LogFAQs > #959708036

The problem is that polities tend to be unstable, of course. Russia went through 4 separate governments within the span of the 20th-century: Tsarist autocracy, Provisional Republic, Soviet Republic, Modern "Republic"*. Hell, you could even break out the Soviet Union, for example, into distinct periods wherein governing philosophy fluctuated, sometimes drastically(Stalin's the big break point here: no Soviet premier before or after him was ever so powerful nor ruled so long).

*You could break that in two: pre-Putin and Putin's dictatorship. Not that it was ever particularly democratic: the transition was bad enough Yeltsin had to bend and break finance laws to secure victory over the Communists. In 1996*.
Then he resigned in '99 and Putin took over and gradually transformed Russia into the thriving mob autocracy it is today.

*There was also straight-up election fraud, though confirmed instances do not constitute enough to alter the result. Of course, given the widespread international disdain for the Russian Communist Party and the fact that the Yeltsin administration would have run domestic investigations, it's possible everyone had a tacit agreement to not look very hard into it. Spoilered this because it's nothing more than speculation. The fact there was such significant support for the Communists speaks to how insanely painful and mismanaged Russia's transition was.

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