enlightened absolutism. Definition of absolutism

a form of government in which all supreme power (legislative, executive, judicial) belongs to the monarch, is transferred by way of succession to the throne.

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ABSOLUTISM

fr. absolutisme, from lat. absolutus - unlimited, unconditional) - a concept that characterizes the form state government and way of organizing political power in a country with a monarchy. It means the concentration of all power in the hands of one person - the monarch. A. is associated with an extremely high degree of centralization government controlled. To characterize this form of government, the concept of "absolute monarchy" is also used. A. allows, unlike despotic, totalitarian regimes the presence of latent (hidden) restrictions on power: economic (there is a certain pluralism of property), social (diversity of the social structure and especially hereditary aristocracy), political (capable of political dynamics, i.e., of expanded political reproduction), ideological (does not see the existence ideological diversity is a deadly threat to itself). The concept of monarchical monarchy was developed by R. Filmer (1604–1653), F. Bacon (1561–1626); A. state - T. Hobbes (1588-1679), J. Bodin (1530-1596). A. should be distinguished from authoritarianism and autocracy. The enlightened A.

Most of us associate the concept of "enlightened absolutism" exclusively with the name of Voltaire and his letters to Catherine II, and this phenomenon affected not only the state life of Russia and the philosophical thought of France. The ideas of the enlightenment of absolutism became widespread throughout Europe. So what did the monarchs see so attractive in this policy?

The Essence of Enlightened Absolutism Briefly

In the second half of the eighteenth century, the situation in Europe was rather alarming, since the old order had already exhausted itself, serious reforms were required. This situation influenced the accelerated formation of enlightened absolutism.

But where did these ideas come from and what is the meaning of such enlightenment? Thomas Hobbes is considered the ancestor, and the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire and Montesquieu also had a great influence on the formation of enlightened absolutism. They proposed the transformation of obsolete institutions of state power, the reform of education, the judiciary, and so on. Briefly, the main idea of ​​enlightened absolutism can be summarized as follows - the sovereign, the autocrat, must acquire, along with rights, also obligations to his subjects.

In essence, enlightened absolutism was supposed to destroy the remnants of feudalism, this included reforms to improve the life of the peasants and eliminate serfdom. Also, the reforms were supposed to strengthen centralized power and form a completely secular state, not subject to the voice of religious leaders.

The establishment of the ideas of enlightened absolutism was characteristic of monarchies with a rather unhurried development of capitalist relations. These states included all the countries of Europe, except for France, England, and Poland. In Poland, there was no royal absolutism that needed to be reformed; the gentry ruled everything there. England already had everything that enlightened absolutism aspired to, and France simply did not have leaders who could initiate reforms. Louis XV and his successor were not capable of this, and as a result the system was destroyed by the revolution.

Features and characteristics of enlightened absolutism

The literature of the 18th century, which promoted the ideas of enlightenment, not only criticized the old order, it also spoke of the need for reforms. Moreover, these changes had to be made by the state and in the interests of the country. Therefore, one of the main features of the policy of enlightened absolutism can be called the union of monarchs and philosophers who wanted to subjugate state structure pure mind.

Of course, not everything turned out the way the philosophers pictured it to themselves in rosy dreams. For example, enlightened absolutism spoke of the need to improve the lives of the peasants. Some reforms in this direction were actually carried out, but at the same time the power of the nobility was also strengthened, because it was it that was to become the main support of the autocracy. From this follows the second a feature of enlightened absolutism is the thoughtlessness of consequences, despotism in the implementation of reforms and excessive arrogance.

Enlightened absolutism in the Russian Empire

As we know, Russia has its own way. And here she was absolutely special. In Russia, unlike the countries of Europe, enlightened absolutism was more of a fashion trend than real necessary thing. Therefore, all reforms were carried out exclusively for the benefit of the nobility, not taking into account the interests of ordinary people. There was also embarrassment with church authority - in Russia since ancient times it did not have a decisive word, as it was in Catholic Europe, because church reforms brought only split and turmoil, destroying the spiritual values ​​honored by the ancestors. Since then, one can observe the depreciation of spiritual life, moreover, since that time even spiritual leaders often give preference to material values. For all her education, Catherine II was unable to understand the “mysterious Russian soul” and find the right path for the development of the state.

