I'm impressed that you would consider attempting to tackle such subjects in Russian. In any case, while I would be interested in reading about Catherine the Great, and indeed, about Peter the Great, I'll confess that Tsar Nicholas II leaves me cold.
Actually, I have never understood the slightly sentimental approach taken to depicting his life and times in books and on the screen; granted, he was a loving husband and an adoring father. However, he was one of those rather rare human beings, who, when offered a choice between the Right/Appropriate Course of Political Action or The Dreadfully Wrong Path, invariably, and inevitably, chose the latter, every single time, without fail. This is rather unusual. Most rulers manage to get it right at least occasionally, but not Nicholas. Extraordinarily, he unerringly managed to choose the wrong option every single time. As a Tsar, he was a disaster.
Yes, well, as I have written above, I will give Nicholas and Alexandra a miss. Frankly, they depress me, as a topic. (And yes, I actually have read Edvard Radzinsky's book). However, the Battleship Potemkin does interest me.
Ah, yes: Several years ago, I, too, saw this at a university art house screening. I was teaching Russian and Soviet history at the time, and some of my students, who ran the art house cinema club, managed to obtain a copy of this movie and one wonderful evening we watched it together. A brilliant and gripping piece of cinematography and cinema history. An absolute masterpiece, I agree.
