A change in religious consciousness as a factor influencing attitudes towards revolutionary terrorism in the early 20th century

This article examines the relationship between the problem of Russian society's attitude to revolutionary terrorism in the early 20th century and the transformation of religious thinking under the influence of modernization processes. When writing the paper, the methods of content analysis, retrospective, ideographic, and statistical were used. The manifestations of anti- and quasi-religiosity in the actions of those whose destinies included revolutionary terror and received approval are investigated. Moreover, such ideas originated in those familiar with the philosophy of F. Nietzsche's intellectual circles were also included in the thoughts of the people, which was facilitated by the spread of literacy, strengthening the connection between the city and the countryside. The article examines the poetics of the organizers, perpetrators of terrorist attacks and those who sympathized with them in order to circumvent the commandments of the Christian faith. The leitmotif in it was the desire to adapt religious truths to solve worldly problems. It is noteworthy that the figures who remained faithful to canonical values, nevertheless, also contributed to the inclusion of the population in the revolutionary terrorist struggle. The paradox is caused by the described «symptoms» of the crisis of the Church and its perception by society as a bureaucratic unit. The results obtained can serve as a basis for further study by historians of the nature and motives of the participation of various social forces in the revolutionary events.