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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