Why have all attempts to modernize and liberalize Russia over the past 160 years ended in failure? Mikhail Davydov poses this key question for our history in his book. To answer it, the author examines the second half of the 19th century—a time when, in his view, Russia attempted to realize its first anti-capitalist utopia. The government and a portion of society agreed that in the industrial era, it was possible to be a 'distinctive' great power—that is, to influence the fate of the world—by fundamentally rejecting everything that had enabled competitors and adversaries to achieve prosperity, primarily a universal civil legal system and the corresponding rights of all segments of the population. As a result, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Empire was the only world power that managed without a parliament and to which the concept of the rule of law did not apply. What socioeconomic processes helped shape this utopia? How did Witte and Stolypin succeed in modernizing the country, and why, in the author's view, did this occur despite the active opposition of the elites? And most importantly: how did this utopia determine the country's fate for many years to come? Mikhail Davydov is a Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor at the School of Historical Sciences at the Higher School of Economics, and a specialist in Russian history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.