The monograph of the late leading researcher of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Yuri Ilyich Kiryanov, was completed by him and approved for publication by the Scientific Council of the IRI RAS back in 1991. In the last months of his life, at the end of 2002, the author returned to this manuscript and made some changes to the text, which, however, did not touch upon either the general concept of the work or the main array of factual material given in it. One of the most successful articles by Yu. I. Kiryanov on the mentality of Russian workers at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries is also included as appendixs. and a list of the main works of Yuri Ilyich.