Russian Empire’s Social System as a Factor of the Russian Revolution

At present, historical scholarship continues to maintain the idea of inevitability of revolution of 1917, the deep causes of which were rooted in the difficult situation that had developed and persisted for a long time among the main working strata of pre-revolutionary Russian society, in the closed nature of the noble elite of Russia and the absence of social elevators in society that allowed representatives of the lower classes to advance. The aim of this work is to characterize the social system of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century as a factor influencing the crisis development of society. To achieve this goal, a description of various segments of the Russian population, primarily the peasantry and workers, is given, trends in the development of the noble class are determined, and the mechanisms of social elevators operating at that time are revealed. The most important one was the education system that had been developed in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century that allowed people from different backgrounds to climb the social ladder. The results of the study are based on the use of factor analysis, as well as the use of systemic and comparative methods, which make it possible to compare individual elements of the Russian social system with the corresponding segments of the population and institutions of foreign countries. The research is based on the achievements of domestic historical research, generalization and a new approach to sources already introduced into scientific circulation. It is concluded that it is impossible to explain the crisis development of Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century by the exclusive action of factors determined by the social system of Russian society.