I'm sad to see that this thread hasn't been updated in a while. Do you intend to continue it anytime soon, Thucydides? It's very intriguing, and I'd love to see it continued, especially for its effects on the buildup to WWI.
Though I'd also like to ask why Michael Alexandrovich decided to abolish the tsardom. He was a lot more reform-minded than Nicholas, and probably would've made a more competent tsar (quite a few of his contemporaries had noted this, most prominently Sergei Witte). But abdicating and ending the monarchy seems pretty...spontaneous. Could you expand on that?