THE REVOLUTIONARY UPHEAVALS IN THE RUSSIAN PROVINCE THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE PUBLIC INITIATIVE

The involvement of primary archival documents of the provincial archives that allow to evaluate the extent of public participation and the initiative of towns people of Black-Earth Center during the 1917 revolution is actual. Specific examples and scenarios in the first months of the revolutionary wave in the context of the development of urban self-government and formation of new government are given. The active role of students in secondary special educational institutions in the disarmament of the police and the formation of public sentiment in the cities of the region are clarified. Social and professional status of representatives of local government of a new revolutionary time of interaction and friction with the commissioners of the Provisional Government is defined. The spontaneous and impulsive nature of the formation of social attitudes and representations of the urban population of the Central Black-Earth region in the new government is revealed. Characterization of the reasons for the growth of social tensions and problems of daily life of the urban population of the region during the World War I of 1914-1918, which in its turn contributed to a quick and bloodless victory of the new government, is given. The urban population of the Central Chernozem region was so tired of the hardships of military routine and food supply problems, rising housing prices, the influx of refugees that lime of the fall of the autocracy raised hopes for change for the better. Important factor in wait-and-see tactics the majority of the population of the region in terms of revolutionary upheavals, which is quite understandable reactions to an incomprehensible and fleeting change of the usual lifestyle and everyday life of the average urban word of the Black-Earth Center, is identified. The lack of a coherent opposition activity a new mode is revealed. Monarchical and reactionary groups were not ready for such dramatic changes in provincial society, and their passivity reflects the overall panic mood of the supporters of the old regime. At the same time in the regions there were no attempts of massacres with supporters of the autocracy, but the negative sentiment was expressed only in damage to and destruction of portraits of the Imperial family and symbols of the old power.

revolutionary events, community initiative, local government, Executive committees, the Provisional government, the middle layers