1917: European politics and Russian revolt

Abstract

The author proceeds from the assumption that the description of the 1917 revolution in Russia in European political concepts essentially distorts the meaning of the huge crisis that occurred. For two centuries, the revolutions were described in terms imposed by the Enlightenment mentality. The Russian revolution was a more complex phenomenon. Th e political reasons occupied a relatively small place in it, remaining the lot of educated elites. Revolutionary events were ruled by the spontaneously mass movements caught by the aggressive utopias. Before the revolution, it was accepted that man is equal to another man, people are ready for true freedom, for the achievement it is enough to destroy social inequality. The revolution showed that history is more cyclical then straight directed, peoples are culturally disunited, and man is initially non-perfect.