I recently got in a brief discussion about the history of Russian government in which I was arguing that old Tsarist Russia and Soviet Union cannot be considered the same regime or an evolution. To me, (not having read much about the early Soviet years since the 80s when there was a strong anti-Soviet tilt here) it seems like the Soviets largely tore down the institutions of the old regime and replaced them. After this, I really wonder if there were any institutions that carried on practically untouched by the Revolution, and if they're enough to consider the two orders related at all in the rule of government.