THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE 19th CENTURY AS AN ELEMENT OF THE EVOLUTION OF AUTOCRATIC POWER

The revised constitutions are seen as an important link in the process of searching for effective models of modern statehood, its transformation and adaptation, combining elements of modernization and conservation. In recent years, due to the increased attention to the political and legal context of constitutionalism, the study of sources that clearly state that domestic political and legal ideas and concepts, including those contained in works on the evolution of autocracy, is considered very important. The historiographical analysis of Russian studies of the octroized constitutions seems to be an interesting research task ranging from “concessions” through the stage of “class maneuver” to understanding their mechanism as a “soft” strategy for the modernization of power. The boundaries of the study are determined by the historical context, based on the fact that the “peak” of such a phenomenon as the donation of a constitutional act occurred in the period between the Congress of Vienna (1815) and the revolutions of 1848–1849 in European countries. As a result of the conducted research, it is concluded that the experience of reformed constitutions is an important tool for analyzing modern political processes, demonstrating universal mechanisms of interaction between a strong center, societal pressure and the search for forms of legitimization of power in a changing world.