In the focus of the article are the popular publicistic narratives, which was in demand in Russian society in the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st centuries. Based on the analysis of the data of publishing statistics, sociological surveys, the network content, the most popular journalistic texts of different directions and genres are analyzed. The evolution of imaginations about the Middle Ages, historical figures and events of pre-Petrine Rus in the narratives of pre-revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet times was research in comparison with other sources of historical memory formation. It is shown that the construction of Middle Ages in publicist texts was undergone significant changes in spite of the fact that the Middle Ages were mainly the place of consensus of historical memory. They are connected both with the change in the role of publicism in the formation of the information agenda and with the change in attitude towards the medieval past, which become the ideal of the lost «golden age» from the instrument used to create historical schemes.