since the American school system hardly talks about Russia before

Poor and shit for most people
Glorious and French af for some

>>1554234
>the American school system hardly talks about Russia before the Soviet Union formed

Maybe in your shitty school district. Most cover everything at least as far back as Kievan Rus.

It was a growing economy whose growth was the main concern of the Germans. If wwI hadn't broken down they would maybe have broken free from strong ruthless rulers which they will be trapped in forever.

>>1555412
>Becoming a global superpower under stalin was bad

Spot the liberal

>>1554234
pretty bad

Russia was the last european big state to abolish serfdom (slavery by any other name) in 1865 (!).

Division between nobles and powerless common people was gigantic. Russian nobles didn't even speak russian, preferring french to differentiate themselves from "rubes".

To reign in this archaic feudalistic atavism Peter introduced table of ranks (modelled after similar military rank hierarchies in Sweden, Prussia and Nederlands):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_Ranks

which created semi-military hierarchy for civilians working in civil service

Table of ranks was an attempt to create meritocratic society and force nobles to actually do shit and provide common people with possibility to raise in ranks and become minor nobility themselves.

>>1555424
>thinking the millions people who died in order for Stalin to make Russia a superpower was justified

Spot the Tankie LARPer

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>>1554234
>since the American school system hardly talks about Russia before the Soviet Union formed

>>1555412
>"growing economy"

Yeah no dude. Tsarist russia mainly was a regressive shithole. The structure of the political system and the disenfranchised political/bureaucratic class prevented any kind of real reform.

>Main concern for the germans

They were a major concern true but not in the economic sense. German military brass mostly feared that the russian army fully mobilized would be too massive for a 2 front war. They didn't realize what the war would be like so they didn't really accounted russias industrial weakness. No one had an accurate idea what the war would be like in terms of ammunition consumption etc.

>strong rulers which they now will have forever

The Tsarist rule is to blame the most for this development. It didn't allow for the development of a democratic Opposition (apart from some ivory tower intellectuals) and established the cuthroat strongmen political culture the communists only seeked to emulate.

>>1554234
>the American school system hardly talks about Russia before the Soviet Union formed

Did you take a World History course? I did in Junior year and we covered a lot of Russian history.

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>>1555424
Rolling over millions of corpses to create a strong war machine? It's not worth it at all. Regardless of what happened, Russia was definitely destined for superpower status in the 20th century.

it sucked
russia always sucked

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>>1555601
No russia wasn't "destined to be a superpower". It could have very well ended up like today, a regional/great power. That the UDSSR became a superpower is very much connected to the ruthless bunch around stalin who played their cards right (except trusting the natsis too much) and their ideology who was a serious concurrent too free market oriented capitalism for a while.

>>1555594
>Yeah no dude. Tsarist russia mainly was a regressive shithole. The structure of the political system and the disenfranchised political/bureaucratic class prevented any kind of real reform.
>he didn't know that in the late 19th and early 20th century the Russian economy was growing rapidly

>>1554234
The nobility use to speak entirely French and many could barely speak Russian.

Also, Kievan Rus was founded by the Rus Vikings. This polity expanded into numerous city states. Multiple conquests took place, and a few centuries later Russia was the JUST of Europe. Fast forward to Ivan the Terrible who completely changed this and greatly expanded Russia.

Then Russia went back to being JUST again (Time of Troubles) and a lot of countries took advantage of this. Then Peter the Great came in, retook conquered lands, defeated enemies, and brought Western culture to Russia. His daughter succeeded him, and almost conquered Prussia till she died and her son wanted to suck off Frederick II.

Catherine the Great continued Peter's process of Westernization, and also greatly expanded Russia. Decades later, Alexander II made a bunch of reforms and fought the Turks but forgot to teach his son how to rule. So, Nicholas II was a really shitty leader and communists took over.

TL;DR Read Anna Karenina

>>1555594
>The Tsarist rule is to blame the most for this development. It didn't allow for the development of a democratic Opposition (apart from some ivory tower intellectuals) and established the cuthroat strongmen political culture the communists only seeked to emulate.
yes

Ivan and his oprichnina created a precedent of a ruler creating institute to enforce his personal power by any means necessary up to and including mass murder and tortures.

