Your Favorite Russian Leader?

[Mkuki]

I like Alexander III the most. Followed by Peter the "Great" and Catherine the "Great".

Are you sure you have the right Alexander?

Yeah, I chose the wrong one. Of course, that wouldn't have happened if European royalty could come up with unique names.

[Insane Kidney Mentality]

Putin is best leader for obvious reasons.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infoc ... TXUL0R.jpg

http://landofthefreeish.com/wp-content/ ... sharks.jpg

You forgot this.

He's on a horse.

[The Godly Nations]

I have a great deal of sympathy for Tsar Nicholas II, even if he wasn't Russia's greatest ruler. I'd have to say he's my favourite.

He also encouraged pogroms to redirect the hate against him to the Jews. Such cynicism has earned my respect.

[Insane Kidney Mentality]

Asking me my favorite Russian leader is like asking me my favorite Chinese leader. They were better before they had those silly socialist revolutions.

Just like the Americas before their silly little revolutions. *Nods*

[Bodobol]

Peter the Great, Lenin, Stalin (for some things).

[Kachilla]

No real favorite - there's never really been a truly democratic Russian leader (Putin included), and that alone makes it hard for me to choose. But Lenin has cool facial hair! And an epic rap in ERBOH! And this police photo of him from 1895 just seals it:

DAT HAIR. HE LOOKS LIKE A FLIPPING MAD SCIENTIST. I'm not too-too sure about his policies (he was better than Stalin at the very least) but DAT HAIR.

[Socialist States of Russia]

Vladimir Lenin.

His contributions to Marxist-theory provide the basis for our nation.

[Insane Kidney Mentality]

No real favorite - there's never really been a truly democratic Russian leader (Putin included), and that alone makes it hard for me to choose. But Lenin has cool facial hair! And an epic rap in ERBOH! And this police photo of him from 1895 just seals it:
(Image)
DAT HAIR. HE LOOKS LIKE A FLIPPING MAD SCIENTIST. I'm not too-too sure about his policies (he was better than Stalin at the very least) but DAT HAIR.

... my sides just went Sputnik. I'm done.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

Peter the Great wins all the larger than life award for superior achievement in drinking, partying and nation building.

Even staunch Russophobes have to admit some respect for a guy who could drink himself to unconsciousness every night, then get up at 6am to go build ships.

And there were the parties. How many other world leaders have driven around their capital in winter on sleigh drawn by naked, bald men while singing rude variants of local Christmas carols?

Nation wise, of course, he had the reforms of two previous Tsars to build on, but he was the one who made things stick and shocked even his fairly liberal mother

(Also, if cynicism is a factor, Peter did try to turn the Russian Orthodox Church into his personal spy agency.)

[Shofercia]

Alexander Nevsky

This guy knows!

Thank you

Are you sure you have the right Alexander?

Yeah, I chose the wrong one. Of course, that wouldn't have happened if European royalty could come up with unique names.

Fair enough.

[Kachilla]

Putin is best leader for obvious reasons.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infoc ... TXUL0R.jpg

AAAHHH!! PUPPY! Oh, and Vladimir Putin as well - normally I'd be all but THERE'S A PUPPY!

Puppies make even pseudo-dictators look tame!

[Mkuki]

Putin is best leader for obvious reasons.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infoc ... TXUL0R.jpg

AAAHHH!! PUPPY! Oh, and Vladimir Putin as well - normally I'd be all but THERE'S A PUPPY!

Puppies make even pseudo-dictators look tame!

Your right...

[OMGeverynameistaken]

Putin is best leader for obvious reasons.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infoc ... TXUL0R.jpg

AAAHHH!! PUPPY! Oh, and Vladimir Putin as well - normally I'd be all but THERE'S A PUPPY!

Puppies make even pseudo-dictators look tame!

The cameraman was shot five seconds after taking that photo.

[Constaniana]

1 - Gorbachev
2 - Putin
3 - Lenin
4 - Stalin
5 - Rasputin

Nah man, Big Dick Mystic gets him at least fourth.

I agree.

[Greenvul]

