What is Eastern despotism? Why were the inhabitants of the eastern empires perceived in the West as disenfranchised subjects, as slaves? What is the essence of this phenomenon, which as a social phenomenon acts as the antipode of civil society, as a political - free, or legal, state. Answering these questions, some of the authors of the monograph analyze the problem in theoretical terms, up to comparison with Marxist socialism, others offer concrete historical developments that make it possible to understand the essence of the problem.