Tu204 From Russia, joined Mar 2006, 904 posts, RR: 19 Posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 4032 times:
Well, now that we have a post about the best leader of Germany, the United States and !Burkina Faso! I thought it would be only fair to start this one especially because I would like to hear the opinions of our friends in the United States.
Eligible are all leaders of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and the Russian Federation.
My personal favourite is Vladimir V. Putin (the current president). During his presidency the quality of life in Russia has greatly improved and he has restored the country's image on the international arena.
A close second would be Aleksander II.
The worst leaders (in my opinion) are Josef Stalin, Boris Yeltsin and Nikolai II (Nicholas II)
I do not dream about movie stars, they must dream about me for I am real and they are not. - Alexander Popov
TriStarEnvy From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 2265 posts, RR: 4 Reply 1, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 4012 times:
RootsAir From Costa Rica, joined Feb 2005, 4179 posts, RR: 45 Reply 2, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 4010 times:
My favaourite of all time is Gorby by very very far. Its one of those leaders I appreciate! He was the one who finally admitted that although communism is a very good idea in theory it becomes utopic when applied in real.
A man without the knowledge of his past history,culture and origins is like a tree without roots
AeroWesty From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 18871 posts, RR: 64 Reply 3, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 4006 times:
FDXMECH From United States of America, joined Mar 2000, 3251 posts, RR: 38 Reply 4, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 4006 times:
I'd say Gorby as well. One of my saddest moments was waking up on that August 1991 morning to hear of the coup. Conversely one of my brightest moments was hearing the coup failed.
It is funny how Gorby is so beloved in the west while russians think of him as a traitor.
For me, the greatest leader Russia has had was Peter the Great. That is when the empire was made. Piotr piervoie was simply a visionary.
Although Ivan the Terrible was somewhat bloody, one may say that he gets kuddos for joing the Rus people into a nation. He is my second choice
As my third choice, I would say Alexander III - if he weren't assassinated and his changes had been put in place, there would be no russian revolution in 1917. Also a visionary mind.
AeroWesty From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 18871 posts, RR: 64 Reply 6, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 3998 times:
Quoting Flyingbabydoc (Reply 5): It is funny how Gorby is so beloved in the west while russians think of him as a traitor.
I thought it was only the apparatchiks who held that opinion of him, and I can see how they would. How do the Russian capitalists running around Moscow in their new Mercedes and vacationing in Rio view him?
Levg79 From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 989 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 3994 times:
Quoting RootsAir (Reply 2): My favaourite of all time is Gorby by very very far. Its one of those leaders I appreciate! He was the one who finally admitted that although communism is a very good idea in theory it becomes utopic when applied in real.
I concur with the majority. As RootsAir said, Gorbachev was man enough to admit that Soviet experiment wasn't working and renouncing the Soviet occupation of the Baltics in 1940, giving those countries independence from Russia.
A mile of runway takes you to the world. A mile of highway takes you a mile.
Flyingbabydoc From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 9, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 3991 times:
Quoting AeroWesty (Reply 6): How do the Russian capitalists running around Moscow in their new Mercedes and vacationing in Rio view him?
They probably like him. However, there were Russian communists running around in Moscow with flashy Limos (Zil, etc.) and buying at GUM stores and vacationing all over the world. They just traded places.
The general view was very well summed up by my Russian class' teacher. She said that before there was nothing to buy but people had money. Today, you can buy anything you want - but no one has the money for it.
As a comparison, a Physician in Russia earns ca. 150-200 € a month...
CPDC10-30 From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2000, 4759 posts, RR: 26 Reply 11, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 3977 times:
I have some admiration for Nikita Khruschev. He had has moments of bravado and poor manners, but in the end he was human and thought things out - which was a large improvement over his predecessor to say the least. Thank goodness he came to power instead of the mad rapist Beria.
He had the guts to tell his own party that Stalin was no communist, but a murderous personality cult. This partly triggered the split with the Chinese, but also opened the USSR to some extent, and gave the Chinese incentive to establish formal relations with the USA.
LY7E7 From Israel, joined Jun 2004, 2218 posts, RR: 21 Reply 12, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 3977 times:
Has to be Peter the Great. Marched Russia into the civilized world.
Worst: Lenin and everyone after until Gorbachev(not included) - marched Russia back from the civilized world.
Putin is relatively OK - simply taking Russia back to the totalitarian system, but , hey, Russians simply don't know better (and obviously don't want to).
AeroWesty From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 18871 posts, RR: 64 Reply 14, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 3965 times:
Quoting Flyingbabydoc (Reply 9): Today, you can buy anything you want - but no one has the money for it.
As a comparison, a Physician in Russia earns ca. 150-200 € a month
And that same physician has the freedom to buy what he/she wants when they earn the funds from their own labor.
Levg79 From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 989 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 3958 times:
Quoting AeroWesty (Reply 14): And that same physician has the freedom to buy what he/she wants when they earn the funds from their own labor.
