The author gives detailed answers to the comments made by all eighteen round table participants in the course of the discussions that unfolded around his book “The Russian Empire: From Tradition to Modernity”. A fundamental debate on many of the issues raised in the book is conducted in the article. Among them: methodology and technique, in particular, the use of a variety of research strategies, the application of comparative historical approach, interdisciplinarity, macro- and micro-analysis, the search for patterns, the role of concepts, and the relationship between empirical and analytical aspects in the study. Much attention is paid to the controversial aspects of ethnoconfessional policies, mentalité and historical psychology, the unresolved issues of serfdom and colonization, cultural capital and educational policies, as well as self-government and civil society. The discussion concerning the specifics of Russian modernization and the issue of myth making occupies an important place in the article, as does historical optimism and cliotherapy.