Causes Compared: Autocracy, Peasants and Total War

Russia's revolution fits structural models well. Tsar Nicholas II ruled as an autocrat, and the Duma, created after the 1905 revolution, had limited power. Most Russians were peasants who had been freed from serfdom only in 1861 and still lacked enough land. Rapid industrialization had created a concentrated working class in cities such as Petrograd and Moscow. World War I then imposed enormous strain: millions of soldiers were killed, wounded or captured, inflation soared, and food shortages hit cities.

As in France in 1789, a state crippled by war and fiscal crisis lost the loyalty of elites and the army. Unlike America, where colonists had their own institutions, Russia lacked strong representative bodies able to take over smoothly. Skocpol's model, which combines state breakdown with peasant revolt, was designed partly with Russia in mind and fits it closely.