ТЕОРИЯ И ИСТОРИЯ ПРАВА И ГОСУДАРСТВА; ИСТОРИЯ УЧЕНИЙ О ПРАВЕ И ГОСУДАРСТВЕ THE CONSTITUTIONAL-MONARCHICAL TRADITION IN POLITICAL CULTURE OF RUSSIAN EMPIRE V.A. Tomsinov The Department of the History of State and Law Moscow Lomonosov State University 1, bld. 13–14, Lenin Hills, Moscow, GSP-1, Russia, 119991 The article deals with the problem of historical byway attempts to convert the autocracy in Russia into a constitutional monarchy. <...> Such attempts have been made in the Russian Empire during the XVIII and XIX centuries, beginning with the reign of Anna Ivanovna and constitutional projects developed with Catherine II. <...> State reform was prepared at the beginning of the XIX century in the reign of Alexander I, then under the direction of M. Speranskii preparing a number of similar projects aimed at the creation in Russia of the constitutional order. <...> Key words: autocratic-monarchical form of rule, constitutional-monarchical system, immutable basic laws, constitutional draft, reform of the State, Nakaz of Catherine II. <...> The history of Russia, however, during the epoch of Empire shows that the efforts to transform autocracy into a constitutionalmonarchical system were no less traditional for Russia. <...> Under this model, supreme State power would be exercised within frameworks established by immutable basic laws and with the participation of representatives of society. <...> The attempt to limit autocratic rule by a legislative act of a constitutional character, undertaken in Russia by members of the Supreme Privy Council in 1730, when Anna Ioanovna ascended to the throne, might have been successful. <...> Constitutional drafts which proposed to limit the arbitrariness of supreme State authority by basic laws were prepared during the rule of Empress Catherine II. <...> The Empress herself supported this idea to some extent. <...> In her Nakaz given to the Commission to draw up a new draft of Ulozhenie, Her Majesty acknowledged, however timidly, the need to place autocratic-monarchical rule within frameworks established by laws. <...> The Nakaz provided (Article 511): «Again, Despotism is destroyed when the Sovereign imagines 6 Вестник РУДН, серия Юридические науки, 2015, № 1 he shall more shew his power by altering, than by adhering to the Order of things; And when he suffers himself to be guided more by Caprice, than by his good Intentions from which all Laws have flowed, and still <...>