According to one version, the Romanovs ("Roman") were a project of the Vatican, which, with the help of Poland, put them on the throne of Russia. There is practically no direct evidence, but there are many indirect ones, especially if you analyze their actions.
Prior to them, the project "Kitezh" was carried out in Russia, which was launched by Elder Sergius, this project allowed to unite a significant part of the Russian lands and be "autocratic", that is, independent from the Western project, the center of which was then Rome and gradually becoming London. A partial modernization of the project was carried out by Philotheus, creating the idea: "Moscow is the third Rome", where Moscow was positioned as the heir to the Roman and Byzantine empires and the last stronghold of true Christianity on the planet.
The Romanovs began the "turn" of Russia to the west, trying to make Russia a part of Western civilization, usually this turn is associated with the name of Peter the Great. But this is not true, Peter the First simply did everything very rudely and hastily, other rulers before him acted more cunningly. For example: they split Orthodoxy, knocking out its most violent, active part - the so-called. Old Believers - on the "roadside of life." And the official Church was turned into a part of the state apparatus, replacing the Faith with formal rites.
As a result, the Romanovs, implementing the Petersburg project (after the collapse of the USSR, the process of implementing the Petersburg-2 project began), they split the people into two unequal parts - the people themselves (the overwhelming majority of the population of Russia) and the pro-Western elite.
Before the Romanovs, and partly with them, the Russian common people and their elite were of the same culture, worldview, worldview and attitude. They went to the same churches, ate the same food, thought and spoke the same language, danced the same dances, dressed the same, etc.
An insignificant part of the Russian people was fenced off from the people by "European culture", they even spoke for the most part not in Russian, and they thought too. German, English, French culture has become everything for them, Paris and London - a dream of life.
Of course, there were remarkable exceptions - Suvorov, Ushakov, a galaxy of statesmen, scientists, Slavophiles and patriots of the Russian people, it was they who created all the good things that we associate with the Russian Empire. But they almost always acted contrary to the System and the dominant mores.
Recall only one Rezanov and Baranov, who tore their veins, trying to strengthen Russia's position in America, and how their efforts were turned to dust by bureaucrats and outright traitors.
Take the Crimean War - the Russian army lost no fewer people from the theft of supplies (nobles) than from the enemy's weapons.
The current corrupt officials are just a "cast" of the thieves of that time, they wasted their lives and wasted a lot of resources useful for the empire, forcing others to sacrifice themselves with their mistakes in order to maintain the stability of the system.
Most of the people were "enslaved", forcing them to work for the nobles, industrialists. Moreover, the "elite" spent significant sums on luxury goods, on pleasure, on trips to Paris, ie. funds went to the West instead of going to the development of the empire.
The peasantry, the overwhelming majority of the population, until the 1917 revolution lived its own life, terribly far from the inhabitants of St. Petersburg. They have preserved for us the real Russian culture - the image of "Light Russia", in songs, dances, stories, fairy tales, patterns of their houses and clothes. They were also self-sufficient in terms of the economy. Their labor and "recruits", who were turned into soldiers, supported the entire building of the empire.
Nor can they be called religious, this was proved by the years of the Revolution and the Civil War, the common people in their mass were indifferent to the destruction and repression to which the Church was subjected. The schism perpetrated by Nikon and Alexei Mikhailovich led to the nationalization of the Church, the essence of Orthodoxy was emasculated, the form conquered the deep essence. The Russian people believed (but in the depths of the Soul) that there is God, and his anointed is the Russian Tsar, from whom they hide the "ugliness".