ABSOLUTISM (from the Latin absolutus - unconditional, unlimited), the political system in countries Western Europe at the late stage of the pre-industrial era, characterized by the rejection of class-representative institutions and the ultimate concentration of power in the hands of the monarch. Along with the concept of absolutism in literature, there is the concept of “absolute monarchy”, which is primary in relation to it, used in a broad (unrestricted power of the sovereign), as well as in a narrow, strictly scientific, sense, coinciding with the concept of absolutism.

Absolutism as historical concept . The term "absolutism" has become widespread since the middle of the 19th century, however, the fact that this system was a holistic phenomenon that included not only institutions of power, but to a large extent social relations was realized already on the eve of the French Revolution. Then the essence of this phenomenon was expressed by the concept of the "old order" (Ancien regime).

In the 18th century, the terms "despotism" and "feudal order" also became widespread - approximate synonyms for the "old order". The concept of absolutism was formed to designate a system that was fading into the past and to fight against it, which dragged on for the entire 19th century. It had the idea historical development- from oppression and ignorance to freedom and enlightenment, from autocracy to the constitutional order. Thanks to A. de Tocqueville (The Old Order and Revolution, 1856), absolutism also began to be viewed in a sociological context, not only as the centralization of power, but also as a way of leveling class (social) differences.

Genesis and formation of political theories of absolutism. The concept of absolute monarchy as a form of organization of power is much older than the concept of absolutism as an era of European history. It goes back to Roman law, to the formula of the 2nd century lawyer Ulpian: princeps legibus solutus (or absolutus) est (the sovereign is not bound by laws). It was used in the Middle Ages and became widespread in the 16th century, becoming in fact the self-name of absolutist regimes. The background for the development of theories of absolute monarchy in the 15th-17th centuries was the formation of the concept of the state. In ancient and medieval political thought, a syncretic model, dating back to Aristotle, dominated: the social, political, ethical, legal and religious levels of the organization of society did not completely differ. The concepts of “separate sovereignty” (F. de Comines, K. Seissel and others) relied on Aristotle’s teaching about the ideal state, combining some features of the monarchy, aristocracy and democracy with the priority of a strong royalty, opposed to tyranny. In the 15-16 centuries, in connection with the liberation of politics from religion and morality, the concept of the state also developed (N. Machiavelli's treatise "The Sovereign", 1532, played a special role). By the end of the 16th century, the word "state" (stato, etat, state, Staat) began to denote not the estate or "position" of the king, but some abstract entity, the embodiment of public power.

The most important stage in the development of ideas about the state is the creation by the French lawyer J. Bodin of the theory of the inseparability of sovereignty (“Six Books on the Republic”, 1576), that is, the highest state power that belongs entirely to the monarch, while it was assumed that absolute monarchy is compatible with the rights and freedoms of subjects and may not encroach on their property. Absolute monarchy was opposed to eastern despotisms, where the sovereign arbitrarily disposes of the lives and property of his subjects. Even the most consistent adherents of it, not excluding Cardinal Richelieu, believed that the ruler had the right to violate the rights of his subjects only in extreme cases, in the name of saving the state (the theory of "state interest"). Thus, absolutism practically developed as a system of emergency management, associated primarily with wars that caused the need for increased taxes. At the same time, absolutism also reflected a way of thinking characteristic of the era: people of the 16th and 17th centuries perceived the universe as a hierarchy of ideal entities, in which the king and the privileged strata formed a continuum, and the human will was limited by the boundaries of the divinely established order. In the ideology of absolutism, along with rationalistic political theories, the idea of ​​the divine origin of power occupied a large place.

