From a comment I left elsewhere:
“The basis for authoritarianism” that is probably buried in the Russian soul is a desire to stay clear of politics as an ugly business and to have somebody else sort it all out and do the dirty work. This basis is [rooted] in the Russian’s preference for living a strictly private life (that of an idiot, in the original Greek sense) without having to fight to protect the privacy.
They are tired of strife: a tired people. Not even a nation.