The book is dedicated to a unique social institution that existed as a harmonious system in only one state of the world. Having formed in the era of the formation of a single Russian state, it matured by the time of the emergence of the order administrative apparatus, Zemsky cathedrals, labial and zemstvo institutions, fading away with the beginning of the formation of a new bureaucratic statehood at the end of the 17th century. The author found out the social nature of localism and its importance as a regulator of social relations, reconstructing "local archive" in the form of preserved and existing local affairs, restoring "local legislation" - a set of legal acts and court decisions-precedents, having studied the relationship between the individual and the supreme power in the field of functioning of parochialism, its influence on the career of representatives of the social elite, relations with the state apparatus, provincial nobility and clerical affairs. The results of the work made it possible to determine the reasons for the emergence of localism and the place among other institutions of Russia of the early modern era.