LEGAL PHENOMENON OF RUSSIAN AUTHORITY

The article examines the history of autocracy in Russia, the time of its existence is calculated from the middle of the 16th century. and before the beginning of the twentieth century. The exception was the insignificant periods of the interregnum, which only confirmed the adherence of the Russian people to the sole forms of supreme power — the princely autocracy, which was finally formed at the end of the 15th century in the Moscow state, and to the tsarist autocracy that replaced it, which was abolished on March 2 (15), 1917. The study of autocracy is carried out using extensive source research and historiographic material. This circumstance made it possible to reveal the legal nature of the supreme power of the Russian monarch, to highlight and describe its properties, to show the exclusivity of the state-canonical legal status of its royal owner. The study of autocracy as a legal phenomenon reflecting the uniqueness of political power in Russia is the most important condition for the further improvement of the modern model of Russian statehood, which is very different from its traditional and customary hierarchical version with one-man supreme power. The methodologically applied new civilizational and cultural approach opens up broad scientific perspectives for this and offers still untapped practical opportunities.