These essays are an attempt to give for a wide readership a preparatory work of a generalizing nature on the history of the period February 1917 - January 1918. There is nothing to say about the difficulties that so far meet the fulfillment of the task. After all, the events that began in 1917 did not complete their development. The scientific study of the October Revolution is only now, in fact, being deployed. Many important materials are only now beginning to appear.