Actual absolute monarchs would rule without any Parliament, etc. They made all the laws. They may have had a powerful military which kept peace. In the middle ages or in Czarist Russia, the throne and the church, either Roman Catholic in western Europe or the Eastern Orthodox Church in Russia had as much power as the kings, and the people would be under the impression if they disobeyed the King, they would in turn be disobeying God or the Church.
Most Absolute Monarchs in the western world were before the time of the Protestant Reformation or even the Magna Carta in England, which helped extend rights and helped common people (in some cases) have some say. But in the middle ages, and in some other parts of the world, there was no question about the power of the monarch, since most were uneducated and even those who were knew little of ideas like democracy or republics, or Representative forms of government.
For example, even if they knew the Roman empire had a Senate, but the Roman empire was seen as evil, therefore an elected body was evil.