I agree with your sentiment, but I feel compelled to nitpick.
The workers have always been peasants, but they were not always serfs. The distinction is important.
For those who might not be clear on the difference:
Peasant: oppressed working class with some rights. These rights exist more in theory than in practice, but they have some restraining effect on aristocratic abuse.
Serf: oppressed working class with no rights. Pretty much just a geo-locked slave. Can be abused with complete impunity.
Western Europe was mostly peasants. Russia was mostly serfs. This was more than a bit relevant to why history went the way that it did.
