Liberal lawyers of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century in the memoirs of contemporaries

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Importance. The study examines the history of the legalist movement through memoir sources. The purpose of the study is, on the basis of memoir literature, to identify internal connections and groups that have developed within the liberal jurisprudence of the Russian Empire, to identify elements of legalist ideology based on memoirs and diaries.Materials and Methods. A significant part of the memoirs and diaries have been published. This makes the researcher’s tasks easier. The use of archival sources (manuscript department of the Russian National Library, Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, State Archive of the Russian Federation, manuscript department of the Russian State Library) together with printed publications allows us to compare disparate data and come to common conclusions. The use of the problem-chronological method and the comparison method allow this analysis to be carried out.Results and Discussion. Legalists are an association of liberal dignitaries of the Russian Empire, mainly from the judiciary and legal scholars. The ideology of the legalists can be defined as conservative liberalism, and their inspiration was the famous scientist B.N. Chicherin. In the 1860s, a stable group of lawyers was formed that was vitally interested in the development of law and order in Russia (“people of legal order”). Through memoirs we see how they acted at the time of reforms, how they became institutionalized in the 1870s, how they took an active part in the reforms of 1878–1881, how they tried to defend the foundations of the system created by Alexander II, how they fought against traditionalism in the 1890s years.Conclusion. The memoirs reflect the sentiments of the legalists, who, despite constant defeats, did not lose heart and were optimistic about the future. They proceeded from the fact that Russia is part of the world process and in due time “everything that exists in Europe” will come to it