The article attempts to historiographically analyze the evolution of the concept of “identity” in the context of the formation of political and legal ideas. The development of the concept’s content and the evolution of its meanings are considered. The relevance of the research is conditioned by the wide interpretation of the term in the modern political and legal space and the lack of unity of its interpretation in the domestic legal system, which requires saturation of its political and legal content with meaning- forming theoretical and legal constructs on the basis of the reconstruction of political and legal knowledge to avoid semantic losses and deconceptualization, containing the risks of impossibility of e›ective use of the concept of “identity” in domestic regulations. It is concluded that as a result of the development of political- legal thought, identity appears as a national- cultural originality of the construction of legal institutions and the formulation of political- legal ideas, on the one hand, and as an independent subject of scientific cognition and direction of research in political- legal doctrines – on the other. This approach allows us to ensure the construction of a verifiable historiographical model of identity in the format of the development of political and legal ideas, which will serve to strengthen the guarantees of the realization of constitutionally significant goals/