The paper will analyse the views of Kyiv and Moscow Orthodox authors on the Orthodox history. Particular attention will be paid to fluctuations in historical interpretations made under the influence of political-confessional changes in the 16th-19th centuries. These interpretations were constructed by Orthodox-Catholic theological polemics after the Union of Brest. The loss of Kyiv to the Commonwealth in the 17th century led to a new vision of the Moscow-Kyiv history ('Sinopsis') that began to permeate Russian soil during the reign of Peter I who actively used the 'Malorussians' to provide state reforms and building of the imperial historiography (from Teofan Prokopovich to George Konissky). Catherine II's exaltation of the 'Velorussians' and Platon Levshin's creation of a 'Moscow' synthesis of the history of Russian Orthodoxy initiated further interpretive transformations. They were aimed at preparing an imperial interpretation of the history of the Orthodox Church, yet typically Russian. However, subsequent political and confessional changes led to a questioning of the hegemony of Orthodox historiography written by 'learned monks' and the emergence of an 'oberprocuratorial' vision (Mikhail Muravyov), a 'West Russian' vision (Yosef Semyashko), or a vision of secular researchers.