In conclusion, we consider how and why the revolutions have been increasingly used as a geopolitical weapon. In the second part of the article we highlight some issues related to the theory of revolution, in particular, he defines the types of revolutions starting from religious to modernizing revolutions, and also points some important conditions for the revolutionary outbreak. Then we show the important changes that occurred in revolutionary practice and the very understanding of the essence of revolution due to great revolutions. In the first part of the article we analyze the course of transformation of revolutions within historical process, in particular, how their world-historical role, the social bases, revolutionary ideologies, practices, and information technologies they applied have changed over the centuries. It was just the Reformation that gave start to modern revolutions in Europe and the world. The year 2017 marked not only the hundredth anniversary of the Revolution of 1917, but also the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation in Germany. It is shown that though the case of Ukraine is unique for Eastern Europe in the period under study, it has many parallels on a global scale. The reasons for the growth of terrorist activity and guerrilla warfare as well as the role of the war in Donbass are discussed. In explaining the special case of Ukraine which breaks with the general trend of Eastern Europe, the authors show that Ukraine experienced a transition from less-violent forms of destabilization (anti-government demonstrations and riots) to more violent ones (guerrilla warfare and terrorist attacks) in 2013–2014.
The contribution of the Ukrainian Revolution in 2014 to the dynamics of the most violent forms of protest in Eastern Europe is also analyzed. The authors define the most typical forms of destabilization for Eastern Europe: anti-government demonstrations, riots, terrorist actions, and guerrilla warfare. In addition to the external factor of the Arab Spring, the article examines the internal factors of the protest activity of the second wave of the economic crisis associated with the economic crises in Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Greece. The wave of protest activity after 2011 is compared with the previous wave of protest activity initiated by the global financial-economic crises of 2008–2009. We also analyze ways of borrowing patterns of destabilization. The similarities of the protests in Eastern Europe with the protests of the Arab Spring period are demonstrated. The authors show how the success of the Arab revolutions influenced the rise of protest activity in Eastern Europe in 2011. The article analyzes the impact of the Arab Spring on destabilization processes in Eastern Europe.