Moscow, Mysl Publishing House. 1970. 444 p. Circulation 8000. Price 1 rub. 65 kopecks. The problem of Russian absolutism, its character and peculiarities have been in the focus of attention of the scientific community in recent years. The discussion going on in various journals raised a number of important questions: the formation of bourgeois legal institutions, the relationship between feudal and bourgeois in the nature and politics of absolute monarchy, the role of the state, the evolution of the state apparatus, and others. A fruitful solution to these problems requires not only general theoretical, but also concrete historical research on the history of Russian absolutism and its polytheism.- page 169 tics at different stages of development. Therefore, the appearance of the book by Professor P. A. Zayonchkovsky of Moscow University is quite legitimate. The 80s-early 90s of the XIX century are a peculiar period in the history of Russian absolutism, which has not yet been sufficiently studied. In the historical literature, it is characterized as a regression, as a "backward movement" from the half-hearted and limited bourgeois transformations of the 60s to counter-reforms and feudal reaction. But this happened at the stage of social development when the autocracy had already begun its evolution towards a bourgeois monarchy, during the period of growth and development of capitalism. The researcher is faced with the question of the significance of the political reaction and counter-reforms of the 80s and early 90s in the evolution of the absolute monarchy of the post-reform period and its politics, the historical conditionality and consequences of this "step back", as V. I. Lenin called it. The new work of P. A. Zayonchkovsky is of great interest for understanding these issues. It is a direct continuation of a number of previous studies of the author (on the abolition of serfdom, military reforms of the 60s - 70s, the crisis of the autocracy at the turn of the 70s- ... Читать далее