Not for no reason were Soviet general secretaries sometimes called the Red Tsars. There is most certainly a civilizational continuity between imperial Tsarist Russia, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. This particular civilizational continuity makes the prospect of democratic rule problematic. It does not sit comfortably within Russian civilizational parameters. Some explain in this way the failed attempt to instill a democratic order in Russia in the 1990s, i.e., that what democratic rule presupposes is absent in Russian society, rendering it foreign and "unnatural".
Among scholars specializing in civilizations, Feliks Koneczny[0] stands out in particular. Specifically, he identifies Russia as an example of Turanian civilization (one of several present within the West, though perhaps what is most prototypically Western is what he called Latin civilization). The author of the article mentions some of the markers of Turanian civilization, viz., "the unquestioning acceptance of authority" and "the acceptance of the need for the state to use violence".
Among scholars specializing in civilizations, Feliks Koneczny[0] stands out in particular. Specifically, he identifies Russia as an example of Turanian civilization (one of several present within the West, though perhaps what is most prototypically Western is what he called Latin civilization). The author of the article mentions some of the markers of Turanian civilization, viz., "the unquestioning acceptance of authority" and "the acceptance of the need for the state to use violence".
[0] https://www.scribd.com/doc/4464979/ON-THE-PLURALITY-OF-CIVIL...