Ключевое слово: «historiography»

The Zemsky Sobor was the highest class-representative agency of the Russian state, which existed from the middle of the 16th century until the end of the 17th century. In Russia, this practice is a late form of democracy. An earlier form is considered to be Veche, the national assembly where everything important was decided by a general assembly of free men. The Zemsky Sobor of the middle of the XVI century belongs to a responsible moment in the history of Russia, because then began to carry out major re-forms aimed at consolidating the state apparatus. The sobor emerged in the sixteenth century as an agency to replace the zemstvo. This state agency, which replaced Veche, took into account the tradition of participation of social strata in the solution of state prob-lems, but replaced the inherent elements of democracy with the beginnings of class rep-resentation. Still, the Zemsky Sobor did not become the cornerstone of the parliamentary monarchy and the beginning of active grass-roots democracy in the Russian state. A study of the early form of parliamentarism and a comparison of similar systems in foreign countries will help in the development of the legal and governing aspects of our country.