Was A. I. Guchkov’s Constitution a Right-Liberal Draft of the Basic Law of Russian Empire or a Party Program?

Abstract

The article analyzes the political and legal nature of "The Draft Constitution of the Russian Empire" stored in A. I. Guchkov’s personal archive. A. I. Guchkov was the founder and leader of "The Union of October 17", a political party formed in the early twentieth century Russia. Russian historical and legal science considers these materials as a draft Constitution drawn by the representatives of the right wing of Russian liberalism. We conducted a comparative analysis of Guchkov’s Constitution and the versions of "The Union of October 17" political party programs. The Constitution proved almost identical with the texts of two versions of the party program. The draft could fill the intermediate place in a series of different versions of the party program. The party programs were successively adopted by the first and second party Congresses and the Moscow Central Committee. Therefore, it is necessary to refer the document not to the constitutional projects, but to the legal and political materials of "The Union of October 17". Thus, the right wing of the liberal forces had no independent constitutional project.