Abstract: This article represents an attempt of socio-anthropological interpretation of the process of modernization in the Republican Turkey. The process of radical modernization, which took place in Turkey during the ruling period of Kemalists (1923-1950), aroused extensive interest in the West and resulted in the emergence of large number of scientific publications. The foreign observers mostly admired the results of the modernization and claimed the creation of “New Turkey”. But all these works had apparent flaws, thus Kemalism and Kemalist modernization require a new critical approach. The author suggests examining the Turkish modernization in the context of difference of the sociocultural dynamics of historical process between the West and the East, as well as defines the key characteristic of Turkish modernization as authoritarian. At first, the author demonstrates the evolution of authoritarian modernization processes in Turkey, reveals their ideological roots, and then, the unidentified aspects of the Turkish modernization. The analysis of evolution of the Turkish modernization within the framework of differences in sociocultural dynamics of the historical process allows viewing the modernization processes of the traditional Eastern society not as a consistent phenomenon, but a complicated process, in which the authority discussed the modernization policy with the traditional society. The article illustrates that modernization had limited direct impact upon the Turkish society, which opens the new research questions.