When I say that this money should be repaid, I'm told, no, it was long ago. I don't think this matters. What matters is that the Bolsheviks were criminals and stole things that belonged to other people. Unless these matters are righted, I don't hold much hope for the future of Russia.
When I lay a map of the original Grand Duchy of Muscovy over a map of the Russian Empire, there seems an awful lot more land on the map of the empire. Exactly how did the tsars acquire all this territory?
Once the Romanov heirs recover what was "stolen" from the them, shouldn't they then turn the money over to the heirs of the rulers of all the lands the Romanovs and their predecessors conquered or seized by force?
What makes the Bolshevik expropriation of Romanov property fundamentally less legitimate than the earlier seizures that enriched the Romanovs?
I really don't understand the application of personal property law to the actions of governments -- even revolutionary governments. By such logic, the United States would owe Queen Elizabeth quite a tidy sum.
