Is there some reason that Russia has been so historically autocratic?

by SketchyHippopotamus

Or is it just a coincidence of who won out during transitions of power?

kieslowskifan

I was going to write out an answer that pointed out that these forms of government rely upon their own unique historical context, but then I remembered /u/International_KB 's answer did much the same already and more succinctly. And while there are historians like Pipes who make the argument that the burden of geography and history lend themselves to authoritarian systems, these authors tend to treat these outcomes as an ahistorical given.