The work of M.A. Alpatov relies on a wide range of sources and covers a whole range of problems, including the role of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the formation of Russian historiography, historical concepts of V.N. Tatishchev, M.V. Lomonosov, G.Z. Bayer, G.F. Miller, A.L. Schletser, F.A. Emin and others. Along with this, the work contains vivid characteristics of the works of French contemporaries: Voltaire, Montesquieu, Mably, etc. A special section considers the impact of the French bourgeois revolution of the XVIII century. on the socio-political views of Russian thinkers and public figures. The book also reflected the views of the Decembrists.