Marx mainly viewed tsarist Russia as a counter-revolutionary threat to European revolutions. He based this view on the experience of 1848, when Russian troops helped Austria put down a liberal-nationalist revolution in Hungary. read more
Marx never believed that a Russian (or Polish) revolution would be socialist as the capitalist system there was still too underdeveloped. He believed that revolution in these areas would permit the rapid development of capitalism and make these states more like the countries of western Europe. read more
Karl Marx's theories were central to the party ideology of Lenin's Bolsheviks and had a key role to play in the 1917 revolution and the establishment of the Russian Communist state. read more