"Our memories reach back no further than yesterday; we are, as it were, strangers to ourselves. We move through time in such singular manner that, as we advance, the past is lost to us forever. That is but a natural consequence of a culture that consists entirely of imports and imitation." -Peter Chadaaev

“The desire to find both rots and vindication in history grew partly out of the insecurity of the Eastern plain.” -James Billington

"My heart did not foresee great happiness; ambition alone sustained me. At the bottom of my soul I had something, I know not what, that never for a single moment let me doubt that sooner or later I would succeed in becoming the sovereign Empress of Russia in my own right." -Catherine the Great

“There is no hint that her rule derives from or even is beholden to popular sentiment.” -Richard Wortman… And yet she reigned, and there is deption of popular love. Is it propaganda?