THE EMERGENCE OF IDEAS ABOUT LEGAL PROGRESS IN RUSSIA (XVIII – EARLY XIX C.)

The article examines how the Western idea of social progress in the XVIII – early XIX c. became the property of the liberal Russian intelligentsia, domestic jurists, reformers and transformed into ideas about the social and legal development of Russia. The views of progressive Russian pre-revolutionary jurists (S. E. Desnitsky, I. A. Tretyakov, Ya. P. Kozelsky, A. N. Radishchev, M. M. Speransky, etc.), as well as individual Russian monarchs (Catherine II, Alexander I) are analyzed. The author comes to the conclusion that the cultural soil, the social environment of the Russian Empire (the communal traditions of the people, the «eastern» legal consciousness, the patriarchal way of life) were not the most favorable for the implementation of the Western idea of social progress. For this reason many legal reforms focused on European ideals were of a half-hearted, incomplete nature. Nevertheless, the idea of social progress, critically rethought and modified taking into account Russian realities, gradually took root in the legal consciousness, determining the further course of Russian history.