As France was the first country in Europe to make the transition from monarchy to republic, Russia was one of the last. Nevertheless, a similar dynamic was at work in Russia’s development into a modern nation state. Here as well we find some of the same problems of contested political legitimacy that created the resort to violence that prevailed elsewhere on the continent, although they have their own historically and culturally distinct colorations. For example, the roots of political absolutism lie deeper in Russia, and lasted longer than was the case in Western Europe. Similarly, the forms of political violence made use of by rulers and insurgents in Russia, while entangled with their West European counterparts, assumed their own characteristics as well. The peasantry and its agricultural world continued to play an important role in the evolution of Russian politics, both in court policy and among the opposition factions that challenged it, long after dominating rural influences were integrated into the centralized state systems in France, Prussia and Austria. Assemblies of social elites played a far less significant role in Russia’s history, and laws were decreed rather than legislated even into the early twentieth century largely because the legitimacy of autocracy required the absence of any parliament or political parties, unless called into temporary existence by the ruler.