A reader on the history of the USSR of the 18th century is devoted to the time of late feudalism in our country, when the feudal-feudal system entered a period of decomposition and capitalist relations were formed in its bowels. When selecting documents, the drafters of the anthology did not set out to cover all sides of the complex historical process with them. With a limited volume of the book, this would have to resort to the method of illustrating historical phenomena only with short excerpts from documents, and this would not facilitate, but complicate the educational process, especially in those educational institutions that do not have well-equipped libraries. Guided by this consideration, the drafters sought to provide complexes of documents covering only the most important issues, but with such completeness that these issues could be more or less thoroughly studied without resorting to additional sources.