Communism functioned considerably in the same way. Stalin's power was almost as absolute as the czar's. He alone had had complete power to make decisions, and denied people's freedom to express themselves or openly speak their opinions about the way the politics were conducted. Stalin made the people worship his image practically in the same way kings had done in the past. He wanted his person to occupy the most important place in every institution and house which was practically the same policy a czar himself would have followed. His image had to be a national cult of unconditional respect and adoration from his people, whether voluntary or imposed, by manipulation or force.

His opponents were immediately persecuted, arrested and eliminated. This all together follows the same situation that can be seen in most monarchies or absolutist regimes. So, actually where was the change he promised his people? Seen from another perspective, they had replaced the oppressing czar that had them committed to their fields, working overtime for minimal wages and had instead an oppressive leader that locked them in factories and industries working at the same rate, for the same freedom and with a small improvement in their life standards.

This phenomena often happens in history, where promising changes only turn out to be a different version of the same situation that provoked them (as in the case of Napoleon Bonaparte's heated speeches against the tyranny of the kings, only to crown himself emperor afterwards, to cite one example)

The amazing capacity of a charismatic leader is that he can blind the population into believing his ideas so completely that the people of his time would not even realize that there was actually no major change and that the promised upgrading was only an illusion. It is a reality that the condition in Russia did change a great deal...

The common people had still a long way to go before they could achieve the mass power that democracy offered in other countries.
Nevertheless, Stalin managed to gain more and more followers until his doctrine was so rooted into the minds of his people that it practically ran itself. Years after his death his followers would still continue his ideas with a mechanical force impulsed by the strongly rooted ideas promoted by him.

The most amazing capacity of a charismatic leader is that they are capable of influencing the people and retain their loyalty even after their ruling period is over. By achieving this they manage to change history. Even if, in most cases, their goals were only achieved for a short period and ended as a great failure of their actual plans.

Bibliography

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History of Russia. New York: Oxford University Press.

Service, R. (2007) Comrades!: A History of World Communism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Tucker, R.C. (1990). Stalin in Power: The revolution from above, 1929-1941. New York: Norton.

Van Ree, E. (2002), the political thoughts of Joseph Stalin: A study of the Twentieth-Century revolutionary patriotism. New York: Roudledge Courzon

Wood, a. (2004). Stalin and Stalinism. New York: Roudledge.

Zuehlke, J. (2006). Joseph Stalin. Minneapolis: Learner Publishing Group.