What own labor? If there's something you don't know, please don't say it. It's not uncommon for Russian physicians today to have a second job to support their families. Those jobs usually being security guard at night or something like that. They are not upper class people who can buy anything they want. Most of them still don't own cars.
A mile of runway takes you to the world. A mile of highway takes you a mile.
Tu204 From Russia, joined Mar 2006, 904 posts, RR: 19 Reply 17, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 3930 times:
Well, I expected everyone to say Gorby The attitude towards him here is negative, but he did the best he could. The mess that his idiot predecessors created (except Andropov - that guy was great) was too big for him to clean up. It really is a pity that he took the blame for everything. In reality, Brezhnev's 20 year rule was to blame. Had Gorby been elected instead of Yeltsin maybe things would have been different.
Peter the Great was a great reformer, but you cannot forget that millions died during his reforms.
As for Khruchev - I like that guy He is the guy next door, the "average Joe"; yes, he really liked to interrupt people and had next to no manners, but you just gotta love him. Granted, his agricultural reforms failed miserably (well, thats what happens when you try to replace all wheat with corn in one year and in a nothern climate) but he did manage to solve the housing problems...sort of. Thanks to him the space program "took off"
Quoting LY7E7 (Reply 12): Putin is relatively OK - simply taking Russia back to the totalitarian system, but , hey, Russians simply don't know better (and obviously don't want to).
Ok, nice comment. How about you take a country with over 80 ethnic groups (which, I might add are not immigrants, they are native to the country - this plays a big part) half of which are intent on killing the other half and make this country prosper without having some degree of totalitariasm. Good luck. We already tried "democracy" in the 90's and look what that brought. Putin is not a dictator either. By the way, why do many of those emigrees that left for Isreal in the 90's choose to return to Russia now? You, Condolezza Rice and Sorros can say whatever you want about Putin, but the only voice that matters is that of the people and they ARE happy - it is not propaganda.
Sorry
I do not dream about movie stars, they must dream about me for I am real and they are not. - Alexander Popov
TriStarEnvy From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 2265 posts, RR: 4 Reply 18, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 3927 times:
Well, how about Chernenko?
Only running the show for about 13 months?
If you don't stand for SOMETHING, you'll fall for ANYTHING.
Sovietjet From Bulgaria, joined Mar 2003, 2339 posts, RR: 14 Reply 19, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 3926 times:
I think Lenin was OK. Not good but not bad either. Stalin was HORRIBLE. I don't like Gorby that much or Khruschev either. They were both pretty average. I guess none of the Soviet leaders were exceptional. However I think that Putin is pretty good.
Quoting Flyingbabydoc (Reply 9): The general view was very well summed up by my Russian class' teacher. She said that before there was nothing to buy but people had money. Today, you can buy anything you want - but no one has the money for it.
Amen
signed,
all my grandparents and relatives still living in Bulgaria.
Aeroflot777 From Russia, joined Mar 2004, 2957 posts, RR: 30 Reply 20, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 3918 times:
President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin!!! No doubt. Russia has improved drastically under his presidency, and we are all proud to have him as President!
AeroWesty From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 18871 posts, RR: 64 Reply 21, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 3913 times:
Quoting Levg79 (Reply 15): What own labor? If there's something you don't know, please don't say it.
By "from their own labor" meant that they were free to take up capitalistic enterprise and earn whatever they wanted in order to buy whatever they wanted. It's a concept I'm quite familiar with.
Levg79 From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 989 posts, RR: 0 Reply 22, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 3909 times:
Lenin? That's the guy who introduced Communism in Russia and created the Soviet Union. What positive can you say about him? I might sound very closed minded and our fellow Russian a.netters would probably dislike me, but it was Lenin initially who caused my country to be occupied for over 50 years. If it wasn't for Lenin and his Soviet ideologies, I would've had a whole different life right now.
Leo.
A mile of runway takes you to the world. A mile of highway takes you a mile.
Prebennorholm From Denmark, joined Mar 2000, 6019 posts, RR: 55 Reply 24, posted (7 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 3895 times:
It is hard to talk about about "the best Russian leader". All way from Peter the Great up to Putin they have followed a wrong goal and had no clue what proper governance really is.
They have all worked for treating this large country as one unity. In the beginning the effects were minor, but with the invention of telegraph and railways Moscow got the tools to impose its centralized power and disaster really struck.
Just imagine if the USA had not been divided into fifty mostly self governing states - she would have suffered the same mess.
Same in Germany. Bismark got the telegraphs, railways and waterways to extend his administrative and military power all over Das Reich. And for a hundred years disaster went from bad to worse until 1945 when we divided Germany into now 16 Länder (states) with the USA as a model.
If we shall talk about a Russian leader, who may have been aware of her problems, then Eduard Schevardnadze comes to my mind. He was "only" secretary of state, not president. But I think that he could have mastered a plan to make Russia controllable. To stretch democracy on a local level. But he had nobody to back him up. He was just some sort of "misfit" in the administration.
Putin is fairly popular in Russia. He came to power at a time when things couldn't get worse. Things could only move forward. He takes the applaus for the unavoidable progress.
