Russia under the Old regime

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which the dissolution of the peasant army was an aspect) that Lenin and his party rode to power.

In the end, the Russian monarchy was destroyed by the peasant whom it had viewed as its staunchest supporter. Conditions aborted the development of a conservative rural estate in Russia. Latent peasant anarchism first delayed reform, then influenced it in an overly cautious direction, and finally, becoming overt, generated chaos which brought the inadequately reformed state down. At no point in history was the peasant in Russia that anchor of stability which he had been in Germany or France.