Pavel I. Novgorodtsev: Evolution of the State and Law Image of Russia

Abstract

The paper examines the evolution of Pavel I. Novgorodtsev’s views in the post-revolutionary period regarding the state and law image of future Russia. The initial conviction of the need to preserve constitutional dualistic monarchy in Russia was replaced by faith in the possibility of establishing a republican form of government. During the Civil War the scholar considered it possible to restore order in the country only through a constitutional (limited) dictatorship of the Bonapartist type. The events of the Russian Revolution of 1917, series of events caused by the Russo-Japanese war of 1904–1905 and the first Russian Revolution did not change Novgorodtsev’s views concerning the establishment of ideal law and the rule of law in Russia. However, the events of the 1917 Revolution, social crisis intensification and brutality of the Civil War persuaded the scholar to accept the need for a temporary rejection of democratic values. Since the beginning of 1917, Novgorodtsev had been in increasingly close contact with representatives of the right camp, which has affected the deformation of his legal consciousness. In exile, the scholar shared the ideas of the Russian intelligentsia, including moderate monarchists and right-wing cadets. The author provides a general assessment of the evolution of the lawyer’s state law views in the final part of the paper.