czar, communism, Putin...it’s all from the same authoritarian tradition.
I like to think that life was a little different, a little less oppressive under the tsars, but in the realities of daily life, at least at the time of the tsars, a mostly pre-industrialized country, it probably didn’t seem much different. And if a peasant had a benevolent landowner to work for under the system, perhaps a little better than for others. I had hoped we could see the union of a non-commie, modern Russia, but it seems we have to wait a bit longer. It’s sad to see them backtrack, but according to some (admittedly a few tinfoil hat alerts included) sources, the commies never really left, just restructured. Sigh.