Constitutional projects and ideas of legalists at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries
Danil V. Rybin, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor
St. Petersburg Institute of All-Russian State University of Justice (RPA Ministry of Justice), St. Petersburg, Russia, danilarybin@rambler.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4851-2235
Abstract
The article examines the features of legalistic projects of state reorganization of the empire in the late 19th — early 20th centuries. The legalists formed part of the conservative-liberal movement in the late empire. Using the problem-chronological method, the history of legal constitutionalism, which emerged in the 1860s, experienced an upsurge in the early 1880s, and gradually faded away until 1905, was analyzed. For the first time, the activities of moderate lawyers on the state reorganization of the empire under Alexander III and Nicholas II are considered. Maintaining close ties with the zemstvos and proposing to create a moderate public representation under the State Council, they assigned the main role in the renewed state to the Senate. The Supreme Court of the empire was to return to the model of Peter the Great. That is, to turn into the main supreme governing body of the state. At the same time, the Senate itself was presented as a body combining either three or two branches of power. The idea of moderate representation was supported by conservative liberals until 1906, but ceased to be relevant long before the first Russian revolution.
Keywords
B. N. Chicherin, legalists, State Council, Senate, zemstvo congress, public representation, conservative liberalism.
For citation:
Rybin D. V. Constitutional projects and ideas of legalists at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries. Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal, 2025, no. 1 (53), pp. 233—246. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2025.53.15.
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