Opposition to absolutism political theories . The theories of absolute monarchy were opposed by the ideas of tyranny and the social contract. During the Reformation era of the 16th and 17th centuries, political conflicts often took religious form. Opponents of absolutism, primarily in Protestant circles, considered fidelity to the true religion (along with the right to property) to be the basis of a social contract, the violation of which by the king gives subjects the right to revolt. Absolutism did not suit the "Ultramontane opposition" either: the idea that the king receives power not directly from God, but from the hands of the people, led by wise shepherds, is the most important thesis of Cardinal R. Bellarmine. tragic experience civil wars gave rise to the idea that loyalty to religion is secondary to public order. Hence the idea of ​​an absolute individual (that is, an individual taken before entering into social groups, including the church) as the foundations of society.

The decisive contribution to its development was made by the English philosopher T. Hobbes ("Leviathan", 1651). According to Hobbes, absolute individuals are in a state of "war of all against all." Depressed by the fear of death, they decide to transfer absolute power to the state. Hobbes gave the most radical justification for absolutism, but at the same time laid the foundation for liberalism as a political and economic theory. The idea of ​​an absolute individual destroyed the image of the universe as a hierarchy of ideal entities, and with it the intellectual foundations of absolutism. At the end of the 17th century, the English philosopher J. Locke used the ideas of Hobbes to justify the constitutional order.

Absolutism as a state system. Absolute monarchies replaced estate-representative monarchies. In the 13th and 14th centuries, a system of bodies of estate representation developed in Europe (parliament in England, states general and provincial states in France, cortes in Spain, Reichstags and Landtags in Germany). This system allowed the royal power to receive the support of the nobility, the church and the cities in pursuing policies that it lacked. own forces. The principle of the estate monarchy was the formula: what concerns everyone must be approved by everyone (quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus debet approbari).

A sharp increase in royal power begins in the second half of the 15th and early 16th centuries, primarily in Spain, France and England. In Italy and Germany, where nation-states were formed only in the 19th century, the trend towards strengthening state power was realized mainly in individual principalities (“regional absolutism”). Peculiar absolute monarchies also developed in Scandinavia (with the preservation of some class-representative institutions) and in Eastern Europe(with the underdevelopment of class rights and serfdom). The development of absolutism consisted in the formation of the state apparatus, the growth of taxes and the formation of a permanent mercenary army, while the decline of medieval estates. In England, however, there was little development of the standing army, and Parliament retained control of the taxes. At the same time, the strengthening of absolutist tendencies in this country was facilitated by the appropriation by the monarch of the functions of the head of his church.

Causes of absolutism. Absolutism and society. In Soviet historiography, the emergence of absolutism was explained by the class struggle between the peasantry and the nobility (B. F. Porshnev) or the nobility and the bourgeoisie (S. D. Skazkin). Now historians increasingly prefer to see in absolutism the result of social and cultural transformations of the era of the genesis of capitalism, not reducible to a single formula. Thus, the development of trade gave rise to the need for a protectionist policy, which found its justification in the ideas of mercantilism, and the growth of the urban economy - in the redistribution of income from it in favor of the nobility. Both of these, as well as the huge costs of wars, which caused increased taxation, all required a strong state power. The nobility became more dependent on the royal service, the disintegration of the social unity of the urban community prompted the new urban elites to move closer to the nobility and to abandon urban liberties in favor of the monarchy, and the emergence of nation-states placed the church under the control of the monarchy. Absolutism, born out of the collapse of the medieval estates, until the end remained a noble state, partially modernized, but associated with an archaic "privilege society" for the 16th century.

Absolutism and culture. Absolute monarchs encouraged the development of culture and science and at the same time sought to control them. The state institutionalization of culture and science dates back to the era of absolutism (the creation of royal academies, scientific societies). Cultural policy was an important means of strengthening royal power and "domesticating" the nobility, which was "disciplined" by court etiquette. Together with the church, absolutism sought to strengthen control over the masses of the population, suppressing traditional folk culture and instilling in the people elements of the culture of educated elites. Between the development of absolutism and the formation of the modern type of personality, rationally controlling their own behavior, as well as the modern penitentiary system, there was an undoubted connection. Absolutism participated in the formation of the mentality and value orientations a man of modern times (the idea of ​​duty and responsibility to the state, etc.).

