Russia

Russia

As a country, Russia has been through many different government systems. In the very beginning, Russia was ruled by the autocratic Tsars. As the country went through revolutions and wars, the ideologies of the people and the governments began to change. Even though outwardly it may seem that Russia has progressed from the autocratic form to a rather democratic form, many people do not agree. In order to analyze this transition in more detail, history of the country should be discussed briefly.

Russian History: Tsars until Collapse of the Soviet Union

In the 1914s, Russia or the Russian Empire was one of the superpowers in Europe. It was definitely the largest country in the world with a very diverse population. The population of Russia included Russians, Germans, Slavs, Poles and even Asians. Seeing how diverse the population was, the representation of religion in the state was quite diverse as well.

Nonetheless, even though it was vast and diverse, politically and socially Russia was quite backward. At that time, there was very little industry and the majority of the population relied on farming and agriculture.

At that time, Russia was ruled by a series of Tsars. The Tsars were autocrats, which clearly meant that only the Tsar could therefore rule and govern Russia. The Tsarist power was not limit by any conditional or legal methods. Similarly, there was no concept of elected assembly or parliament in the empire either.

To assist the Tsar in running the country, there were a number of ministers who were in fact appointed by the Tsar. This was very important because Tsarist did not want any participation or choice of the citizens living in the country. Due to this reason, it is quite clear that the only way this au...

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...re; it maintained its seat on the Security Council. Many of the old Soviet States still maintained close economic ties with each. The new countries that were made, some of them elected to maintain their autocratic government and others preferred democratic Government.

Russia after Soviet Union Collapse

Hugh Seton Watson in his analysis of the Russian Empire stated one factor has ways been common through the Russian history and that has been the principle of autocracy. In comparison, Seton mentioned that in Western Europe, there was long-standing power struggle between the social elite and the monarchy. The reason why there was establishment of a successful monarchy in Western Europe is that the elite class won. Similarly, since power and privileges were not reserved for the elite in the autocracy that backed up the dominance those autocrats had over the region.