I'll start with Suslov :among-drip:, who brings workplace democracy and affirmative action for women whilst also maintaining party discipline. He's nice in that he tows the line between being literally red fash and wholesome chungus utopian with zero regard for the material conditions of Russia - others like Kaganovich are too far in the 'red fash' direction whilst Bukharina and Men are too utopian. He also has the best portrait.
I havent played much TNO. That said I always thought Sablin was pretty wholesome considering how dark the setting is.
Amur is great. Rodzaevsky is a genuine monster but isn't in the "too wacky" category where you get numbed to his atrocities after a while (unlike Taboritsky) and doesn't have any redeeming qualities or tragic excuse whatsoever (unlike Yazov). He's still humanized, just in the worst ways. (Fun fact, the writer for his path talked about how he needed to research Russian neonazi websites and even read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to get his character right)
For a unifier that doesn't make me hate myself, I really like Bessonov's Irkutsk. It feels like the underappreciated Golden Middle between Yagoda and Sablin, and is more accurate of a representation of what a Bukharin-led USSR would look like (as opposed to the pre-game lore, where Bukharin is a liberal caricature of Stalin but with market socialism).
Also, looking forward to waging a crusade against the "Holy" Russian Empire as Men's Divine Mandate again post-update.
I've only done the West Russian Revolutionary Front so far, it was pretty fun. I did it as Tukhachevsky, so I feel like I need to go back and do it as Zhukov now lol
