The new tsar book5/8/2023 ![]() ![]() This disaster could have been averted if it had been introduced by a historian from the outset in order to manage expectations. ![]() The Last Czars is a surreal Wikipedia entry brought to life, mixing voiceover, a narrator figure, dramatic reconstructions and talking heads from academics who are experts in the period. Like a horrific meta-experiment in exposition for people with the memories of goldfish. (Also “czars”, the American transliteration, is so irritating. Russians are in stitches over a frame in which a picture of Red Square supposedly in 1905 clearly features Lenin’s tomb, which was not constructed until 1924. The Last Czars rips that seam right open again and ostentatiously douses the resulting wound in alcohol poured from a bottle with the word “vodka” misspelled in Cyrillic. At a time when relations are strained, it was a sign that we have the capacity for mutual understanding. The respect for history, the awareness of revisionism, the acknowledgement that facts are complicated and the sheer investment of time and energy that Chernobyl represented went a long way in bringing Russia and the west closer together. That series has been acclaimed in Russia, with many viewers admiring the meticulous eye for detail, right down to the sourcing of the correct rubbish bins for the era, and the refusal to dumb down anything emotionally or politically. ![]() It’s the opposite of the attitude Russians have formed towards HBO’s Chernobyl. ![]()
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