The systematic investigation of the Russian revolutionary tradition in comparative, historical, and functional perspective provides the possibility to understand its impact in creation of the modern world and contemporary social and political system. On the ground of cognitive history methods the author examines the role of Communist myth in the formation of the Soviet state, ideological and legal grounds of one-party dictatorship (Soviet constitutions of 1918, 1924, 1936, 1977) and institutional continuity in the context of revolutionary social mobilization. Arguing positive and negative results of revolutionary transformation, he analyses the phenomenon of the nominal constitutionalism and traces the different attitudes to institutional engineering, showing how the balance between formal and informal practices has shifted. The article discusses the evolution of legitimating formula of political regime from Tsarist times to the collapse of the Soviet regime, regarding the general influence of revolutionary heritage on the current political system and prospects of its modernization.