GrandDuchessAndrea, very intersting. It is always common to change your interests during your life. Happily you are not alone in this world.
abbigail and blessOTMA, you are right.
abbigail, of course Absolute Monarchy, which was lasted for centuries in Russia, starting from the conquest of Democratic Novgorod, have a great impact on society. Plus Orthodox Religion, plus Russian endless territory without any roads, and then this would make a great impact. Remember, that the main number of Russian people all these centuries were studying not Mr Jefferson and Mr Lincoln, and were not resting on the different health resorts for heart diseases, they had been working as a slavers in Imperial times and were prisoners of Stalin camps (millions of Russian, German Russians, etc) and were killed during the Second World War.
The most big problem, is that people, who loving Romanovs, cannot clearly understand Imperial Russian/Soviet/New Russian History as a complex and total subject. And not only clearly understand, but to find in all these, on the first time very different Histories, a lot of strong and even defining similarities, like vertical power (monarchism and authoritarism, moreover Stalin was a first and maybe last Bolsheviks Tsar, Religious Orthodox man and lover of a monarchical vertical power), the same people relations (Russian and Soviet peasants, 75% of the Russian population were living by the same laws, in the same houses, had the same relations in the Imperial times/Soviet/New Russian times, and they live by the same laws today!), and all other endless different and defining things. I do not have time and desire to mention all of them.
I do not want also to be misunderstood, because I like Romanovs and the last Imperial family. I like their devotion to each other, devotion till the end. Moreover, I like big reforms of Nicholas II, because if you decided to reform and to liberalize Russia, you are signing your own death sentence. (We know the results and 17 of July, Ipatiev house cellar). But, all these things are not enough for such a difficult Russian situation. That's exactly what I wanted to say. Again, I like the last Imperial family, but I also can understand all Russian specific problematics. Sadly, but when Nicholas started these reforms, the time had passed. That was the time of more energetic men, like Mr Sverdlov and Mr Yurovsky.
P.S. Romanov History Buff, sorry again, that we turned another your topic to the next boring political conversations.
And sorry for off-topic.