Constitutional doctrine of “white” Russia: written and unwritten constitution

Abstract

The development of constitutionalism in the anti-Bolshevik state formations during the Civil Period in Russia (1918–1920) is one of the most poorly studied historical and legal issues. In this regard, the purpose of this work is determined to investigate the influence of constitutional doctrines and teachings on the constitutional development of “white” Russia. The main at-tention is paid to the study of anti-Bolshevik legislator positions regarding the question of what the constitution of the future Russia should be – written or unwritten. We analyze the state legal views and scientific works of such lawyers as P.G. Vinogradov, V.A. Maklakov, S.A. Korf, I.A. Ilyin, L.A. Schalland and others. We prove that the representatives of the liberal-democratic and conservative-liberal legal thought played the primary role in solving this issue. The research methodology includes general scientific methods, such as analysis, comparison, methods of logic, etc. Private law methods made it possible to reveal and explain the meaning of state legal doctrines (the method of legal hermeneutics) and to compare the legal categories and institutions that the jurists of the specified period operated with (comparative legal method). In conclusion, we conclude that constitutional doctrines were an important part of the legal path of development of the “white” statehood.