What is the best way to deal with a revolt?

It seems like when you try to suppress it, it becomes violent, and even when you accept it and support it, you still end up getting killed. For example, Nicholas II, decided to just have his soldiers shoot the protesters on Bloody Sunday; and when Louis XVI was made a limited monarch, he still ended up getting his head chopped off, granted he did not work with the new gov't, he still did not oppose it. So, it seems like whatever choice the leader makes, it always ends up bad. The Russians got Communism, and the French got a period of 1989-1848 of instability. So, is there anything that either one could have done differently that could have ended up better.