Various incarnation of that same idea were "Okhranka" was created as a reaction to Alexander II's assasination attempts.

Later in soviet times NKVD, and later KGB simply picked up the same idea.

Russia also historically always had censorship (not just for published books but also extending to personal letters) intended to root out even the idea of disloyalty to the Tsar

>>1555619
It was still ridiculously backwards and undeveloped outside of Moscow, Petersburg, and a few other huge cities. Most estimates placed Russia at outpacing Germany/the UK by the 1940s or 1950s.

Russia's big problem was its mass of quasi-serfs that for the most part didn't even have petroleoum-powered farm equipment outside of the core Russian regions. Eventually, Russia probably would have become one of the largest industrial powers, but with hindsight, a political revolution, and the massive strife that accompanied that, was nearly inevitable.

>>1555619
Greentexting my quote and your answer...
You should have lurked some more my dude.

On topic:
The economic reforms were deeply problematic for the political system and severely impacted the stability. High taxes antagonized the peasants, industries were either owned by the state or foreigners, thus no bourgeoisie to act as a counterbalance for the growing and radicalized working class. The few capitalists and intellectuals were also mostly anti-establishment because they were also excluded from power for the most part. The Tsar was highly dependant on foreign investors and thus had to cater to their needs.

In the long run it was either tsarist autocracy or continued and sustainable economic growth. Even if tsarist russia would have survived WW1 by some miracle there is no way they would just have turned into a friendly constitutional monarchy that somehow still achieved the same things the soviets did.

Tsarist russia was rotten to the core. The soviets for most part tried to be the complete opposite of that and ended up doing the same only much more successful.

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>>1555594
>regressive

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>>1555721
Ah sorry i forgot /pol/ likes everything that is reactionary no matter how retarded it is.

>>1554234
They got their written language from Bulgarians.

>>1555721
kill yourself

>>1555623
>and almost conquered Prussia till she died and her son wanted to suck off Frederick II.
This shit still wakes me up at night.

>mfw the last tsar and his family were murdered on my birthday.

>>1555828
Actually read what a massive moron the man was. His diaries Show how detached from reality he was. He was more worried about tennis and personal shit then the outbreak of WW1. His daughters were cut though and i am sorry for them.

>>1555828
more reason to celebrate

>>1555849
>>1555850

not so much for him, but I feel bad about the children. they really couldn't help who they were born to.

>>1554234
>be empty
>migration of PIEs
>migration of Finns
>be finns
>slavic migrants mix
>be conquered by rurikid
>be russians
>missionaries bring literacy and christianity
>aechduchy of kiev
>petty kingdoms and shit
>golden horde + "republic" of novogorod
>lithuania eats most your land
>muscovy yes
>remove steppeniggers
>border policy is conquer until we find a boarder
>remove mongols, meet chinks
>wierd sex and drugs
>woops our monarch is related to everyone, thanks victoria
>ww1, everyone is starving
>communism

>>1555623
>Decades later, Alexander II made a bunch of reforms and fought the Turks but forgot to teach his son how to rule.

You can't polish a turd, even if it's a nice family man turd.

>>1555396
Maybe in like an AP history class in mine (not OP), never had anything that far back+that far east covered. I will concede my high school district is absolutely fucking ass-backwards, though.

>>1555505

Peter the Great, accelerated the germanization of Russia, brought many Germans into his empire. His successors also filled important positions in diplomacy, administration and the army with Germans. One has merely to examine the names of the leading personages of that time to notice that Germans were dominating the upperclass of Russian life.

Peter's anti-Slav/Boyar reforms culminated in 1722 with the creation of the Table of Ranks. A new generation of technocrats soon supplanted the Boyar class and dominated the civil service in Russia.

Another Peter decree in 1713 established Landrats (from the German word for "national council"). The new Russian provinces were modeled on the Swedish system of provinces,

major goal of Peter's reform was reducing the influence of the Boyars, Russia's elite nobility, who stressed Slavic supremacy and opposed germanic influence

Peter saw slavs as backwards and obstacles standing in the way of germanization. He specifically targeted the boyars with numerous taxes and obligatory services, including a tax on beards.