Crisis of absolutism. enlightened absolutism. Although in the second half of the 17th century absolutism continued to strengthen its position in a number of European countries (Scandinavian states, Brandenburg-Prussia), the first signs of its crisis appeared from the middle of the 17th century. Its most notable symptom was English revolution, and in the 18th century it became evident almost everywhere. Absolute monarchs tried to adapt to the development of the economy and secular culture with the help of a policy of so-called enlightened absolutism - flirting with "philosophers", the abolition of the most economically harmful privileges (the Turgot reforms in France in 1774-76), and sometimes the abolition of serfdom (Joseph II of Habsburg in Bohemia, and then in other provinces of Austria). This policy had only a short-term effect. The bourgeois revolutions and constitutional reforms of the late 18th and 19th centuries led to the replacement of absolutism by constitutional monarchies and bourgeois republics. On the form of power in Russia, akin to European absolutism, see Autocracy.

Lit .: Kareev N.I. Western European absolute monarchy of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. St. Petersburg, 1908; Porshnev B.F. Popular uprisings in France before the Fronde (1623-1648). M.; L., 1948; Mousnier R. La venalite des offices sous Henri IV et Louis XIII. 2 ed. R., 1971; Skazkin S. D. Selected works on history. M., 1973. S. 341-356; Anderson R. Lineages of the absolutist state. L., 1974; Duchhardt H. Das Zeitalter des Absolutismus. Munch., 1989; Konocoe N.E. High bureaucracy in France in the 17th century. L., 1990; Malov V. N. Zh.-B. Colbert: The Absolutist Bureaucracy and French Society. M., 1991.

Absolutism

ABSOLUTISM

(absolutism) Originally (1733) a theological concept that salvation is entirely dependent on the will of God. Later, this term was extended to a political regime in which the ruler has the legal right to make any decision at his discretion. As a rule, absolute monarchies are called initial period new history, primarily the regime of the French king Louis XIV. AT political significance the term actually began to be used only with late XVIII century, when many regimes of this type were already on the verge of dying out. Unlike tyrannies, absolutist regimes existed on a legitimate basis. Louis XVI in November 1788, on the eve of the French Revolution (French Revolution), told his cousin, the Duke of Orleans (father of the future king of France, Louis Philippe, 1830-48), that his every decision expresses the will of the law. Some modern historians argue that absolutism never meant unlimited power, since it existed within the framework of traditions and customary rules that limited the actions of the monarch.

Politics. Dictionary. - M.: "INFRA-M", Publishing house "Ves Mir". D. Underhill, S. Barrett, P. Burnell, P. Burnham, et al. Osadchaya I.M.. 2001 .

Absolutism

a concept that characterizes the form of government and the way of organizing political power in a country with a monarchical regime. Absolutism means the concentration of all power in the hands of one person - the monarch. Absolutism is associated with an extremely high degree of centralization of state administration. To characterize this form of government, the concept of "absolute monarchy" is also used. Absolutism allows, unlike despotic, totalitarian regimes, the presence of latent (hidden) restrictions on power: economic (there is a certain pluralism of property), social (the presence of a diverse social structure and especially hereditary aristocracy), political (absolutism is capable of political dynamics, i.e. to expanded political reproduction), ideological (absolutism does not see the existence of ideological diversity as a deadly threat to itself). The concept of monarchical absolutism was developed by R. Filmer, F. Bacon; the idea of ​​state absolutism - T. Hobbes, J. Boden. The concept of absolutism should be distinguished from the concepts of authoritarianism and autocracy. The ideal was "enlightened absolutism".

Domanov V.G.

Political science. Dictionary. - M: RSU. V.N. Konovalov. 2010 .