Internationally he is indicating the same 200 years old Russian "inferiority complex". He seems unable to get used to Russia's lost status as "superpower", as if superpower status was something worth struggling for. Half of him still sees "the west" and things like NATO as some "illness" which could catch.
Instead any Russian leader should see it the way it is: The west produced NATO because they were ready to die for not becoming communists. Russia tried it, didn't want communism either. Now we are in the same boat and should go full speed forward together.
There is of course the difference that "the west" has built up an enormous wealth, quality of life and choices for all individuals during the years of Russian communism. It will take time to catch up. But look at the most successful east European countries and see how fast they have become among the most modern countries in the world. It is only a question about "getting organized".
And it starts with "decentralization", a word which I am afraid does not exist in the Russian language. Peter the Great didn't know that word, neither does Putin.
Always keep your number of landings equal to your number of take-offs, Preben Norholm
25 Bushpilot: In terms of which one has done the best job in terms of getting things done, I dont know that. I do like Khruschev because he had balls. He made Nixo
26 Tu204: Ok, then why are bordering countries joining NATO and why are NATO's aircraft patrolling their borders with Russia? If you no longer percieve us as y
27 Sovietjet: I think communism wasn't bad and everyone from my family agrees. Sure there were faults just like any government but everyone I know that is Russian l
28 VC10: I have only been to Russia once and I believe it was in 1996 just after Gorbachev had left government, but I do remember it was at May day celebration
29 DIJKKIJK: Have to agree with that. Under Krushchev, the USSR made great leaps in science and technology. The soviet people were also relieved from the excesses
30 LY7E7: Well ,maybe , they should not comprise one single country then. You call less than 1% many? Hey, it's emigration - some just can't adopt. And why do
31 N229NW: Gorbachev I really do admire a lot. It takes a great person to swallow pride and take apart his own power, and even country...when that this the right
32 LH477: It's got to be Gorby. I wish Gorby had been born earlier, he might have been able to reform the Soviet Union before it was too late. Many seem to have
33 YOWza: Gotta be Alexei Kovalev, seen here wearing the C YOWza
34 Prebennorholm: During those fifteen years, since NATO no longer has an opponent, NATO has transformed into the world's defacto major peace keeping forum. All peace
35 Tu204: Ok Prebennorholm, how do you think the United States would react if we would station a couple squadrons of MiG-29's or Su-27's in Cuba or in Mexico ne
36 LY7E7: This is simply not true. Provide data before posting crap.
37 Prebennorholm: Dear Tu204, it seems to me that you still grab to the old "them and us" way of thinking. And "equal rights for them and us". A free and open democrat
38 Prebennorholm: Huh, it depends. It depends upon whether you define for instance sex slave traffickers as terrorists. That might be a valid definition, but I prefer
39 Braybuddy: Hard to say who was the best as I wouldn't be familar with any before Brezhnev, but I would imagine Gorbachev to be the most courageous. There aren't
40 AndesSMF: Thank you for a different perspective, very enlightening. Krushchev I vote for the best modern president, Putin I have to rethink in light of what I
41 L410Turbolet: Admiration for a drunk thug, who first killed god knows how many East Germans in 1953, Hungarians in 1956 and then nearly started WW3 in 1962 in Cuba
42 Kolobokman: Gorbachev is the worst. The result of his actions was terrifying! VVP is on the top there - only because he is the one who is fixing Gorbys mess strai
43 Tu204: I was expecting Turbolet to turn up sometime but I was expecting more...critical things to come from you The only thing I can tell you it that it has
44 L410Turbolet: It's interesting that even 21-25 year olds complain about Grobachev. I can understand that the collapse of the USSR was traumatising from the Russian
45 Levg79: I grew up in the Soviet Union and I happen to agree with L410Turbolet. When you're fed the propaganda that's being fed to you by the Soviet/Russian g
47 TransIsland: Funny, I was under the impression he was ruining Russia's international reputation once more. Gorbachev? Peter the Great?
48 Boeing4ever: Because these countries rightfully see you as a threat...history has taught them so. 45 years of brutal forced Soviet domination on the Warsaw Pact..
49 L410Turbolet: Won't happen my friend. Didn't the Russian Military Prosecutor's Office just deny (just few hours before the anniversary of that massacre) the reques
50 Andessmf: Thank you again for the explanation, now Ive got to be more careful with a.net, this stuff is getting addictive!
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The attitude towards him here is negative, but he did the best he could. The mess that his idiot predecessors created (except Andropov - that guy was great) was too big for him to clean up. It really is a pity that he took the blame for everything. In reality, Brezhnev's 20 year rule was to blame. Had Gorby been elected instead of Yeltsin maybe things would have been different.
He is the guy next door, the "average Joe"; yes, he really liked to interrupt people and had next to no manners, but you just gotta love him. Granted, his agricultural reforms failed miserably (well, thats what happens when you try to replace all wheat with corn in one year and in a nothern climate) but he did manage to solve the housing problems...sort of. Thanks to him the space program "took off" 
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