I'm telling you, you have to read Pipes' The Russian Revolution. I know I've plugged it to you in the past, but its too fascinating to ignore. He argues that the lack of democracy in Russia is ultimately what led to their brand of communism, that Bolshevism would likely have been avoided had Nicholas allowed a constitutional monarchy (which is all the people ever demanded in the 1905 revolution, and was promised by ultimately reneged on). The fact that the citizens could vote in the other great powers gave them ownership of their governments and fueled the soldiers' will to fight. Whereas in Russia, men fought because they were sent to Siberia if they didn't. They laid down their arms en masse at the first opportunity in 1917, but even before that, despite their casualty rate being equitable to the other powers, they had a capture rate many times higher, owing to their indifference toward the state. Lenin didn't want his coup to be a Russian takeover; wanted to be a total European and eventually a world workers' revolution. But he found out that to most people, country and neighbors are more important than ideology. That is why socialism was restricted to Russia and whomever else they could force into it.