New book by A. Yu. Dvornichenko is devoted to one of the most complex and controversial problems of Russian history: the emergence of the ancient Russian state. This problem is studied in historiographical terms, and for the first time almost all the most important historiography is covered, including modern Russian and foreign (including emigrant) publications. The book constantly contains an author's position, based on many years of experience in the study of the history and historiography of Russia. The author was able to identify and show the reader the basic paradigm of the development of historiography in the field of the study of ancient Russian polytogenesis. It was a movement from a monarchical idea to a democratic one.. Historians XVIII - first half of XIX in . developing the thoughts of Moscow scribes of previous centuries, imagined Kievan Rus in the form of a monarchy In the second half of the XIX - early XX in . A complete victory was won by the "democratic" theory, which represented Kievan Rus as a vechechny, democratic education. This theory was continued in emigrant and foreign historiography. Soviet historical science has largely paradoxically returned to the ideas of bygone times. The struggle of ideas, schools and trends continues today.