Absolutism

(from lat. absolutus - independent, unlimited)

absolute monarchy. a form of feudal state in which the monarch has unlimited supreme power. Under absolutism, the state reaches the highest degree of state centralization, an extensive bureaucratic apparatus, a standing army and police are created; the activities of estate representation bodies, as a rule, cease. The heyday of absolutism in the countries of Western Europe falls on the 17th-18th centuries. Absolutism existed in Russia in the 18th and early 20th centuries. (see Autocracy). From a formal legal point of view, under absolutism, all the fullness of legislative and executive power is concentrated in the hands of the head of state - the monarch, he independently establishes taxes and disposes of public finance. The social support of absolutism is the nobility. The rationale for absolutism was the thesis of the divine origin of supreme power. The exaltation of the person of the sovereign was served by magnificent and sophisticated palace etiquette. At the first stage, absolutism was progressive in nature: it fought against the separatism of the feudal nobility, subordinated the church to the state, and eliminated the remnants of feudal fragmentation introduced unified laws. The absolute monarchy is characterized by a policy of protectionism and mercantilism, which contributed to the development of the national economy, the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie. New economic resources were used by absolutism to strengthen the military power of the state and wage wars of conquest.

Political Science: Dictionary-Reference. comp. Prof. floor of sciences Sanzharevsky I.I.. 2010 .

Political science. Dictionary. - RSU. V.N. Konovalov. 2010 .

See what "Absolutism" is in other dictionaries:

In polit. sense is a form of government in which supreme power is not limited by the constitution. Absolutism was in the European continental states during the 17th and 18th centuries the dominant state form, ... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

- (from lat. absolvere to untie, allow, release). 1) in philosophy: the desire for direct contemplation and perception of the unconditional. 2) in politics: a system of unlimited power. Dictionary foreign words included in the Russian language ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

This term has other meanings, see Absolutism (meanings). Absolutism (from lat. absolutus unconditional) period in the history of Europe, when there was an absolute monarchy. Absolute monarchy state structure, ... ... Wikipedia

- (unlimited, absolute) monarchy, autocracy, autocracy, autocracy, tsarism Dictionary of Russian synonyms. absolutism, see autocracy Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language ... Synonym dictionary

absolutism- a, m. absolutisme m. 1797. Rey 1998. A form of government in which the supreme power is entirely vested in an autocratic monarch, an unlimited monarchy. Wait. 1986. When I noticed in people with whom I spoke, the desire for political freedom without ... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

- (absolute monarchy) a form of feudal state in which the monarch has unlimited supreme power. Under absolutism, the state reaches the highest degree of centralization, an extensive bureaucracy is created, ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

ABSOLUTISM, a form of unlimited monarchy (absolute monarchy), characteristic of the era of late feudalism. Under absolutism, the state reaches the highest degree of centralization, an extensive bureaucracy, a standing army and ... Modern Encyclopedia

Form of state in some countries of Western Europe and the East in the 16th and 18th centuries, in which the monarch has unlimited supreme power. In a strictly centralized state, an extensive bureaucracy, a standing army, ... ... Historical dictionary

ABSOLUTISM, absolutism, pl. no, husband. (from lat. absolutus independent) (polit.). State system with unlimited sole supreme power, autocracy. Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

ABSOLUTISM, a, husband. The form of government, in which the supreme power entirely belongs to the autocratic monarch, is an unlimited monarchy. | adj. absolutist, oh, oh. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

Books

• State, bureaucracy and absolutism in the history of Russia, Aleksandrov M.S. Aleksandrov Mikhail Stepanovich (1863-1933) - leader of the Russian revolutionary movement, Marxist historian and publicist. The study is devoted to the problem of the state and the criticism of bourgeois theories ...

On the concept of "absolutism"

Yu.A. Sorokin

Historical science, like any other, accumulates a certain number of concepts and categories, the content of which must be strictly defined. Researcher operating with some key concept, should put common content into it. According to the logic of things, if the content of a certain concept is not defined in science, then it should be abandoned.

