There is no doubt about the historical and social significance of this work of the wonderful Russian historian Ivan Dmitrievich Belyaev. Not so many works have been created in Russian historiography on this topic after his death. And most importantly, this topic remains hotly relevant, and its modern sound can be expressed by the following "damned" question: do the Russians have their own (albeit thoroughly forgotten) democratic traditions, or do they have no choice but to import the latter from the West? Belyaev's book is a serious argument for resolving this issue in a positive sense for our Fatherland. The circumstances of its creation are described in detail in the preface to the first edition, reproduced by us.