The Early Modern is an era when loose and unconsolidated medieval states gradually transformed into early modern ones. These new political formations are traditionally called "centralized". However, were these early modern states really centralized? The author of the article offers his own answer to this question, and, at first glance, this answer may seem paradoxical and unexpected. Based on an analysis of the surviving evidence, annalistic and gleaned from act materials, the author shows on the example of the Russian state of the 15th-16th centuries that the centralization process itself was complex and contradictory, and political reality was sometimes very far from the "noisy" political declarations. In the early modern times, the Russian state was a “patchwork” state, made up of territories with different levels of economic, political, cultural and religious development, with its own peculiar local customs and traditions.
The Early Modern is an era when loose and unconsolidated medieval states gradually transformed into early modern ones. These new political formations are traditionally called "centralized". However, were these early modern states really centralized? The author of the article offers his own answer to this question, and, at first glance, this answer may seem paradoxical and unexpected. Based on an analysis of the surviving evidence, annalistic and gleaned from act materials, the author shows on the example of the Russian state of the 15th-16th centuries that the centralization process itself was complex and contradictory, and political reality was sometimes very far from the "noisy" political declarations. In the early modern times, the Russian state was a “patchwork” state, made up of territories with different levels of economic, political, cultural and religious development, with its own peculiar local customs and traditions.