WITH THE TSARS
The Tsars repressed the peasants, and they were serfs, until the year 1861, when the serfs were freed. Freedom was no better, as a "redemption tax" forced them into poverty. The Tsars were no better in the 20th century either. Nicholas II dissolved the Duma (the parliament) whenever it did something he didn't like. This happened for the first two Dumas, until he put restrictions that ensured that only people who generally agreed with the Tsar were part of the Duma. Martial law was used, and anyone who possessed the Tsar was hung. Repression of this sort was worse after the revolution, as you will see.
HOW DID THEY FAIL?
The people failed because the Bolsheviks oppressed them more than the Tsars did. They established a secret police, known as the Cheka, to destroy any opposition. They further tried to destroy opposition by establishing a program called the Red Terror on September 5th, 1918. It stated that anyone that opposed the Bolsheviks would be isolated in concentration camps and shot. The government also sent soldiers to forcibly take grain from peasants, forbade private trade, and used the Cheka to carry out mass executions of opponents. This program was called War Communism. In addition to this, the Bolsheviks subverted the democracy they claimed to be championing. They did this by ignoring the vote of 41 million Russians that elected the Socialist Revolutionary party as the majority in the Constituent Assembly. These actions served to opress the people the Bolsheviks claimed to be fighting for.
If you complain or write anything ("Heaven forbid"), they will frame you for an attempted escape or for something else, and they will shoot you like a dog.
-(Zheleznov, Vinogradov, and Belinskii, 1926)