Abstract: The article provides a review of the jubilee international academic forum 'Russian Police: Three Centuries of Servicing the Homeland' devoted to the 300th anniversary of Russian police which was celebrated at St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in April 23 - 25 of 2018. Scientists, practical lawers and young researchers participated in the conference. Those were the people who focused on the evolution issues, current state and prospects for the development of the Russian police system. The authors of the research carry out a review of speeches made by the participants about the Russian police as the internal affairs governing board; police organisation and activities at different stages of the Russian history, and opportunities of using the three-century experience of the police service in today's Russia. To make a review of speeches, the authors used hermeneutical and formal law approaches, general research methods to analyze the texts of speeches, and the method of interpretation of legal texts. The authors of the article also provide the results of contemporary Russian researches that involved new sources of different kinds and focused on understudied facts and events related to the origin and development of the police of the Russian Empire. They also carry out a critical analysis of the provisions in Russian historiography on police activities. According to the authors, the analysis of the experience of the Russian police will give more knowledge about specific features of the police activity and improve the police activity of the Russian Federation. 

Abstract: The subject of this research is the theoretical heritage of the Russian police scientists, who assumed that the police stat will be able to reach such level of socioeconomic development that an individual will not experience any material or spiritual needs. The essence of the police state was not reduced to compulsion or violence. At the same time, the implementation of the project of police state, the achievements of which became the lack of freedom and personal sacrifice to the state for the sake of the common good, practically led the society to stagnation. The article examines the ideas of the Russian police scientists, which encouraged the emergence of a new outlook upon the purpose of the state that consisted in providing triumph in the legal state, ensuring each one with the sphere of personal freedom, and restricting omnipotence of the state with legal norms. The author gives characteristics to the Russian police-legal thought in the context of analyzing the omnipotence (supreme power) of the police state. Theoretical construct of the police stat was built in accordance with the desire to make life on each individual decent, as well as achieve common good and national happiness. In practice, the means for achieving the goal of the police state consisted in development of the all-encompassing police activity, exhaustive regulation of people’s life, meticulous oversight by government agencies of the needs and interests of the citizens. Theory of the police state has an important historical meaning: within its framework has begun the process of comprehending the questions regarding the limitation of omnipotence of the police state and determination of the effective means of preservation and protection of personal rights and freedoms.

Abstract: The article presents a review of the research-and-practice conference 'State and Law: Evolution, Modern State, Prospects for Development (Devoted to the 300th Anniversary of the Russian Police) that was held in St. Petersburg, University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, on 27 - 28 of April, 2017. The conference involved scientists, practical lawyers and young researchers interested in evolution, modern state and development prospects of Russia's police system. Participants of the conference focused on the development of the police law theory and determination of its place in the history of studies of law and state; retrospective analysis of organization and activity of the Russian Empire's police, Temporary Government's militsia, Soviet militsia and Russian Federation police. The author of the present article provides a review of reports and speeches read at the conference that were devoted to the following issues: contents of the police law theory and its role in the organization of the Russian police activity; formation and development of the Russian Empire's police system; break-down of the Russian Empire's police system and opportunities of using that experience today. In the process of preparing summaries of conference reports, the author of the article has used the hermeneutical approach to demonstrate what conference participants thought of pattern and particularities of the Russian Empire's police development based on their analysis of broad materials (including archives) by using modern methods of historical-legal science. The author of the article has used general research methods such as analysis and synthesis and elements of the formal legal approach and the method interpreting legal texts. In this research Nizhnik summarizes work of modern Russian researchers who used new sources and references to study the history of the Russian police and focused on understudied facts and events of the police formation and development, and carried out a critical analysis of the main provisions in the Russian histriography regarding police activity in the Russian Empire. At the year of the 100th anniversary of the Revolution of 1917 and prior to the 300th anniversary of Russia's police, summary of the experience of the Empire police and analysis of perspectives to use their experience as it was presented at the conference will enlarge research and historical knowledge and may improve police activity of the Russian Federation. 

Abstract: The subject of this research is the theoretical heritage of police scientists, within the framework of which welfare and security defined the purpose of the state. Police state as the idea of organization of people’s activity for the sake of public welfare has its past, present, and future. Examination of the history of police state as the political-legal technique of supporting the legal order is heuristically useful for understanding the practices of dominance in modern societies. The modern state that correlates with the discursive and institutional heritage of the police state era in the field of organization and activity of the police, continues to base itself upon the developed by police scientists idea of security, as well as attempts to find new ways for procurement of wealth for best distribution of benefits. The research is built on the principle of historicism, due to attempt towards determination of the dynamics and historical prospect of development of the ideas of police scientists regarding the creation of the welfare society by means of the police state. The foreign and Russian police scientists defined the purpose of the police state as the achievement of the general welfare. The idea of realization of the national welfare and happiness encouraged the development of the philosophy of eudaemonism, which became the ideological foundation of the system of government administration. The attempt to reach the set goal led to the actual neglect of the people’s interests. The inner controversy of the concept of police state substantiated the need for transition from the police state to the legal state.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the main stages of establishment and development of the Russian police science. Taking into account the fact that theoretical heritage of the Russian police scientists until present times preserves the ability to enrich the legal science and encourage the search for optimal solutions of the modern problems, the complex analysis of the Russian police science will allow using its scientific potential to a full extent. The author gives characteristics to the three stages of the establishment and development of the police-legal theory in Russia during the period of XVII-early XX centuries. Names of the prominent Russian police scientists and their major work are being analyzed. The author conducts a historiographical review of this topic. The desire to determine the dynamics and historical prospect of development of the ideas of the Russian police scientists on state and law, requires structuring this research based on the principle of historicism. The author characterizes the concept of the police state, legal state, social state, as well as the concept of public-legal relations in the area of government administration developed by the Russian police scientist in the late XIX and the early XX centuries.