In modern historical science, one of the explanations for the causes of the revolutionary events of 1917 is the assertion that the political regime that existed in the country at the beginning of the last century was an obstacle to the movement of society forward. This should also manifest itself in a slowdown in the development of social infrastructure. In this regard, the article, for the first time in Russian science, sets the goal of giving a comprehensive de- scription of the development of social infrastructure in Russia at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Particular attention is paid to those areas of infrastructure, the influence of the state on the state and development prospects of which is especially noticeable. These include public health, education, development of science and technology, and transport. To achieve this goal, primarily systematic, historical and comparative methods, as well as factor analysis, were used. The result of the study was the conclusion about the progressive development of the above areas of social infrastructure in the decades preceding the revolution, which was largely determined by the activities of public authorities.

The study of the February Revolution of 1917 over the last century has attracted the close attention of scientists. At various time stages, the research issues have undergone changes, the vector of their relevance has beem noticeably shifting from one aspect to another. One of the most important areas of modern historical research is the study of socio-psychological factors that influenced the emergence and development of the February political crisis. The purpose of this article is to study the role and mechanisms of influence of these factors in revolutionary events. Based on a significant amount of source data and the use of systemic and factor analysis, the methodology of using communication channels for destabilizing political relations is revealed. An attempt is made to reveal the degree of awareness of the mass induced psychosis in the emergence and development of revolutionary processes by the scientific community of that time. The result of the conducted research is the conclusion about the inability of the public authorities of that period to cope with the destructive influence of the socio-psychological aspects of the revolutionary events.