The article provides arguments in support of the hypothesis of the integrity of the category of the instrumental case in
Russian. Using the example of several "atypically instrumental" patterns, the author shows that “the meaning of the case as
such” (A.V. de Groot) exists, and all speech implementations of the case are concrete embodiments of its abstract (semantic)
structure, which is based on an elementary spatial relation – a semantic primitive THROUGH, perceived by the Russian
language consciousness abstractly, regardless of the nature of the object being crossed. The article complements the research
on the role of spatial relations in the development of grammatical categories of sentence.