“The Empire was traditionally run by a bureaucracy and a gentry, after 1880 reinforced by a political-police organization. This political policing was a Russian invention; Russia was the first country to have two police systems, one to protect the state from its citizens, and the other to protect the citizens from each other. Subsequently, this dual structure became a fundamental feature of totalitarian states.”

Source: Three “Whys” of the Russian Revolution (1995), p. 17

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Richard Pipes 46
American historian 1923–2018

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