Welcome to this week’s History Thread! I’m not sure why Russia’s long history of absolute rule by ennobled dunderheads and god-anointed psychopaths comes to mind so readily on this particular Tuesday. Probably just because I’m reading a lot of books on the Revolution and the last years of Nicholas II (who used to be bizarre) this month, and no other reason. But then, Ivan the Terrible was a strong, decisive ruler whose penchant for paranoid persecution of his enemies helped make Russia into a proper nation. Peter the Great’s policy of Westernization, torturing his son to death and forcibly shaving the beards of his nobles most likely made Russia into the world power it is today. At least Catherine the Great’s accomplishments of cultural development and territorial expansion were mostly positive (for her homeland, at least) if you ignore her rather dubious method of obtaining power. Sometimes you need to break a few omelets, etc.
The History Thread Used to Be Bizarre
