Abstract: The article is devoted to the analysis of the main stages and directions of Russian criminal legislation on crimes against the administrative order. The author studies Russian historical legal documents, demonstrates the connection of the history of the studied crimes with the evolution of the state. The author defines the prerequisites to differentiation of official malfeasances and managerial crimes and their classification as general or specific. The author notes that the increase of normative data on components of crimes against the administrative order is closely connected with the structure of relations between the person and the state and with the level of the state system bureaucratization. The research is based on the dialectical method of cognition combined with the system-logical, formal-legal, comparative-legal and historical analysis. The author also applies the methods of analysis, synthesis, modeling, prognostication, statistical and sociological methods, the principle of unity of the subject and the method of research, and the principle of scientific correctness. The novelty of the study consists in the conclusion that during the period under consideration, Russian law hadn’t only generalized the experience of the previous times, but systematized crimes against the administrative order; this systematization simultaneously was defined by and promoted defining the true legal nature of those crimes.