The article examines the evolution of Russian historiography of French absolutism during the second half of the 1980s — early 1990s. The authors note that the theoretical and methodological crisis of the Soviet historicalparadigm gave rise to interest in various non-Marxist approaches to the study of history. The phenomenon of French absolutism of the Early Modern Period, the 16th — 17th centuries, was no exception. Based on the analysis of the works of leading historians on this issue, the paper observes the formation of three research paradigms, three methodological approaches to understanding and perceiving the French absolute monarchy of the Early Modern Period. The first paradigm is an attempt to modernize the concept of absolutism formed in Soviet historical science. The second one was based on the methodological principles of socio-structural history, which considers society and its institutions as a single interconnected social structure. In this case, Western historical science became a reference point for historians. The third paradigm also found its source in Western traditions of humanitarian knowledge, it is the socio-cultural approach to the study of history, where culture plays the same significant role as social and sociopolitical structures. In this latter approach, absolutism was interpreted as a complex cultural and social system.