>>17827869
Yes, which is why Germany should have been deindustrialised after WW1.
>>17827964
100% true. If Russia managed to get two competent tsars in a row during the 19th century, things might have ended up very different. Russia is such a strange country that you can't help but be fascinated, equal parts tragedy, glory and splendour and despite all the idiocy and incompetence and being literally at the frozen far edge of Europe, Russia still manages to drive history onwards for better or worse.