Palace Coups in Russia: Comparative Typologization

Abstract

This article considers palace coups as one of the key phenomena of Russian political culture, which intertwined traditions and innovations, accidents and patterns, personal and corporate interests, prudence and adventurism. It analyzes methods and mechanisms by which the Russian autocrats of the late 17th – 18th centuries ascended to the throne. The ways of ascension to the throne were different, but they had one thing in common – compliance with clear rules of succession was very far from ideal, which was significantly different from most European monarchies. In monarchies where inheritance was legally fixed by the principle of primogeniture, it was much more difficult to carry out palace coups. There was no such mandatory legal norm for the Romanov dynasty. Palace coups in Russia did not lead to changes in the social and economic sphere or in the mechanisms of functioning of the state, with the exception of the political careers of individual dignitaries. The last palace revolution in the history of Russia took place in 1801 and symbolically completed the 18th century for it. Most of the changes on the Russian throne during the 18th century took place in the form of a “palace coup” with the participation of representatives of the dynasty and, as a rule, the highest dignitaries. Such methods of changing rulers reflected a certain instability of the supreme power, disputes about the ways of modernizing the country, the consequences of Peter the Great’s reforms and, in fact, intra-dynastic contradictions.