Initially, the text was published in the magazine ‘Zhurnal dlya vsekh’ (1905).
The topic of the Moscow Zemsky Councils of the sixteenth – seventeenth centuries was chosen by P. for his student’s qualification work in 1880. The author described the story of his work over the text: “[C.N.] Bestuzhev[-Riumin] accepted my topic ‘Moscow Zemsky Councils of the sixteenth – seventeenth centuries’. Sincethe end of 1880, I have collected, – I might say by chance – sources on the history of the Zemsky Councils, and I wrote my compositions without any assistance. It happened to be large and quite satisfactory, from the point if view of Bestuzhev; but it was rather alien for his views and did not reflect his scholarly influence. When he offered me to stay at the university and to prepare foe professor’s position after my graduation, Bestuzhev noted that circumstances; he said me: ‘I see that you are more pupil of Sergeevich’. He was wrong in it: by the end of my university course I was in the equal measure far from the ideology of Bestuzhev, and of schemes of [V.I.] Sergeevich. In the methods and technique of research I followed [V.G.] Vassilievsky; and in understanding of the meaning and content of Russian historical proves I was under the influence of lectures and books by V.O. Kliuchevsky” (Platonov S.F. Collection of Works in 6 vol. Moscow, 2010-2013. Vol.1. P. 13-14).
IN the work there is a study of the elected representative institution in the Moscow State; a special attention was put to the Time of Troubles, and to the Council of 1648, and the Sobornoe Ulozhenie.