The article provides a comparative conceptual analysis of the three approaches to the examination of the imperial experience of monarchical and Soviet Russia, conventionally referred to as liberal-globalist, statist and centrist-academic ones. It is recognized that the first two approaches remain firmly opposed in assessing the overall significance and prospects of Russia’s imperial experience, and that it is impossible for the third one to directly become the basis for forming a common stand. At the same time, there exist certain common views on a number of individual issues related to the determination and nature of the imperial model in Russia. Accordingly, the possibilities of organic integration of all the three approaches are seen in understanding the common aspects relying on the unity of objective truth, the ideal of justice and the interests of Russian society. The author comes to the conclusion that preserving the modernized imperial features in ideology has good potential for the formation of a full-fledged national consciousness in modern Russia.