The article analyzes the historical background and circumstances of the formation of Russian political culture as an institutional basis for Russian civilization as a whole. The role of pre-Mongol and Horde factors is shown. The specificity of the Russian “civilization of ressentiment”, established on the basis of the unique features of the socio-political development of Moscow Rus during the Horde domination, was determined. The registry of the most important institutional elements of the Russian political culture is given. The range of its maximum allowable “borrowing” and “refusals” is determined. It is concluded that the Russian civilization cannot overcome its autocratic servile institutional foundations and implement the successful complex modernization under the liberal-democratic scenario.