On the Psychological Interpretation of the Prehistory, History and Posthistory of Revolutionary Consciousness in Russia: How do “Gods” Arise in a Profane Society?
Authors: Khrenov N.A. 
Published: November 2023

The article raises the question of the activity of the psychological factor in extreme situations taking place in the history of peoples, such as revolutions and wars. In the Russian science of the twentieth century, which is influenced by the ideas of Karl Marx, usually the study of such extreme situations is limited to the consideration of sociological, economic and political aspects. Less attention is paid to the effect of the psychological factor, since it is usually associated not with the collective, but with the individual principle, although it is extremely difficult to separate one from the other. This is a problem. Inattention to psychology in Russia is also explained by the boom, associated with the birth of an industrial or mass society in the XI century, the laws of functioning of which should be understood. As a result, there was a bias in science towards sociology. In addition, the underestimation of both the individual and the psychological principle of domestic science is due to K. Marx, whose theory is exhausted by social and economic factors. At the turn of the XX–XXI centuries, Russian science has outlived the underestimation of the psychological factor. One of the directions in these shifts can be considered the formation of social psychology as a science, which in its early stages was designated as the psychology of the masses. It is difficult to do without this science when the subject of research is the activities of politicians. Extreme historical situations, which were enough in the twentieth century, put people in the center of public attention who turn from ordinary ordinary politicians into leaders. As it happened in Russia with Lenin and Stalin. In this process of transformation of ordinary revolutionaries into leaders, not only the personal qualities of politicians – contenders for power are significant, but also the projections of ideal images of leaders, initially born in extreme situations in the mass consciousness, or, more precisely, in the unconscious of the masses. Leaders are, as a rule, supersensible images of the mass unconscious that take on a sensory image. Their emergence is a consequence of awakened mythological and symbolic thinking, which, as it often seems, no longer exists for a long time. However, such extreme situations as revolution and war actualize archetypes and myths, and leaders begin to be perceived as “cultural heroes”, i. e. images of myth. In other words, “gods”. This process of the birth of “gods” in pre-revolutionary, revolutionary and post-revolutionary Russia can be illustrated by the biographies of Lenin and Stalin. The article traces how such a significant event in the history of Russia as the revolution of 1917, usually associated with the progress and aspiration of the people to the future, demonstrates regression on a psychological level, i. e. the displacement of later levels of thinking and the activation of more ancient archaic layers of consciousness. In order to explain this phenomenon, it is necessary to turn to the psychology of the masses or to social psychology as a science, which becomes the subject of this article.