For the first time in Russian, the works of the French historian Augustin Cauchin are published, dedicated to the history of the French Revolution, in which an attempt is made to explain the mechanism of preparation for the revolution by training minds and forming public opinion loyal to the ideas of a radical reorganization of the social system. Studying provincial archives of the second half of the 18th century ., the author discovered that long before the revolution in France there were many philosophical clubs and societies that arose under the influence of the ideas of the French “enlightenmentists”. In these societies, in endless debates about “freedom, equality and fraternity,” a special breed of people was developed - Homo ideologicus, thinking in social cliches and divorced from real life. Later, it was these people who became the main characters in the election campaign for the Estates General and occupied all leading positions in the new authorities. What follows is known: the execution of the king, persecution of the Church, robberies, redistribution of property and mass terror amid cries of “the good of the people,” and ultimately the death of the most ardent revolutionaries at the hands of former comrades. The book is compiled based on materials from the publication: Augustin Cochin. Les Sociétés de Pensée et la Démocratie (Plon. 1921). It will be of interest to those history buffs who seek to understand the true driving forces of historical events.