HERE's the Russian poll...

[Alexander I]

Who should it be? Tell us!

[Kassiopeia]

Peter the Great.
Russians named a city after him, and he was a big shot when considering war times, so I'll go for him. Maybe Lenin would qualify too, but he was the boss of the USSR, not Russia.

[Footie Mad]

Perhaps its not "politicly correct" or perhaps he is not the most deserving one but in the spirit of Civ 1 I voted for Stalin.

[DarkCloud]

Lenin... despite the fact that Stalin led longer

Catherine the Great would be good for a leader, but I had to choose Lenin, because he was the epitome of the Communist leader of the USSR!

Catherine saved the Jesuit order from destruction, and won a fair amount of wars- but there are too few recent rulers for Civ III.

[Gangerolf]

Peter the Great. He kind of laid the foundation for modern Russia, and built St Petersburg.
Stalin has too much blood on his hands IMO.

[Kenobi]

I foolishly put down Peter the Great in another thread, but the more I think about it, the more I think it has to be Ivan IV, "the Terrible". He basically unified the kingdom of Russia around his principality of Moscow and beat off the tartars, enabling Russia to move South and East to the Urals. Bit of a loony-tunes in his later years (he murdered his own son, and did nasty things to his enemies), but a definite contender. All the other rulers of Russsia after him built upon the empire he created.

My second choice would be Peter the Great, who modernised Russia and defeated the Swedes at Poltava.

Side note: "Ivan the Terrible" is our translation of Ivan Grozny (remember that city in Chechnya?), which means "Ivan the Awe-Inspiring", or "...Terrifying".

[Miatezhnyi]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
Peter the Great. He kind of laid the foundation for modern Russia, and built St Petersburg.
Stalin has too much blood on his hands IMO.

I'm for Peter, too, but his hands were also quite bloody, though not nearly as bad as Stalin's.

[Fidel]

Originally posted by Miatezhnyi


I'm for Peter, too, but his hands were also quite bloody, though not nearly as bad as Stalin's.

Is there any leader in the game whose hands are not bloody?

[Kenobi]

Originally posted by LaRusso


Is there any leader in the game whose hands are not bloody?

I know mine ALWAYS are! Out, damned spot!

[Juggler]

I chose Ivan the Terrible but you forgot to put Alexander Nevsky.

[fittstim]

Well the front page of the paper this morning described in gory detail how the Vikings founded the Russian state.

So I cast my vote for Erik the Red...

[Hasdrubal]

Not Lenin or Stalin. The Russians deserve more appreciation than that. After all, we don't expect Hitler, Hirohito, Franco or George W. Bush to make an appearance either.

[Fidel]

Originally posted by Kenobi


I know mine ALWAYS are! Out, damned spot!

Hehe, well I just remembered that Gandhi was kinda cool....
Peter had a knack for hanging dissenters. True European monarch I voted for Uncle Joe, Civ1 fond memories plus I'd rather see his smirk when negotiating with Russians

[Fidel]

Originally posted by Hasdrubal
Not Lenin or Stalin. The Russians deserve more appreciation than that. After all, we don't expect Hitler, Hirohito, Franco or George W. Bush to make an appearance either.

Well, Franco is better than Asnar or Felipe Gonsales or any other bureucrat . I mean, you should HATE foreign leaders, while you can always change your leader's name.
This said, Thatcher should be English leader

[datakodin]

Originally posted by fittstim
Well the front page of the paper this morning described in gory detail how the Vikings founded the Russian state.

So I cast my vote for Erik the Red...

The Russian state was founded at 860 AC by one of Viking tribes - Varyags . The name of first Russian leader was Rurick . Also first Russian city in the list should be Veliky Novgorod not Moscow.

Regarding the Russian leader in the CivIII, Peter the Great would be the best choice. He converted obsolete country to modern European power.