Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "Was the TSAR to blame for the Russian Revolution???" video.

@theo-dr2dz Yep, Russian culture has always been primed to accept an autocrat, so long as that autocrat is perceived as "strong" and "getting the job done". Nicholas II could've kept the absolute monarchy intact, or at least created a pseudo-constitutional monarchy in which the emperor is still capable of exercising great power (like what Germany and Japan had). So long as he just did a little for to make workers' and peasants' lives better, like what Wilhelm I and Bismarck had done in 19th century Germany. Make reforms that are just enough to undercut the appeal of the radicals, without actually giving up any power. But Nicholas II didn't have a Bismarck to give him that kind of advice, and he certainly wasn't astute enough a politician to figure it out on his own.
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Serbia was an incredibly useless ally, though. Russia would've been wise to cut ties with them years before WW1 broke out.
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@paulsara9694 Stalin was far worse, for sure. Even the worst Romanovs weren't as bad as Stalin. You'd have to go back to Ivan the Terrible (who was a Rurikid, not a Romanov) for somebody as bad as Stalin.
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27:24 Honestly, this might have been Nicholas's biggest mistake. This would've been the point to say "Serbia is actually a pretty useless ally" and kick them to the curb. Bulgaria being both larger and more favorably positioned geographically could potentially have helped him achieve his dream of seizing the Dardanelles from the Ottomans. Yes, Bulgaria was the aggressor in the conflict, but this was a time when territorial expansion via conquest was still considered acceptable. And Nicky was still looking to expand his own territory via conquest. In those days it wasn't actually "who's the aggressor" that mattered, it was just "who's winning?" If he'd chosen Bulgaria over Serbia in 1913 and came to Bulgaria's aid when they were losing the war, it would've had the added advantage of preventing World War I the next year. Instead, it would've just been Austria-Hungary curbstomping Serbia, and that would've been that.
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