The Origins of Autocracy

This may sound like a Utopian dream—which it perhaps is to some extent. What I am trying to stress, however, is that such construction is necessary for both historiographic and historic reasons. Russia, Nosov says, was at the crossroads in the middle of the sixteenth cen­tury. I am sincerely convinced that now, at the end of the twentieth century, it is once again at the crossroads. Is Ivaniana destined to un­dergo a new "historiographic nightmare," or is the demiurge of all of these nightmares—the "myth of the state"—finally expiring? What awaits Russia: a new "absolutism saturated with Asiatic barbarism" (in Shmidt's words) or, finally, after four centuries of delay, "absolutism of European type" ? This does not depend only on the historians. But it does depend on the historians too.

APPENDIXES

APPENDIX I

Russia at the Crossroads: Establishment Political Forces in the 1550s

Political Left Political Right

 

APPENDIX II

The Cycles of Russian History

cycle i cycle ii cycle iii cycle iv cycle v cycle vi cycle vii (1564-1689) (1689-1796) (1796-1825) (1825-1881) (1881-1917) (1917-1929) (1929-?)

Tyranny

1564-

1584

1689-

1725

1796-

1801

1825-

1855

1881-

1894

1917-

1921

1929-

1953

Revolution of "de-Stalinization "

1584-

1613

1725-

1730

1801-

1811

1855-

1863

1894-

1908

1921-

1927

1953-

1964

Attempts at reform, followed by politi­cal stagnation

1613-

1689

1730-

1796

1811-

1825

1863-

1881

1908-

1917

1927-

1929

1964-

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