To date, a common opinion has not yet been developed in relation to the cardinal problem: what is the nature of the state in Russia in the 17th-18th centuries; what criteria should be used to more accurately define it, what terms to describe its essence, what are the prerequisites and driving forces such state development?

Terminological problems are grouped around concepts that are used in characterizing the state form and organization of state power (1). To this day, there is no logically consistent definition of the term "absolutism" that satisfies everyone. In research practice, the concepts of "autocracy", "unlimited monarchy", "absolutism", "absolute monarchy" are widely used. Not so rare are completely outlandish terms, such as "autocratic absolutism" or "military-feudal absolutist regimes."

A natural question arises: do all these terms have the same content? Researchers have answered this question in different ways. Consider the main definitions used in the literature.

First of all, we note that in Russian written sources, primarily in legislation, the term "absolutism" was not actually deposited. Russian monarchs in the XVIII century. continued to call themselves autocrats.

So, in the interpretation of article 20 of the Military Regulations of 1716, it was said: “His Majesty is an autocratic monarch who should not give an answer to anyone in the world in his affairs; but he has his own states and lands, like a Christian sovereign, in his own way to govern by will and splendor" (2).

In the Spiritual Regulations, prepared by Feofan Prokopovich and received the force of law on January 25, 1721, it was emphasized: "Monarch power is autocratic power, which God himself commands for conscience to obey" (3).

The very term "autocratic" in this context is understood simply as "unlimited". Many Russian historians of law drew attention to this (4).

In the program documents of the Russian autocrats, compiled in the second half of the 18th century. ("Instruction" by Catherine II, "Instruction" by Pavel Petrovich), we are again talking about the autocratic power of Russian sovereigns, and in fact the term "absolutism" is not mentioned. It seems that a similar situation took place in the XIX century.

So, neither the Russian sovereigns, nor the Russian laws operated, in fact, with the term "absolutism" or "absolute monarchy".

A priori, we are ready to assert that Russian historians of the XVIII - first half of XIX centuries tried to refrain from using these terms in relation to Russian history.

Noble historians, primarily V.N. Tatishchev and N.M. Karamzin, substantiated the thesis about the originality of autocracy in Russia, so they found it almost in ancient Russian state, and in Muscovite Russia - in any case. Public School Russian historians, denying the existence of a class-representative monarchy in Russia, talked about Russian autocracy starting with Ivan the Terrible. IN. Klyuchevsky, with certain reservations, recognized the autocracy of Ivan III.

Of course, all these historians did not attribute the absolutist forms of government to such early periods of Russian history; they just didn't seem to be interested in the difference in terms. The situation was different at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.

Russian historians and jurists, who stood mainly on liberal positions, in late XIX- the beginning of the twentieth century. identified the following stages in the evolution of the European state, successively replacing each other:

feudal state;

Military-national state;

Industrial legal state (5).

The military-national state was understood as an absolute monarchy.

It is easy to see that with this approach, absolutism occupied an intermediate position between the feudal and the bourgeois state, being neither one nor the other. The mentioned authors are already diluting the concepts of "autocracy" and "absolutism", believing, firstly, that autocracy was established in Russia much earlier than absolutism (the latter - only from Peter I), and secondly, they found a fundamental difference between them in European theories explaining the power of the monarch not by Divine Providence, but by the theory of the common good and the theory of natural law. M.A. Reisner directly pointed out: "By baptism (of Russia. - Yu.S.) into the pan-European state form was the official substantiation of the principle of autocracy as the beginning of the common good" (6).

Thus, this group of researchers (M.A. Reisner, P.G. Vinogradov, P.N. Milyukov, M.M. Kovalevsky and others) understood absolutism as a certain historically specific stage in the evolution of a European state, ending either in a revolutionary the overthrow of the absolute monarch, or "reasonable reforms." Both the one and the other way led to the establishment of industrial-legal, i.e. bourgeois state; and since in every European country this happened in different time, then it is very difficult to single out the period of existence of absolutism in Europe as a whole, in their opinion. The very fact of the existence of an absolute monarchy in its European form in Russia, they recognized and began it with Peter I.

