When they argue about “how we can develop Russia,” they propose either modernization according to the Western model, or a return to archaic, pre-Petrine forms of government. But in both cases it is supposed to impose what is desired from above, to change the laws in the right direction. Meanwhile, in Russian history there was another position: not to touch political forms at all, but to influence the consciousness of people in the hope that if there is a healthy moral foundation below, then everything will straighten out on its own.

Such an approach in Russian history associated with the name of the famous Chief Prosecutor of the Synod, Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev. We talk about him and his church-political program with the author of two scientific monographs about Pobedonostsev, Doctor of Historical Sciences Alexander Polunov.