The Reception of the Freeholding Elders with Tsar Aleksandr Aleksandrovich in the Courtyard of the Petrovsky Palace in Moscow (Ilya Repin, 1886)One of the best depictions of autocracy I have ever seen. The strength, determination, and firmness of Tsar Aleksandr Aleksandrovich is evident, and one can see that he was a good and well-loved ruler. One of the great men of history, I say. If I were to choose between a weak-kneed intellectual awash in books and “ideas” or Tsar Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, I would choose the latter. His rule saw great economic development and a flowering of the arts, what more does one need? “Freedom”? That is for juvenile pseudo-intellectuals…
