The goal of this course is to understand how the notion of the Russian state as empire was born, developed, and changed in Russian literature. We will see which recipes for the optimization or transformation of the Russian Empire were offered by Russian (and Soviet) writers to Russian society. The course will examine works of authors of the 19th and the 20th centuries, from the "era of Romanticism" to "the era of Stalin." Students will read and discuss non-canonical works of canonical authors (Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Platonov) and works of authors relatively unknown in the West, but very important for Russian culture (N. Leskov, V. Korolenko).