On evaluations of the Russian Revolution in the scale of world and national histories

The article is devoted to the analysis of changes in significance evaluations of the Russian Revolution on the scale of world and national histories from 20th century to beginning of the 21st century. The main article's problem is the question of determining the grounds that give historians right to assert the greatness of the Russian Revolution into the frame of world and national histories. To solve the problem posed, the author turned to the discussion in historiography about the existence of two or one revolution in the Russian history in 1917. On the basis of the history of concepts toolkit the article supports the point of view about existence of a single historical event, and the February and the October were its most important stages. The question of Russian Revolution greatness into the frame of world and Russian histories is solved on the basis of the principle of interdisciplinary synthesis. The author relies on a wide range of works of historians and philosophers in his conclusions. Memoirs of contemporaries about events of the Russian revolution are used as a main source for the article. The problem of criteria determining for greatness of the Russian Revolution into the frame of world and national histories is solved separately in the article. A comparative analysis of the Great French and Great Russian Revolutions is used to solve it. As a result, the author came to the following conclusions. Firstly, the greatness of the Russian Revolution into the frame of world history is due to the influence of revolutionary events on the mankind development, and it is beyond doubt. The Russian Revolution offered mankind a groundbreaking idea of social justice expressed in communist ideology as the basis for development of society at the time. The communist ideology in Russia had specifically Russian features. The main of these was the messianism. The Russian Revolution had spurred throughout the 20th century many people to see the communism as an alternative to Western liberalism. Secondly, the Russian Revolution developed in a different way than the Great French Revolution. It rejected the idea of the nation raised on the banner of the revolution in France. The revolution in Russia became a national catastrophe for the Russian people on the national history scale. Thirdly, the Russian Revolution significance into the frame of world and national histories depends not on the past but on the present and the future. Much in these evaluations will depend on whether modern supporters of socialism can take into account the fatal error of the Russian Revolution that rejected the "national idea" in the name of the ideals of the "social justice".

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