Word: czars
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...democracy takes many forms, from the checks and balances of House, Senate and President in Washington to the checkmates of the Knesset in Israel. Russians and other ex- Soviets should consider a democratic variation on a theme from their own past: a constitutional monarchy headed by a restored czar...
Gorbachev is a courageous leader who defied the old Russian saying, "The czar wishes but the boyars will not allow." Gorbachev imposed his will on the boyars. He built a totally new view of international ethics which debunked the theories of realists like Henry Kissinger, who claim that all we owe foreigners is the minimal obligation of preserving the order that avoids the chaos leading to nuclear war. Instead of pursuing that amoral policy, Gorbachev led the world through one of the most important changes in the course of history with a minimum of blood loss...
...into a gateway to the West. Some even suggest returning the political capital to St. Petersburg, though Sobchak says his task is "to revive St. Petersburg as the financial, cultural and scientific capital of Russia." For a precedent, Sobchak turns to the city's founder, Peter the Great, the Czar who set out to westernize the backward Russian Empire. "For 10 years Peter the Great tried to carry out reforms in Moscow, but nothing came of it," Sobchak says. "Then he moved to the banks of the Neva River, founded a capital here and achieved his reforms...
Peter's efforts date back to 1703, when he began building his city from the miasmic swamps of the Neva River. He wanted to open "a window on Europe," a point of entry for the flow of Western ideas into his isolated empire. The reformist Czar hired Italian architects to design a modern European capital with intersecting avenues lined by stately homes and grand palaces...
...foot-dragging will continue to be at the expense of the public interest. "All of these issues could've easily been resolved five years ago with a little experimentation. This is really a case where the war on drugs has cost us something," Kleiman says. "If I were the czar--not just the drug czar, but the czar--marijuana would be available tomorrow...