Blah Russia

So reading up on Russian history - and while the topic is interesting (before the Revolution) some of the writing is dry, and there are so many Olgas, Marias and Alexandras they are difficult to keep straight.

Now about six years ago I came up with a very involved, complex plot for a comic, about Japanese in Russia at the time of Troubles (when the succession was bothered by various pretenders, and the end of the Russian part of the story was when the first Romanov, Michael, came to power, then the Japanese characters went back to Japan. (first, there were no Japanese in Russia at this time, as Japanese could not leave, and if they had left, they certainly could not come back)

there were a lot of parts of that story I really loved, some characters based on real people, the story parts of history that you could not make up, however the sticking point became well, Russian and Japanese characters and I am not Russian and I am not Japanese. I really wanted to know what things looked like, and I found visual research materials thin on the ground (for Russia if not Sengoku Japan)

So thinking about doing a short story cycle or words and text about revolutionary Russia makes me think about that project I could never finish. Maybe I need some Russian and Japanese consultants.

I don't have any love for the Romanovs in any case, or romanticise their plight, my characters would be soliders and artists and perhaps one or two nobles sympatheric to the revolutionists, of course everyone gets let down in the end, by politics.