Imposture in the history of Russia of the XVIII century

The history of Russia cannot be imagined without the phenomenon of imposture, because it combines many ideological, social and political aspects of life in the XVII-XVIII centuries. Klyuchevsky wrote: «... from the first False Dmitry and almost to the end of the XVIII century. a rare reign took place without an impostor». Indeed, imposture was not unique to the Russian state, but it was in Russia that it was one of the most frequent phenomena. That is why there are dozens of impostors in some periods of history. And let the theme of imposture of the XVII-XVIII centuries. It has been studied for two centuries, and this topic cannot be called deeply studied. For example, the exact number of impostors is unknown, the factual material is extremely heterogeneous and quite often contains false statements of various kinds, such as the affiliation of a person to impostors, the basis and course of their activities. It is likely that the goal that encouraged people to become impostors was a banal desire for power, and the reason for those who followed the first, perhaps, was the dissatisfaction of the people with the structure of the society in which they lived. Thus, there is no contradiction between the approaches of historians. The only difference is that some write about the goals, while others write about the causes of the phenomenon.