The accomplishments of the 1917 Russian peasant revolution contrast in important ways with the accomplishments of the French peasant revolution of 1789. In France, the rebellious peasants abolished seigneurial claims and controls. But the peasants respected private property and did not attack it, including large estates and rich peasant farms. In contrast, the Russian "obshchina" did not legitimate private landed property as such, but rather believed that “all land belonged to God.” The only ones who came out winning big within the French peasantry were those rich and middle peasants who already owned their own land. The peasant revolution in Russia, however, not only abolished rental claims of landlords but also seized and redistributed most private landed properties. This benefited the less well-to-do and land-poor peasants. Although the accomplishments between these two peasant revolution contrast in important ways, the processes of the French and Russian peasant revolutions were similar in many ways. One vital similarity was that in both Russia and France, the peasant village assembly provided the organizational basis for spontaneous and autonomous revolts. In both cases locally controlled peasant revolts were influenced by society-wide political crises within the context of which they occurred. An internal political development was the primary revolutionary crisis in France, first impinged upon the villages when the king called for elections to the Estates General. The revolutionary political crisis in Russia was the sudden breakup of the huge armies that had been mobilized to fight World War I in Russia. It had come in the midst of national defeat in a massive and modern war. Essential to the success of the Russian peasant revolution, the breakup also influenced the shape of the peasant accomplishments. Unlike in France where the village assemblies were convened and led by the usual (older as well as richer) community influentials, in Russia they were led by younger men, with guns and ideas brought home from their wartime military experience.