The aim of the article is to discuss about the roots of modern Russian national identity as an expression of the activity of the Russian state and the Russian orthodox church. Goes to show, what role did the crisis moments of the Russian state in an attempt to rally the Russian people around traditional vision of the Russian sobornost', therefore, the unity of the state, the orthodox faith and the Russian people. The work places emphasis on determining the fundamental identification of the manifestations, which state officials tried to save Russia in the time of peril Napoleon and then build an official form of identity of the company, with the support of the orthodox faith, pointing rather to a political religion than the actual doctrinal profile. The culmination of this process was the so-called triad of the minister of education count Sergej Semjonovič Uvarov. Work is of an analytical character with the characters of the case study crossing the boundaries of political history towards a history of broad-based culture and the history of ideas.