“Despotism tempered by assassination, that is our Magna Carta.”
Comment of anonymous Russian nobleman after the assassination of Tsar Paul in 1801.
I have about as little use for Tsars as I do for Commissars, but the Russians have always been magnificent at choral singing.
Purely instrumental version. Most prolific use of cymbals in a national anthem!
Monarchy is a legitimate form of government but the governance of a monarchy becomes corrupt the moment a corrupt person obtains the mantle of power.
Socialism is always corrupt because it is contrary to human nature, hence, the satanic brutality of the murder of Tsar Nicholas, family first before his eyes.
I found a contention that the Okhrana, the late Tsarist secret police, had a budget of 5 million roubles in 1914, or 0.03 roubles per person in Russia. I found another contention (from an economic historian) that national income per capita in nominal terms in Russia was around 90 roubles per year in the immediate pre-war period. So, the secret police was consuming 0.03333% of national income. A similar sum today would be about $7 bn, which would be about 25% less than the budget of the FBI in our time.
I don’t think he was much like the Tsar.
The Russian economy wasn’t doing so bad in the era 1910-1914, when the rouble was worth about $0.50-0.55 USD, higher than the franc or (I believe) the mark.
The problem with the Tsar was that he was not Good King Wenceslas. The problem with the Tsar was Lenin
Sovereign persons under a monarchy are subjects. Sovereign persons under a Constitutional Republic are sovereign citizens with their First Amendment freedom to petition government and institute new government.
BTW Lenin lied.