Alexander Yanov argues in his new book “Russian idea” that Russian nationalism is the mainand ultimate source of the imperialistic foreign policy of modern Russia and its internal dictatorship. Heinsists that a specific mentality of Russian leaders based on the idea of unique Russian national identity causes inability of Russia to transform its political system along with the European patterns. The articleputs Yanov’s theory of Russian political history under the question. Russian nationalism is indeed onlyone of many different ideological faces of a genuine Russian political system. This system is not basedon any ideological doctrine but is closely related to a standard behavior pattern which is typical for thelargest part of politically active Russians. Modernization of the Russian political system does not implyabandoning Russian national identity but rather requires its elites and politically active citizens to modify their behavior standard in correspondence to the one typical for modern European politicians.