Русские классики о православной империи как идеальной для России форме государственного устройства

Abstract

The article analyzes the views of Russian classics on the Orthodox empire, proves the deep understanding of the term ‘statehood’ by the writers and poets. Much attention is paid by the author of the article to the problem of the harmonious balance between law and mercy. In Russia the sovereign was treated not as a person who established rules and could violate justice, but as the highest judge on earth, who had the opportunity to act not according to the law but according to a special mercy. The paper provides the view of modern lawyers on the principle of mercy in Russian law. The absence of legislative enshrinement of this principle is regarded by the author of the article as the preservation in today's Russia of the proportions between the legal formalization of norms and the existing Orthodox covenants and holy traditions. The paper indicates an inaccurate understanding of the views of many writers on the figure of the emperor. Science has not completely refuted the myths about Pushkin as an opponent of autocracy and a supporter of democratic freedoms or Nekrasov as a revolutionary-minded poet, created in the Soviet era but still supported by some researchers. A comparison of Tolstoy’s fiction works and his non-fiction writings shows the writer's ambivalent attitude toward the highest authority. However, Tolstoy condemns not the very organization of power structures, but rather the arbitrariness encouraged by people at the local level, who do not cope with their duties and welter in vice. In the literary worlds of Tolstoy, the idea of ​​the only way to correct injustices committed at the state level is associated with the image of the emperor. Using a number of examples, the article proves that, with a deep vision of the problems of public life, faults and errors of officials at various levels, our classics realized the value of a single strong centralized power of the sovereign.