The article shows how the social engineering theory can be applied to study events and processes of Soviet history, especially the development of the early Soviet society. The Soviet social engineering project lasted twenty years and involved the Communist government and party ideologues as social architects, on the one hand, and the Russian society as the object of this experiment, on the other. The Party used a wide range of methods and instruments such as law, taxation, censorship, and the system of emergency agencies, which ensured the including law, taxes, censorship, and the system of state security agencies. Mass media, education, science, and art played a special role in this process by shaping people's consciousness, memory and beliefs. This social engineering project went through several phases, which were characterized by different implementation mechanisms and different outcomes: the radical model (War Communism); the liberal model (multi-sectoral society), and the totalitarian model (Soviet society).