Prosocial legal thought in the age of revolution and civil war in Russia (1917—1918)

The paper deals with the formation and development of right-socialist legal thought during the revolutionary period of 1917 and the Civil war of 1918. During the analysis, special attention is given to the legal views and ideas of the largest theorists of the right-socialist school, such as G.V. Plekhanov, V.M. Chernov, P.B. Akselrod, M.V. Vishnyak. The paper is divided into four interrelated parts. The first part reveals the fact of the lack prosocial groups of projects of legal development of the Russian state to establish a social democratic regime that caused their appeal to the legal concepts of the cadets. Also the reasons of registration by right-socialist groups of the concept of “the third way” and its realization in anti-Bolshevist statehood of the period of 1918 are revealed. In the second part of the work the understanding of the essence of law in socialism is studied, the comparison of the ideological approach to “law” on the part of the lawyers of the left-socialist and right-socialist camp is made. Special attention is given to the place of law in the teachings of socialism and the relationship of law with the economy. In the third part of the work the image of A.I. Gukovskiy as a jurist of the right socialist camp is investigated. His characteristic given to him by the right Socialists Revolutionarists (SRs) is generalized. The image of A.I. Gukovskiy reveals common features inherent in all legal scholars of the right socialist camp. The fourth part of the paper draws attention to the idea of human and civil rights and freedoms in the teachings of social democracy. For the jurists of social democracy, the development of the idea of human and civil rights and freedoms is nothing more than the materialization of the spirit of the revolution, and therefore the problems of the legal status of the individual in the works of right socialist thinkers received a special place. In conclusion, the author draws conclusions about the contribution of Russian lawyers of the right socialist group to the world fund of legal science.

prosocial legal thought, jurists, social democracy, socialist revolutionaries, Mensheviks, antiBolshevism, revolution, Civil war, G.V. Plekhanov, V.M. Chernov, P.B. Akselrod, AI. Gukovskiy

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