A choice of non democratic systems of government

[Simon_Jester]

The French aristocracy didn't last long after the Enlightenment- the entire concept that aristocrats should be overthrown in favor of democracy wasn't even invented until a time that was within living memory as of the storming of the Bastille.

The Russian aristocracy was largely broken by the Czars many long years before the Czars were in turn overthrown during World War One- they were not a feudal system, and the aristocracy was effectively reduced to an enforcer-class that operated on the behalf of and by the will of the absolute monarch at the top of the system. I would expect the autocracy of a czar to be no longer or shorter-lived than any other form of autocracy with similar institutions in place.