Historical and Legal Aspects of the Use of the Theory of Separation of Powers of C.L. Montesquieu in the Russian Political and Legal Thought

Abstract

Evolution of perception of Montesquieu’s doctrine by an outstanding figure of modern epoch in Russian prerevolutionary political-legal thought is considered in the article. It is noted that there is a certain tendency to reduce the essence of Montesquieu’s doctrine to schematic division of state power into legislative, executive and judicial branches. The methodological potential of the doctrine about the correspondence of the forms of organization of power to the specific conditions of society life is shown. The emphasis is on the predominant reference of the Russian pre-revolutionary legal science to the scheme of separation of powers, and not on revealing the factors determining the specifics of its application. The article gives a brief description of the standpoints of some Russian lawyers starting from the moment of penetration of Enlightenment ideas into the Russian intellectual space and up to the break in the scientific tradition in connection with the changes in the typology of Russian state system caused by the events of 1917. A number of peculiarities of the influence of Montesquieu’s doctrine on the definition of the status of executive power in the system of separation of powers are demonstrated. It is shown that Russian political and legal science had reached the level of understanding of necessity to take into account national peculiarities of state life of concrete people in forming the system of state government.