On methodology and general concepts -- The time of troubles: 1606 1612, and the rest of the seventeenth century -- The devastating course of Peter's "modernization": the eighteenth century age of lost opportunities -- Romantic Decembrists and pessimistic philosophers: the dualism of the first generation Russian intelligentsia -- A decisive junction: the epoch of Alexander II -- After the catastrophe: the penultimate Romanov reign -- The evening glow -- The inverted pyramid -- Stalinism: high noon of system-centeredness -- After Stalin: the system yields to fatigue -- At the new crossroads