At the same time, works by scientists appeared in European science, diluting not only the concepts of "absolutism" and "autocracy", but also the concepts of "unrestricted monarchy" and "absolutism". Thus, according to the theory of Coser (1903), unlimited monarchy gives three forms of absolutism: 1) practical, 2) principled, 3) enlightened. According to the theory of Heinrich von Treitschke (1900), European absolutism is divided into: 1) legitimate, 2) theocratic, 3) enlightened (7).

However, these and similar theories did not take root in Russian historiography, and under absolute monarchy liberal scholars most often understood, as we have already pointed out, an intermediate link between the old feudalism and the rule of law constitutional state.

But already the first Russian revolution transferred the question of the essence and historical fate of the Russian monarchy from the realm of scientific theory to the realm of practice. For example, the preparation of the "Basic Laws of the Russian Empire" required the definition of the essence political system in Russia, and it was designated as "autocracy". Many prominent Russian historians and jurists were brought in to define this concept; later, a whole series of works appeared on this subject (8).

It is quite significant that in these works scholars, in fact, refused to give a formal-logical, legal, or even concrete-historical definition of autocracy. According to the general opinion, it was necessary to leave aside the idea that it was possible for the authorities of the Russian emperors to give a purely legal structure, like, say, a bill or a check. It was necessary to comprehend clearly and separately, as N.I. Chernyaev, "... religious foundations, mysticism, ideals, world-historical knowledge, cultural vocation, political necessity, historical truth, moral foundations, psychology, poetry and the beneficial influence of Russian monarchism" (9).

This position was close to S.A. Kotlyarovsky, who emphasized: “The position of the monarch often has a deeper historical than legal justification. The legal definitions of this power, the formulas of legislative monuments and constituent charters are only a surface layer ... Russian history was exceptionally poor in stable legal relations, and this is especially acceptable to it10 .

The same thesis became the property of Russian journalism. V.V. Rozanov believed that to understand the power of the Russian monarch, "to define it, to formulate it, means to reduce it, impoverish it, limit it"11. These theoretical guidelines made it possible to draw specific political conclusions and replicate them in mass publications. Here is the opinion of A. Sigaev, expressed by him in the brochure "The Monarchist Idea and Modern Reality": "The word monarchism does not express an exact and clear concept; this idea means a certain mood .., based on devotion and love for the king", and further " The task of monarchists is to comprehend the idea of ​​autocratic monarchism in connection with the unity of the tsar with the people on the principles expressed by the will of the monarch, and to help him with reasonable humility and a conscious moral attitude to this work, which he entrusted to the monarchists "(12). P.E. Kazan devoted chapter XXII of his capital work to the study of the principle of monarchical supremacy, enshrined in Article 4 of the Fundamental Laws. The main features of imperial power in Russia are as follows:

Supremacy;

Majesty, which is understood as the power of the main decisions in the affairs of the state;

The power is extreme, which can and must be realized in emergency conditions, in a moment of extreme danger, including for making decisions that are beyond the law;

Power is the last;

The highest authority, to whose decisions everyone without exception obeys;

The power is universal, the decisions of which apply, firstly, to the territory of the entire country, and secondly, to all possible manifestations of state power (13).

On this basis, P.E. Kazansky was ready to recognize the power of the Russian sovereign as unlimited, but he strongly objected to considering the Russian autocracy as absolutism. In his opinion, absolutism presupposes detachment from the people, which the Russian autocracy never knew. According to the scientist, "the Russian legal language does not know any concepts or expressions that would correspond to Western absolutism and Eastern despotism, and forced us not to use words of a foreign root. In any case, neither "supremacy" nor "autocracy" can be brought closer to absolutism. The latter should be translated into Russian as autocracy" (14).