Why did “Petersburg Russia” Never Defeat “Muscovite Russia”?

M. M. Kovalevsky on the Problem of Borrowing Foreign Experience

Abstract

The article deals with the views of M. M. Kovalevsky on the problem of borrowing foreign experience in the field of political institutions. The focus is on the work of Kovalevsky “Essays on the history of political institutions in Russia” (1908), the first experience in historiography of a concise and accessible presentation of the topic. “Muscovite Russia” is a symbol of the country as an oriental despotism (this is how the scientist characterized Russia in the 16th–17th centuries). “Petersburg Russia” is a conditional image of Russia as Europe. Kovalevsky explores the transit of the country from east to west, highlighting the reforms of Peter I, Catherine II, Alexander I and Alexander II. He comes to the conclusion that the transformation of the political system of Russia according to foreign models did not prevent the preservation of the political foundations characteristic of “Muscovite Russia”. Kovalevsky explains this by the infl uence of a number of internal and external factors, he defends the priority of culture in social reconstruction.