This is the Friends of History debating society. I am Gaius John Batchelor with Germanicus,

Markov leos. We're in Londinium. The centurians are bustling home with their families,

everybody happy. These are retired centurians, great stories. We're

sitting perhaps too long, it's cooler now, it's late summer in Londinium, but we're

enjoying ourselves because we can see the future.

We've been looking at the 21st century in terms of the fleeting politics of the American Empire.

We now turn to the moment the Russian Empire is taking to regain its strength. I've been reading

about the moments in late 1916, early 1917, when Nicholas, the Tsar abdicated, resigns, stepped aside, surrendered,

there are many words for it.

After that, it was just fall down the steps

for the Russian Empire.

So eventually, it came to the point

where the army deserted, quit, lynched their own officers walked away because they, the army,

had sworn allegiance to the Tsar, the Tsar, not to the state, not to the duma, not to someone elected, but the Tsar, who was

understood to be Russia, the man who gave the orders that all ranks acted upon, not just the

officer class.

Now we have a Tsar in the Kremlin, a man who exercises complete authority to the Kremlin.

Vladimir Putin, the question I have for Germanicus reading about these events of 1916- 1917 is, is

Putin in a position to regain the empire?

Empires in memory don't die.

They can be dormant.

They can regenerate themselves.

...