Dealing with the meaning of words революция и переворот in Russian discourse which are so popular because of century of October events in Russia the author rises some important linguistic questions. Content of words can have objective part (What is the matter) and subjunctive one («good or bad» and different connotations). All these parts should be shown as a bundle of distinctive features, having in mind changeability of these features, particularly subjunctive ones. The author thinks that Russian communicative tradition is much more careful to formal demands, than to semantic accuracy.