Russian Tsar Nicholas II experiences a severe head injury in 1894 and acquires a Hitler-like personality

[Futurist]

BTW, wm, do you think that an Old Believer-type of Russia could have attracted a lot of immigrants from other countries who would have wanted more living space (Lebensraum)?

[wm]

Well, it attracted lots of them even without a crazy Tsar, there were like a million Volga Germans in Russia?

The question is are the Ashkenazi Jews rich because they are intelligent or are they intelligent because they are rich?
Nature versus nurture.

Kronenberg was a leader of the Polish January uprising of 1863, bought tons of weapons for the insurgents.

[Futurist]

Well, it attracted lots of them even without a crazy Tsar, there were like a million Volga Germans in Russia?

Yes, but they're a drop in the bucket in comparison to the levels of immigration that the US got throughout history. AFAIK, something like 80 million people moved to the US since 1820--though undoubtedly some of them subsequently returned to their home countries. That said, though, even if half of them would have subsequently returned to their home countries (an assumption that's more on the pessimistic side, if you ask me), this would have meant that 40 million immigrants would have come to the US and permanently stayed here since 1820.

The question is are the Ashkenazi Jews rich because they are intelligent or are they intelligent because they are rich?
Nature versus nurture.

I suspect that it's the former. After all, a large part of Ashkenazi Jews were historically rather poor, no? Yet, once opportunities began opening up for them in the 19th and 20th centuries, they began to quickly advance--up to the point that there was a perceived need for Jewish quotas in some places and some countries.

Kronenberg was a leader of the Polish January uprising of 1863, bought tons of weapons for the insurgents.

Interesting.

[wm]

They weren't that poor, as early as the 13th century they were signing treaties with kings (The Statute of Kalisz - 1264, 30 percent of it dedicated to regulating money lending.)
There were many poor Jews but much more poor "natives." The European peasants/serfs ruined statistics.

The US was mostly empty, Russia wasn't and in a lot of places quite unpleasant to live.

[Futurist]

They weren't that poor, as early as the 13th century they were signing treaties with kings (The Statute of Kalisz - 1264, 30 percent of it dedicated to regulating money lending.)
There were many poor Jews but much more poor "natives." The European peasants/serfs ruined statistics.

Fair enough, I suppose.

The US was mostly empty, Russia wasn't and in a lot of places quite unpleasant to live.

Russia actually is still relatively empty even nowadays in comparison to most of Europe, though:

[wm]

I suppose the spaces between the dots had their owners. peasants, farmers, land-owners. Villages, khutors were there.
It was different in the US, lots of empty space and only Indians prancing around.

[Futurist]

Interesting. Anyway, wm, I have a question for you:

In real life, the ethnic Russian population in Central Asia peaked at around ten million in the late Soviet era. (Adding in the Ukrainians and Belarusians in Central Asia to this total might add another couple of million--thus making this population around a dozen million people instead of ten million people.) Anyway, just how much larger do you think that the ethnic Russian--plus Ukrainian and Belarusian--population in Central Asia would have been right now in this scenario? After all, in this scenario, we have a Russian Tsar who is aggressively determined to flood his various non-Russian territories with extremely huge numbers of Russians and other eastern Slavs.

[James A Pratt III]

Nicholas II received a blow to the head with a sword in 1890 during a assassination attempt in Japan. Needless to say he didn't like the Japanese very much after this. If he did start acting insane the other Romanovs would have found away to remove him as Tsar. Note: some people thought his wife Alexandra was insane in the last years of the Russian Empire do to her relations with Rasputin.

[Futurist]

Nicholas II received a blow to the head with a sword in 1890 during a assassination attempt in Japan. Needless to say he didn't like the Japanese very much after this. If he did start acting insane the other Romanovs would have found away to remove him as Tsar. Note: some people thought his wife Alexandra was insane in the last years of the Russian Empire do to her relations with Rasputin.

You mean a palace coup?

Also, did Hitler act insane when he was the German Fuhrer before late 1941 or so?

[Futurist]

@History Learner: Do you have any thoughts on this scenario of mine?

[wm]

Hitler was perfectly sane to the end although he suffered from effects of the severe and long stress he was subjected to.

[Futurist]

That makes sense; thank you, wm.

[Futurist]

Well, it attracted lots of them even without a crazy Tsar, there were like a million Volga Germans in Russia?

There were actually almost 1.8 million Germans in the Russian Empire back in 1897, though not all of them actually lived in the Volga region:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o ... viet_Union

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o ... (1897).svg



Do you speak Russian fluently, wm?

[wm]

I merely can read Russian books (with some difficulty.)

[Futurist]

Can you also read Ukrainian books?