The first publication in Russian of the book of the famous American sociologist-theorist of the XX century. T. Parsons (1902-1979). Based on its four-functional interchange scheme - a universal methodological tool designed to analyze any specific societies and any living systems of action in general, and the concept of modernization characterizing the main vector of the historical development of societies, the author traces the formation of a system of modern societies, the geographical movement of the center of the worldwide modernization process, which began in the XVI-XVII centuries. and continuing in our time. The publication also contains an autobiographical essay in which the scientist writes about his ideological origins, teachers and scientific authorities, as well as about the main stages in the formation of his theory of social action and the place of the published book in the general system of his views.