Coles notes

Coles Notes of Russian History.  I am TAing a modern Russian history course next term.  Many of the people who take this course do so to fulfill a credit.  They neither need nor care about Russian history.  Here is what I will tell them.

Extreme lefties took over Russia and impoverished everyone.  Dictatorship, not ideology or voluntarism, held the government together.  The lefties killed alot of people.  In the 1990s, Russia was taken over by extreme rightists.  So begins a new century of Russian history in the exact image of the last century.  The end. 

Bonus exam question: Is Stalin the best-looking dictator?  Explain.