Supporters of Russian government in dire straits succeeded (8)
I believe the answer is:
tsarists
'supporters of russian government' is the definition.
The definition suggests a plural noun which matches the answer.
'in dire straits succeeded' is the wordplay.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'dire' indicates an anagram.
'succeeded' becomes 's' (genealogical abbreviation).
'straits' with letters rearranged gives 'tsarits'.
'tsarits' going around 's' is 'TSARISTS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for tsarists that I've seen is " Russian imperialists".)