From the Medieval Kingdom to the Empire of Modern Times: Models of the State Structure in Russia of the XVII -beginning of the XVIII centuries in Russian Historical Thought

The question of the time of transition from the medieval MoscoviteKingdom to modern Russia, thepolitical form of which was the Russian Empire, has been raised in Russian socio-historical thought since the XVIII century. The prevailing was that the beginning of a new period of Russian history falls during the reign of Peter the Great. Based on the principle of historicism, S.M.Soloviov pointed out that the beginning of a new period in the history of Russia was in the XVII century, when the prerequisites for Peter's reforms were formed. This point of view has been firmly established in Russian historiography, including in the Soviet period. The basis for such a revision were the theories of the patrimonial state and the regular, or police state to which attention is drawn in the works of modern historians. It is emphasizedthat the end of the patrimonial state and the transition to a new Russia, which happened under Peter I. In the historical consciousness of the general population, the new period of the country's history is also associated with Peter the Great