Autocracy to Dictatorship: The Transformation of Russian State Power

Abstract

This paper explores the transition from Tsarism to Bolshevism with a focus on continuities and ruptures in Russian state power, arguing that while the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 marked a profound ideological and institutional break from the Romanov autocracy, it simultaneously preserved key features of centralized authoritarianism that had long defined Russian governance. The purpose of the study is to investigate how far the Bolsheviks truly departed from the Tsarist legacy, or whether they adapted older traditions of autocratic rule into a new revolutionary context. Employing a historical-analytical methodology, the paper examines primary and secondary sources including imperial decrees, Soviet constitutional documents, the writings of Lenin, and interpretations by historians such as Richard Pipes, Sheila Fitzpatrick, and Orlando Figes. Particular emphasis is placed on the comparative institutional analysis of Tsarist bureaucracy and the Bolshevik party-state, the role of coercive organs such as the Okhrana and Cheka, and the treatment of political opposition, national minorities, and civil society. The findings suggest that while Tsarism was grounded in Orthodoxy, dynastic legitimacy, and a landed aristocracy, and Bolshevism in Marxist-Leninist ideology, proletarian mobilization, and revolutionary vanguardism, both systems shared deep continuities in their reliance on centralized authority, surveillance, and suppression of dissent. By demonstrating how the Bolsheviks transformed but did not eradicate the traditions of state authoritarianism, this study contributes to ongoing debates in Russian historiography about the roots of Soviet totalitarianism, the resilience of autocracy, and the historical trajectory of Russian political culture. Ultimately, it argues that the Soviet experiment cannot be understood as a complete rupture with the past but as a hybrid system that reconfigured Tsarist legacies within a revolutionary framework, shaping the structures of Soviet governance and influencing the broader patterns of Russian state development well into the twentieth century.