The article explores the possibility of a consistent view of the boundaries of arbitrary interference in the objective processes of social development. The materialistic understanding of history, which denies subjective and, moreover, transcendental factors, includes the theory of the revolutionary transformation of society. The change of formations does not occur before the necessary conditions and prerequisites ripen. Meanwhile, revolutions (“locomotives of history”) and, in general, the “living creativity of the masses” are understood as legitimate mechanisms of development. The future is inevitable, but it requires a lot of directed efforts. The automatism of what is happening is always open to arbitrary action. Being defines consciousness, but it never “comes true” without it. The text suggests a direction of thinking that equalizes their rights to the socio-historical reality. From a certain angle, the following considerations can be deemed a general theoretical and partly methodological preface to the next actualization of well-known subjects, including the role of the individual in history.