The article analyzes the process of state-building during the reign of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible and its influence on the vectors of further political development of Russia. The authors applied methodological principles of the world-system analysis and civilizational analysis. The article shows that the development of the Russian State during the reign of Ivan IV is carried out in the paradigm of extensiveness, military and commercial expansion. Along with the Byzantine heritage, the Russian state also inherited the Golden Horde, primarily due to the inclusion of spaces that were previously integrated into the logic of the general imperial development of the Golden Horde. In the western direction during this period, despite the stalemate in the Livonian War, the Russian State was increasing its interaction with European countries (primarily with Britain), but thanks to the policy of Ivan IV, Russia did not become the periphery of the emerging capitalist world economy. Numerous challenges of the state-building process led to the formation of a highly centralized model of political government, which possessed a set of characteristic features and maintained continuity with the Grand Duchy of Moscow.