The author, lecturer at St. Petersburg University, proceeds in his article from the presumption that conclusions made by researchers of political modernization of countries attributed to the third world might be justifiably used in the study of tendencies of other countries’, including Russia’s, political development. It is from this angle that the article retraces the key landmarks of Russia’s political history beginning from the Petrine reforms. The author’s attention is particularly attracted by the reverses of the reforms in the 19th and early 20th centuries, of which he analyzes the causes and consequences and characterizes the actors.