AN IDEA OF LAW IN THE RUSSIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL AND LEGAL DOCTRINES. Part 3. 20s – the end of the 20th century

The subject matter of the series of articles is related to the understanding of the concept, features and essence of law in the history of political and legal doctrines in the Russian research legal environment of the 60s of the 19^th century – the end of 20^th century. The aim of the study is to describe the main processes of historiographic creativity in Russian jurisprudence and their impact on the understanding of law and its essence. In the series of publications, the author, based on a selection of a wide range of scientific sources of political and legal thought, wants to construct in a comprehensive way the formation and development of an idea of law in the history of the Russian legal doctrine, by using all levels of legal methodology and the synthesis of historiography methodology. There are three large blocks of the research with a common subject and aim. The final part of the series of articles examines the main stages of scientific understanding of the idea of law in Soviet jurisprudence. The author notes that the philosophical understanding of law, the formed instrumental direction of understanding of law, the updated sociological direction in law, as well as the study of law as a value became the main results of the scientific work of legal theorists in Soviet times. These results help to preserve the cultural originality of the study and understanding of law in Russian jurisprudence, to go through the «dark times» of ideologized science, to lay the foundations for the study of law in the post-Soviet era and to start new scientific developments.