Revolutionaries in both France and Russia were not entirely successful in putting their ideas into practice during the revolutions due to diplomatic and populist constraints. No revolutionary movement was able to enforce their entire ideology on the populace so therefore had to make compromises on many issues. The revolutions contradicted each other in terms of the platform the power was fought over on. The French Revolution lasting from 1789 to 1799 was largely political for this reason it was difficult to establish complete authority when other parties were able to have a say, especially when the only party which assisted the revolution, sans-culotte, chose to influence the other parties rather than taking an active part in government. The Russian Revolution, starting in February 1917 and finishing when the Communist (formally Bolshevik) Party gained totalitarian control by 1921, required the people to be on the victorious party's side. Because of this Bolshevik leader Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) had to make some short term sacrifices to his autocratic vision of Russia to limit civil unrest. Lenin also used abusive methods leading to drastic malnutrition and sometimes even cannibalism within the population to keep people from being able to rebel which he claimed to be part of his tactical plan of 'War Communism'.…
