FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN RUSSIAN EMPIRE: HISTORIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF RUSSAN AND FOREIGN RESEARCH

Abstract

The study focuses on the views of Russian and foreign scientists on the problem of Western European absolutism and Russian autocracy as two different forms of government. The purpose of the historiographical review is to compare the arguments for and against the widespread assertion that the form of government in the Russian Empire was an absolute monarchy. The main methodological approach for this historical and legal research was the civilizational and cultural approach in law. The conclusion is that the theoretically derived concept of absolutism as a form of government in the medieval Western Europe and the Russian Empire did not exist.