Form of government in the interpretation of Russian pre-revolutionary lawyers

We consider the views of Russian scientists (I.A. Ilin, N.M. Korkunov, N.I. Lazarevskiy, I.L. Solonevich, L.A. Tikhomirov) regarding the form of government in Russia in the late 19th – early 20th century and the prospects for its development. The author states the merits of pre-revolutionary lawyers in creating a classification of government forms and in substantiating the features of the distinction between monarchical and republican forms of government, which modern theorists have not been able to fully implement. In pre-revolutionary jurisprudence there was no unity of opinion about the form of government established in Russia after the Manifesto of October 17, 1905. The researchers divided into two groups: one of them was made by scientists who considered the state system “the original Russian state order”, but only updated. According to another group, Russia has become a constitutional monarchy. I.L. Solonevich and I.A. Ilin made predictions about the inevitable collapse of the communist regime, so their thoughts were turned to the people who will remain on the ruins of the USSR and who will have to start a new state construction. At the same time, they proceeded from the fact that the Russian people have a sense of order, stability and great powerness. It is emphasized that all the analyzed scientists’ points of view paid great attention to the distinction between the concepts of absolute and autocratic monarchy, proving that absolutist arbitrariness and autocracy are not the same.