tcmart14

tcmart14 t1_j2btzfp wrote

Yea, large famines were the norm and happened often. Eastern Europe and Russia were some of the last to industrialized. I believe Marx himself even called Russia a backwater and the last place communism could happen in because they were so far behind in industrializing. And Russia didn’t get properly industrialized until it had to out of war time necessity from World War 2.

As for personal involvement in daily lives. The czar was, you can say the USSR learned a lot of tricks from the Czar when it came to the Cheka and the KGB. Lenin being an example was jailed and sent to Siberia for a time due to his political writing and the Imperial police very much had spies walking amongst the people. So in a way, the Chela and KGB for the Soviet Union was not out of the ordinary, it was business as usual since a lot of these type of government activities predate the USSR.

Unfortunately, people seem to think Russian history only started in 1917 when in reality it’s been a shit show for hundred of years prior.

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