ABSTRACT
The processes that took place in the Russian revolutionary movement in the beginning of the twentieth century were mirrored in the countries of the East, including China. This is hardly astonishing: the socio-cultural similarities of China and Russia were rather considerable. Like Russia, in China in the beginning of the century capitalism did not yet determine all spheres of public life. Of course, Russia was more advanced industrially, but in the economies of both countries all known economic structures were present. Individual territories and regions greatly differed from each other in their levels of social and economic development. This can be explained by the fact that within both states common markets, in essence, had not fully developed; the economic and social life of a significant part of the population (in China – its greater part, in Russia – a smaller one) had been isolated within stable local boundaries. The variety of social and economic structures had caused the co-existence of various historical types of social relations – pre-manorial, manorial, semi-manorial and capitalist. There was no civil society in either country.
