Rank the Russian Governments in the past 300 years

[smoltchanov]

[1] Republic of Russia
[2] USSR post-Stalin
[3] Russian Federation
[4] Russian Empire
[5] USSR pre-Stalin
[6] USSR with Stalin

Almost my ratings. I would only lower post-Stalin USSR 2 positions (and, as a result, raised Russian Federation and Russian Empire by one). As a Russian living in Russia i have reasonably good understanding of what was what. After all - i lived in post-Stalin USSR for many years. Only in 1985 change began.

[smoltchanov]

Guys, please understand, that mentality and traditions of most Russians are very different from both "standard western mentality" (US, UK, Germany, and so on) and typical Asian (China, Japan and so on) one  too. In many aspects it's almost unique mixture of both with addition of "own" elements. So, Russian governments generally reflect it (you can call Putin any "dirty word" and i will concur, but most Russians are no more "progressive" then he is, may be - even less), and to evaluate it using "standard western criteria" makes little sense. I hope, that Russian traditions and reality will slowly move in western direction, but word slowly is a key here..

[smoltchanov]

^ You can't remove Putin's regime (which now has stable support of 60-70% of Russian population (much more - in rural areas), if only because it's complete dominance of mass-media) by any means short of full-scale nuclear war. And West will not do it, by obvious reason. So - it's a "theory" at best... Wait until he dies, or - 6 years (whatever will come sooner). You must understand that generally Russian mentality is very conservative: typical Russian values stability much more, then liberty (if he knows what it is at all, as there were very few periods in Russian history, when this notion had any practical sense for "normal" citizens). 1990th were the period with very high level of liberty, and, at the same time - with lot of economical problems, chaos, disorganisation and hardships. So, in minds of majority the very notion "liberty" is associated with all that, not something positive. And thus - a majority tries to avoid it at any cost. The shelves of the supermarkets are full (unlike most of 1980th and at least part of 1990th), the income - low, but stable, the rent, while higher then it was, is acceptable, and that's all a majority of population wants. Stagnation, but - relatively comfortable one. Add to this social conservatism of most population (and leading church, which plays an important role in it), strong populist (but - conservative populist, like it was in American South half century ago) inclinations, and you more or less get the picture of why a "democracy" is a "dirty word" (on par with n-word in US) in Russia now.