UDC

340.15(470)(09)(045)

Authors

Dmitriy B. Nizovtsev
Higher School of Economics, Management and Law,
Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov
58 prosp. Lomonosova, Arkhangelsk, 163002, Russian Federation;
e-mail: d.nizovcev@narfu.ru

Abstract

This article analyses the development of the federal doctrine in the works by Russian scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was at that time that the idea of building a federal state (as on the North American continent) became widespread. The article describes key directions in which the ideas of state-building had developed. It presents the views of scholars supportive of centralism and autocracy (N.M. Karamzin, K.P. Pobedonostsev, S.F. Sharapov, K.N. Paskhalov) as well as more radical authors, such as A.N. Radishchev, N.M. Muravyov, M.A. Bakunin and P.A. Kropotkin. The author believes that the growing popularity of conservative ideas in the 19th and early 20th centuries can be partly explained by the traditional Orthodox worldview, characteristic of Russian scholars and politicians of that time. Orthodox Christianity as a worldview rejects greed and worship of wealth. However, it is these qualities that form the basis of capitalist relations. Therefore, Russian conservatives developed the concept of autocratic monarchy, which is based on rigid centralization, executive chain of command. The liberal-minded Russian society of that period saw the source of the country’s progress in limiting the monarch’s power and spreading bourgeois legal values, while absolutism and rigid central authorities were seen as hampering the development and thus had to be eliminated. The author of this article explains the spread of polycentric ideas in the Russian Empire by the development of the liberal thought and revolutionary movement, an attempt which was not welcomed by part of the Russian public then and is not appreciated today. In addition, the article critically estimates the prospects for spreading the ideas of federalism in Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Keywords

federalism, centralism, polycentrism, Decembrists, liberalism, anarchism, autocracy, education, Western civilization

References

1. Pakhomov V.G. Idei federalizma v istorii politiko-pravovoy mysli Rossii: konets XVIII – XX vv.: dis. … d-ra yurid. nauk [Ideas of Federalism in the History of Political and Legal Thought in Russia: End of the 18th – 20th Centuries: Dr. Jurid. Sci. Diss.]. Moscow, 2003. 408 p.
   
2. Ivannikov I.A. Problema evolyutsii formy rossiyskogo gosudarstva v istorii russkoy politiko-pravovoy mysli vtoroy poloviny XIX – serediny XX vekov: dis. … d-ra yurid. nauk [The Evolution of the Form of the Russian State in the History of Russian Political and Legal Thought in the Second Half of the 19th – Mid-20th Centuries: Dr. Jurid. Sci. Diss.]. Rostov-on-Don, 2000. 463 p.
   
3. Lebedev A.O. Idei federalizma v rossiyskoy nauke konstitutsionnogo prava vo vtoroy polovine XIX – nachale XX vv.: dis. … kand. yurid. nauk [Ideas of Federalism in the Russian Science of Constitutional Law in the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Centuries: Cand. Jurid. Sci. Diss.]. Moscow, 2013. 191 p.
   
4. Levitanus B.A. Ideya federalizma v russkoy politicheskoy i pravovoy mysli vtoroy poloviny XIX – nachala XX vekov: dis. … kand. yurid. nauk [The Idea of Federalism in the Russian Political and Legal Thought in the Second Half of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries: Cand. Jurid. Sci. Diss.]. St. Petersburg, 2004. 179 p.
   
5. Svechinskaya Ya.E. Imperskaya ideologiya v rossiyskoy gosudarstvenno-pravovoy mysli: dis. … kand. yurid. nauk [Imperial Ideology in the Russian State-Legal Thought: Cand. Jurid. Sci. Diss.]. Rostov-on-Don, 2009. 169 p.
   
6. Bartenev P. N.M. Karamzin. Russkiy arkhiv, 1911, iss. 8 (in Russian).
   
7. Shirinyants A.A., Ermashov D.V. Mirovozzrenie N.M. Karamzina v kontekste konservativnoy traditsii [N.M. Karamzin’s Worldview in the Context of the Conservative Tradition]. Available at: http://www.portal-slovo.ru/ history/41266.php (accessed 12 May 2015).
   
8. Gligich-Zolotareva M.V., Dobrynin N.M. Uchenie Ivana Il’ina o federatsii [The Teachings of Ivan Ilyin on the Federation]. Pravo i politika, 2008, no. 10, pp. 2538–2549.
   
9. Yashchenko A.S. Teoriya federalizma. Opyt sinteticheskoy teorii prava i gosudarstva [The Theory of Federalism. The Experience of the Synthetic Theory of Law and State]. Yuryev, 1912. 851 p.
   
10. Korzhikhina T.P., Senin A.S. Istoriya rossiyskoy gosudarstvennosti [The History of the Russian Statehood]. Moscow, 1996. 352 p.
    
11. Radishchev A. Vol’nost’ [Freedom]. Radishchev A. Puteshestvie iz Peterburga v Moskvu [A Journey From St. Petersburg to Moscow]. Moscow, 1973. 456 p.
    
12. Speranskiy S.I. Uchenie M.M. Speranskogo o prave i gosudarstve [M.M. Speransky’s Teachings on Law and State]. Moscow, 2004. 223 p.
    
13. Klyuchevskiy V.O. Materialy lektsii LXXXIII. T. V. M.M. Speranskiy [Lecture Materials LXXXIII. Vol. 5. M.M. Speransky]. Available at: http://www.mnemosyne.ru/library/kljuchevskij-2.html (accessed 16 May 2014).
    
14. Vosstanie dekabristov: Dokumenty. Materialy [The Decembrist Revolt: Documents. Materials]. Ed. by M.V. Nechkina. Moscow, 1986. 397 p.
    
15. Gligich-Zolotareva M.V. Pravovye osnovy federalizma [The Legal Basis of Federalism]. Moscow, 2006. 422 p.
    
16. Konstitutsiya N. Murav’eva [N. Muravyev’s Constitution]. Druzhinin N. Dekabrist Nikita Murav’ev [Decembrist Nikita Muravyov]. Moscow, 1933. 184 p.
    
17. Bakunin M.A. Filosofiya. Sotsiologiya. Politika [Philosophy. Sociology. Politics]. Moscow, 1989. 662 p.
    
18. Shul’zhenko Yu.L. Iz istorii federatsii v Rossii [From the History of Federation in Russia]. Moscow, 2005. 173 p.
    
19. Rossiyskie politiko-pravovye doktriny [Russian Political and Legal Doctrines]. Moscow, 2005. 925 p.