During the last two decades, we can observe a large and growing body of writing on different aspects of Russian nationalism and national identity. Now we find ourselves in a need to systematize different approaches in historiography to the problem of Russian nationhood, and this is the main concern of this article. It will proceed along two tracks. Firstly, it will try to depict the entire range of views presented in a historiography on Russian nationalism and national identity in the imperial period. We admit that this is a quite ambitious task, not to say utopian, that is why it will dwell specifically on those works, which most distinctly represent the main paradigms that have largely shaped historical discussions on our question over the last decades. Secondly, it will offer a general examination of the critical factors, which influenced theoretical and methodological development of these paradigms.