Peter the Great

He expanded the Tsardom into a huge empire that became a major European power. He led a cultural revolution pulling Russia out of the medieval social and political system with a modern, scientific, Europe-oriented, and rationalist system. He founded the city of Saint Petersburg. Peter's northern armies took the Swedish province of Livonia, driving the Swedes into Finland. In 1714 the Russian fleet (that Peter built, seeing as how Russia did not have a major fleet before Peter) won the Battle of Gangut. Most of Finland was occupied by the Russians. Still, Charles XII refused to yield, and not until his death in battle in 1718 did peace become feasible. After the battle near Åland, Sweden made peace with all powers but Russia by 1720. In 1721 the Treaty of Nystad ended what became known as the Great Northern War. Russia acquired Ingria, Estonia, Livonia, and a substantial portion of Karelia. The Tsar retained some Finnish lands close to Saint Petersburg, which he had made his capital in 1712.Peter's last years were marked by further reform in Russia. On 22 October 1721, soon after peace was made with Sweden, he was officially proclaimed Emperor of All Russia. Some proposed that he take the title Emperor of the East, but he refused. Gavrila Golovkin, the State Chancellor, was the first to add "the Great, Father of His Country, Emperor of All the Russias" to Peter's traditional title Tsar following a speech by the archbishop of Pskov in 1721. Peter's imperial title was recognized by Augustus II of Poland, Frederick William I of Prussia, and Frederick I of Sweden. Peter implemented a law that stipulated that no Russian man could join a monastery before the age of 50. He felt that too many able Russian men were being wasted on clerical work when they could be joining his new and improved army. Peter decided that all of the children of the nobility should have some early education, especially in the areas of sciences. Therefore, on 28 February 1714, he issued a decree calling for compulsory education, which dictated that all Russian 10- to 15-year-old children of the nobility, government clerks, and lesser-ranked officials, must learn basic mathematics and geometry, and should be tested on it at the end of their studies. He abolished the land tax and household tax, and replaced them with a poll tax. In 1725 construction of Peterhof, a palace near Saint Petersburg, was completed. Peterhof was a grand residence, becoming known as the "Russian Versailles". He was fifty-two years, seven months old when he died, having reigned forty-two years.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

He also attempted to establish Russia as a meritocracy. He abolished the old nobility in all but name and made the Table of Ranks the law of the land, which meant that anybody (in theory) could become a noble.

Fun fact: Vladimir Lenin was actually a noble. His father had obtained hereditary nobility back in 1887, I believe.

[Central Slavia]

I like Alexander III the most. Followed by Peter the "Great" and Catherine the "Great".

Are you sure you have the right Alexander?

I think it might be the sheer number of assassination attempt dude survived, including the final one.
Bomb thrown at coach, escapes unharmed, *then* finally killed by bomb thrown under his feet.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

Are you sure you have the right Alexander?

I think it might be the sheer number of assassination attempt dude survived, including the final one.
Bomb thrown at coach, escapes unharmed, *then* finally killed by bomb thrown under his feet.

That was Alexander II. Alexander III was his successor, the paranoid one who set Nicky II up for the fall.

[Vetalia]

Nikita Khrushchev, for his efforts to remedy the purges, gulags and tyranny of the Stalin era, tentative reforms in the arts and culture, and for presiding over one of the longest-lasting and most genuine periods of prosperity in modern Russian history. While he certainly had plenty of faults and misguided policies, the 1950's in the USSR were a genuinely prosperous time that massively increased the standard of living for the bulk of the population, advanced Soviet science to heights rivaling or even surpassing those of the west and which created substantial optimism for the future.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

Nikita Khrushchev, for his efforts to remedy the purges, gulags and tyranny of the Stalin era, tentative reforms in the arts and culture, and for presiding over one of the longest-lasting and most genuine periods of prosperity in modern Russian history. While he certainly had plenty of faults and misguided policies, the 1950's in the USSR were a genuinely prosperous time that massively increased the standard of living for the bulk of the population, advanced Soviet science to heights rivaling or even surpassing those of the west and which created substantial optimism for the future.

He could be a bit of a dope on certain matters, though.

Like his brilliant plans for agriculture in central Asia.

"Cotton and wheat won't grow in arid steppe? Then we will drain the Aral Sea!"

The Soviet Union: Punching Mother Nature in the Face Since 1922

[Vetalia]

He could be a bit of a dope on certain matters, though.

Like his brilliant plans for agriculture in central Asia.

"Cotton and wheat won't grow in arid steppe? Then we will drain the Aral Sea!"

The Soviet Union: Punching Mother Nature in the Face Since 1922

Oh yeah, there's no arguing that. But then again, that was the modus operandi of the Soviet leadership of the time; similarly fantastic schemes had been proposed by Stalin during his reign, e.g. the Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature. They genuinely believed they could master natural forces with intellect and raw might, although as history has shown you just plain can't beat out nature...it's been doing it's thing for 4.5 billion years as a result of forces far greater than anything we've ever been able to muster, let alone control.

He also bungled the cultural reforms in later years due to various outbursts at artists and writers, and his efforts to significantly cut military spending, (which were ultimately shown a mere 20 years later to be both wise and prescient) were out shadowed by the fact that he did them too quickly and brashly and created a large faction of pissed-off military officials who were more than happy to show him the door when the opportunity arose.

of course, Brezhnev made it even worse...while the Khrushchev agricultural programs had plenty of failures, the destructive monoculture policies of his regime produced environmental and human devastation on a much greater scale. The cotton monoculture was particularly vile in this regard.

[TaQud]

None of them

[Dulkadar]

Tsar Alexander II, followed closely by his Son. Then Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great

[OMGeverynameistaken]

You didn't mention the Northern River Reversal Project. A glorious pipedream since the Imperial days. Although at least the Tsars didn't put any actual money towards it.

My favorite proposal was one in the 1970's. A Soviet scientist proposed using 250 15kt nuclear weapons to dig a channel to divert water west from its normally northern course.

[Ainin]

Favourite Russian Leader?
[ ] Incompetent tsars
[ ] Incompetent dictators
[ ] Incompetent dictatorial state capitalists
[X] How about NO?