I needed a break from a tech magazine story I was writing tonight and my channel surfing landed me on a great program about Russia that I hadn't seen in a long time.

The History Channel's affiliate, History International, is re-running its excellent 2003 series Russia: Land of the Tsars. It traces the history of Russian rulers from Prince Vladimir through the last of the Romanovs. If you have time to catch some part of it tonight, consider yourself lucky. Otherwise, I highly recommend a trip to your local library to see if they have it on their video shelves. (I'm going to link all of the video titles I mention in this piece to their Amazon.com listings, but many are available elsewhere.)

Let's admit it from the get-go: Most of Russia's early rulers were not nice guys. Tsar Ivan (not called "the Terrible" for nothing) murdered his friends and allies; the first Romanov tsar (who got the job on something of a fluke) turned Russian peasants into servants indentured for not only their own lives, but the lives of their descendants as well. Yes, there were eras of respite, like Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, but for those of us raised in traditions of democracy, learning about the rule of the Russian tsars can be difficult. The History Channel's classroom guide to Land of the Tsars can help you understand some of the darker moments.

But the History Channel series sent me in search of other videos about Russian history. If you are a visual learner, these movies can be a great way to learn about the past of the nation that has, or is about to, help you create your family. There are several from The History Channel and its affiliate, The Biography Channel, as well as a PBS version of Catherine the Great's story.

Hollywood and the Broadway stage have jumped in occasionally, as with Nicholas and Alexandra and this version of Catherine the Great with, of all people, Catherine Zeta-Jones in the lead. The Biography Channel has also done filmed versions of Peter the Great and Rasputin. It has also tackled two of the rulers after the last Romanov, Lenin and Stalin.

Of course, you almost need a separate shelf in your video library for all that has been done on a daughter of the last Romanov tsar. There is a Biography Channel Anastasia and a Hollywood version with Amy Irving. Skip them both, and the Disney animated version, and get the magical 1956 movie of a Broadway play starring Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner, whose Russian roots I noted in my recent profile of Vladivostok.