At the beginning of the new year, 1917, the population of Russia - a sophisticated politician and an experienced financier, a worker and peasant, a military officer and an ordinary Russian citizen - hoped that the coming year would finally bring peace, tranquility and stability. However, the real Russian reality was in obvious contradiction with these rosy hopes. And no matter how monstrous what happened in October 17th may seem to us now, the population of the country was already psychologically prepared for Bolshevik extremism. The Bolsheviks only consistently brought to their logical conclusion that economic policy, the main contours of which were outlined during the First World War. The very rejection of bourgeois values and personal responsibility, which Russian educated society demonstrated for several generations, led to the fact that the Russian intellectual easily accepted the idea of pervasive state intervention in all spheres of social life - from supplying the population with food and fuel to state dictate in the sphere of culture . In many ways, we are still seeing the consequences of those terrible events to this day...