Funny, you characterize that as a counterpoint when a minority of elite students who live in a far mode advanced urban (western) cuture were the driving force behind socialism. While the vast majority of the country was still agrarian and compared to the rest of europe was farthest behind.

I highly recommended reading "The Soviet Tragedy" by Martin Malia for a clear picture of the real world state of Russia vs the reasoning of Marx and his Russian advocates.

The urban people with an “education”, built on foundations and literature from far more industrialists societies. That combined with despite themselves as the educated rarely being a member of the exploited class they seek to protect, it even further shows the disconnect between the justifications for communism with the reality on the ground... let alone the destructive outcomes after it was implemented.

The Russian poor needed liberation but if history is any indication it was liberation from serfdom and despotism... not liberation from capitalism to some half baked utopian theory.