The Presidential Library marking the 105th anniversary of the October Revolution

Modern historians in assessing the revolutionary events in Russia are divided into two opposite camps. Some believe that on the eve of the revolution, the country was plunged into a total crisis. In their opinion, by the beginning of the First World War, Russia had reached a dead end, revolutionary sentiments in society were only growing, and the war only postponed the revolution for three years. Others believe that the Russian Empire developed successfully after the reforms of the 1860s, but war and revolution stopped its further strengthening.

The Presidential Library’s collections contain electronic copies of unique documents and books that tell about events that changed the course of world history. They are united in the electronic collection 1917 and are publicly available.

A special place in the collection belongs to questions of the prerequisites of the revolutionary movement, the opinions of those who directly participated in it. “What the revolution gave to the people” (February. – editor’s note) is spotlighted in the publication of the same name in the early summer of 1917 by the statesman Iosif Khodorovsky.

But not everything was so clear. The majority of the representatives of the working people, according to the appeal of the Petrograd workers shortly after the events of the end of 1917, at first accepted the change of order in the country “performed on our behalf and without our knowledge”, but then many revised their views. From the telegrams of that time available on the portal, one has an opportunity to find out that their employees protested against the seizure of mail and telegraphs, that the railway workers did not immediately accept the new government.

The Presidential Library’s portal features a video lecture by a specialist in the field of historical sociology, chief researcher of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor of St. Petersburg State University Boris Mironov The revolution that stole victory and plunged into turmoil.

According to the scientist, after the abolition of serfdom, a real economic miracle took place in the country. The empire has become one of the most dynamically developing countries in the world. World business has invested in the country's economy. The average life expectancy and literacy of the population grew, the length of the working day decreased, and the incomes of the population increased. The number of depositors in Russian banks increased by 82 times, among them peasants and workers prevailed. Social insurance and the system of labor legislation in the Russian Empire in 1913 were recognized as one of the best in the world. Judicial reform was successfully implemented, for example, all types of corporal punishment for exiles, for peasants, workers, soldiers and sailors were abolished, exile to Siberia was canceled. Since 1908, the gradual introduction of universal compulsory free primary education began due to an increase in loans for public education.

The steady trend of improving the quality and standard of living created a real prospect of achieving a high standard of living in the not so distant future.

In Soviet historiography, the tsarist reforms were condemned for being protracted in time, for being "half-hearted". However, in modern economic science, according to Mironov, it is believed that successful reform should be systematic and gradual.

Why, against the background of the growth of the economy, the improvement of the life of the population, was there still an increase in protest movements? This was a direct consequence of changes in society, a consequence of the freedom granted to a huge mass of people who were previously disenfranchised, the result of the development of a market economy and an incredible increase in needs and expectations.

In this context, the brilliant propaganda of the opponents of the monarchy, and after February 1917, the opponents of the Provisional Government, also played a huge role.

As a result, on October 24, 1917, the leader of the proletariat, Vladimir Lenin, said about the need for an armed uprising: “Yesterday it was early, tomorrow it will be late”.