Russia has no history of democracy full stop, bar five minutes in the 90s. The Tsars were dictators and so were the so-called Communists.
What worries me is that we had the same complacency before WW2, reliant on food imports. So the Germans very nearly starved us into submission. We were dependent on the North Atlantic convoys bringing food from North America. And that was so desperately important that if a U-boat sank one of the ships in convoy, the sailors were instructed not to attempt to rescue any of the drowning men. Such bravery.
People who were in the services or who worked in factories at least were fed at work but women at home with small children were starving, my Godmother tells me. She was one.