The article looks into the genesis and the methodology of Russian political science. In this context the methodological approaches of the two-volume book “Political Identity and Identity Politics” are interpreted as a certain landmark (a methodological turn) in the formation of the postclassical paradigm in political science in Russia. The role of “identity” in the cognitive-epistemic and methodological system of social cognition relevant to the realities of the diverse and volatile contemporary world (including the political sphere) is demonstrated.