One needn't own the dirt one lives on. Indeed, the beasts of the field that know no other home are the freer for not owning their home. I spent 2016 living in the woods across Western Oregon, all on dirt I did not own.

I remember the tanks in Red Square, and the tanks in Tianenmen Square too. The tanks in Tianenmen Square turned on the people there, and no fewer than thousands died. The tanks in Red Square did not, and the transformation was not marked by slaughter. I reckon it was a near thing, and it seems likely to me that Vodka played an essential role, as I recall Yeltsin seemed to be drunk at the time.

Perhaps more important than the understanding of the people is the pacification of the military, and them as control it. China kept it's empire, and Russia did not.