To understand the political and historical processes taking place in Russia from the middle of the nineteenth century until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, we must understand which phenomena explains these processes. Communism is often associated with the ideology of the Soviet Union, but as will be apparent from reading this book, the Soviet Union was never a communist system. What it was, instead, was a system of totalitarian absolutism. Russia was a backward country, but the extent to which it was backward is often neglected. Russia was one era behind the Western European countries. When the West had rid itself of absolutism, absolutism was implemented in Russia.Absolutism in Western Europe had been authoritarian absolutism, Russia saw a different kind of absolutism, namely totalitarian absolutism. We had the paradox that democratic processes taking place in the West made Russian absolutism less democratic than it would otherwise have been. There could not exist any opposition within Russia that could question the presence of communism or socialism.