Interrelation is considered between political values and orientations of Russia’s population, on the one hand, and the dynamics and qualitative characteristics of the institutional changes, on the other. The authors offer and substantiate a hypothesis of coevolution of political institutions and of mass political orientations in the course of Russia’s transit. According to the authors’ conclusion, such coevolution has a cyclic character: interaction between political institutions and mass political orientations takes place mainly at points of crises, at critical points, whereas at time intervals between such points alienation of the bulk of society from political institutions increases.