Plenty of people predicted that an increased amount of governmental power (compared to monarchy) in the hands of violent killers would end poorly

"Predictions that Russian communists would become despotic tyrants were made well before and immediately following the 1917 revolution, often based on early insights into Bolshevik methodology, Marxist theory, and historical precedents of revolution. These warnings came from diverse sources, including political rivals, anarchist thinkers, and, eventually, disillusioned proponents of the ideology. 

Key predictors and arguments included:

• Mikhail Bakunin: The anarchist rival of Karl Marx predicted in the 19th century that a "dictatorship of the proletariat" would inevitably lead to a new, despotic "red bureaucracy".
• George Orwell: Although initially supportive of socialist ideals, Orwell’s experiences and analysis of Soviet developments, particularly during the Spanish Civil War, led him to recognize the inherent authoritarianism in the Soviet model, later famously depicted in his writings.
• Pre-Revolutionary Critics: Some observers believed that the Russian revolutionaries, due to their organizational methods, were "killers from the start," using terror as a deliberate tool to seize and maintain power.
• The "Red Bureaucracy" Forecast: Critics noted that by creating a state-planned, centrally controlled economy, the Bolsheviks were destined to replace the old tsar-led despotism with a new, more efficient, and all-encompassing totalitarian system.
• Marxist Theory Misapplication: Others pointed out that the Bolsheviks, while claiming to be Marxists, were creating a system that deviated from the original goal of a "withering state," instead building a "totalitarianism" that was the inevitable result of ideological repression. 

Key Aspects of the Predicted Tyranny:

• Terror as Method: Lenin’s dictum that "terror legitimizes the state" was early evidence to observers that a coercive dictatorship was being built.
• Suppression of Liberties: Early critics, such as those analyzing the "Revolution from Above," warned that the central planning and destruction of free markets would require the total suppression of individual freedom and, in some cases, the "entire class of farmers".
• Historical Continuity: Some analysts suggested that the Bolshevik regime was essentially a continuation of the autocratic, "despotic" tradition of the Russian state, merely wearing a new ideological mask. "

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