial Russia and is known for continuing Peter's policies of modernizing the Russian Empire. She cut the military budget in a time of peace and thus took a heavy tax burden off the peasentry and is generally remembered as a fair and just ruler.

So, who is your favorite Russian Leader NSG?

Siberian Grigori Rasputin.

[Shofercia]

Vladimir II Monomakh

Good choice

But can you be more specific at to why you chose him?

[Boer Republics (Ancient)]

Gorbachev or Putin, Theyboth made significant economic breakthroughs for Russia.

Gorbachev had significant economic breakthroughs?

The economy went into free-fall after Gorbachev, so I guess it broke the glass floor the Soviet system provided.

[Infinite eternity]

Boris Yeltsin, because he was the most laughable leader of the 20th century.

[New Soviet Red Republic]

Gorbachev or Putin, Theyboth made significant economic breakthroughs for Russia.

Gorbachev had significant economic breakthroughs?

да, the economyseverly fell after Gorbachev and didnt start to recover until Medvedev and Putin

[Coccygia]

Rurik!

[Coccygia]

Rurik! It's been downhill ever since.

[Wamitoria]

Gorbachev or Putin, Theyboth made significant economic breakthroughs for Russia.

Gorbachev had significant economic breakthroughs?

He broke through the economy of Russia. With a hatchet.

[Boer Republics (Ancient)]

Rurik! It's been downhill ever since.

You, Sir, win one internet!

[Coccygia]

Rurik! It's been downhill ever since.

You, Sir, win one internet!

[Quelesh]

If the question is limited to "leaders of all of Russia," my answer is probably a tie between Georgy Lvov and Mikhail Gorbachev. Lvov did a much better job after the February Revolution than Kerensky did, and I think Russia would have had a shot at something close to genuine democracy and even socialism, and avoiding sinking into dictatorship, had he remained at the head of the Provisional Government. (Kerensky was a disaster.) Gorbachev was a great modernizer and reformer, and I think good things could have happened in Russia if his perestroika had been allowed to come to fruition.

If the question is not so limited, my answer I would say is Nestor Makhno, founder of the Free Territory in the Ukraine during the Civil War, who had to contend with authoritarians from the Germans and Austrians, to the Ukranian statists, to the Whites, to the Bolsheviks. History may have turned out very differently if he and the Black Army had succeeded in winning freedom for the Ukraine. Other peasant revolutions against the early Bolsheviks may have been much more successful.

I don't know much about Russia before the late 19th century, though, so I'm really limiting my consideration of my "favorite" leader to the end of the Empire onwards.

(Edit: Yes, I know Makhno was a Ukranian, but I think he still counts.)

[Quelesh]

So who is your favorite Russian leader? Is he or she a leader of Imperial Russia? Soviet Russia? Or the new Russian Republic?

I am by no means an expert on Russia but I do have an interest in the nation. And If pressed I woul say Catherine the I of Russia is my favorite. She was the first woman to rule Imperial Russia and is known for continuing Peter's policies of modernizing the Russian Empire. She cut the military budget in a time of peace and thus took a heavy tax burden off the peasentry and is generally remembered as a fair and just ruler.

So, who is your favorite Russian Leader NSG?

Siberian Grigori Rasputin.

OK, I have to admit, I do actually like Rasputin.

[The Orson Empire]

None, I'm not really that familiar on Russian Politics. They don't teach that here in the U.S.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

None of the above

So are you racist, or just ignorant?

[Boer Republics (Ancient)]

Was I the only person tempted to say Boris Gudunov?

[Uelvan]

None of the above

So are you racist, or just ignorant?

Not having a favorite=Racist/Ignorant?

[Hornesia]

Putin, as he once went Tiger hunting.

[The Holy International House of Pancakes]

Ivan III.

[Arthurista]

Peter the Great. Dragged the country out from a benighted feudal backwater into a modern nation (at least for its upper crust - the aristos and the new middle classes etc). Made the orthy church into something that works as another cog in its machinery for the state rather than the other way round. Laid the foundations for the development of Russia into a great power, able to fight Charles of Sweden, Frederick and Napoleon.

Only other leader who achieved something of this sort that I can think of is Mustapha Kemal Ataturk.