The concept was introduced by Vladimir Lenin in 1913, in his article "Маёвка революционного пролетариата"[1] (Mayovka of the Revolutionary Proletariat).
In the article two conditions for a revolutionary situation were described, which were later succinctly phrased as "the bottoms don't want and the tops cannot live in the old way".
What, generally speaking, are the symptoms of a revolutionary situation?
For a revolution to take place, it is usually insufficient for “the lower classes not to want” to live in the old way; it is also necessary that “the upper classes should be unable” to rule in the old way; (2) when the suffering and want of the oppressed classes have grown more acute than usual; (3) when, as a consequence of the above causes, there is a considerable increase in the activity of the masses, who uncomplainingly allow themselves to be robbed in “peace time”, but, in turbulent times, are drawn both by all the circumstances of the crisis and by the “upper classes” themselves into independent historical action.
The totality of all these objective changes is called a revolutionary situation.