[IronJack]

Tsar Nicholas wasn't much of a ruler. He pretty much squandered the throne left him by his father, Alexander, and managed to alienate just about everybody when he married a German duchess. His hemophiliac son was seen as a righteous curse for bringing in an "outsider."

Josef Stalin, on the other hand, served as the avuncular figurehead to a nation staggered by war, and kept the torch burning in the Kremlin even during the darkest days.

He also murdered somewhere around 10 million of his subjects.

It is only because Kruschev "de-Stalinized" Russia in the 50s that Uncle Joe isn't more of an icon than Vladimir Ilyich.

[C19fan]

Tsar Nicholas wasn't much of a ruler. He pretty much squandered the throne left him by his father, Alexander, and managed to alienate just about everybody when he married a German duchess. His hemophiliac son was seen as a righteous curse for bringing in an "outsider."

Didn't most of the Tsars going back to the 18th century marry German princesses. I read about the Tsars family would travel around Germany looking for wives for the sons in the family.